They say that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. While sessions of Battlefield V and Call of Duty WWII hardly count as thorough history lessons, the constant torrent of titles centered on the second World War from studios both large and small ensure that the sequel to the War To End All Wars will never be forgotten. The debut title from indie studio Paintbucket games, Through The Darkest Of Times, offers a gritty, desperate, yet asynchronously cartoony take on the lives of resistance fighters living in Axis-occupied Germany during the war, and, though the game’s relatively shallow strategy mechanics may be engaging enough for a single playthrough, the heavy-handed, one-sided politics presented here make for an eye-rolling, borderline preachy experience.

Join The Resistance

via: pcgamer.com

Beginning in early 1933, the game sets the player’s user-created avatar up with two other members in a clandestine pub and tasks them with subverting the horrific dominance of the National Socialist party. Akin to something like Darkest Dungeon or any of the X-Com games, these party members all come from vastly different backgrounds and are aided and hindered by their own unique beliefs and skillsets. The early game then revolves around sending members—of which you can have a maximum of five—out on missions to recruit followers, improve morale, collect donations, generate propaganda, or engage in riskier activities like busting citizens out of detention or attacking the nazis outright.

A Risk Worth Taking?

Each mission carries its own risks which can be mitigated by members with corresponding skills, though the system isn’t as deep as it needs to be, and the five-person limit means that there can never be much progress made in a single turn. Additionally, aside from ousting and acquiring new members altogether, there doesn’t seem to be a way to improve a character’s stats.

Party members can also attract suspicion, which makes sending them out on missions all the more risky. This can be reduced after sending them to a hideout, though this is financially burdensome. Consequently, if the group loses supporters, it will also lose its means of income. Equally as troubling, should group morale be depleted, the conspirators will disband. It can be a thrilling risk/reward system, though it lacks the sort of complexity most would expect from a full PC release. Truthfully, this game would work well on mobile devices, as the quick turns and hands-off gameplay would make it a brilliant fit for short touchscreen-centric play sessions.

Furthermore, though the game seems to pride itself on historical accuracy—one of the first major story events players will encounter is the February 1933 Reichstag fire, for instance—these events seemingly have little to no effect on gameplay, and, at times, can give way to historical revisionism.

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Those Pesky Politics

Unfortunately, it is in this regard which Through The Darkest Of Times fails; a heavy-handed attempt at political satire, the game sacrifices verisimilitude in order to shoe-horn in some very one-sided ideals. In-game news article headlines will attempt to draw anachronistic parallels between 1930s fascism and modern-day political figureheads, party members will berate you for your opinions on same-sex relationships, and, though the game features characters from all walks of life and ideologically opposed parties will squabble with each other and become an issue for a player, there’s really only one narrative being advanced. We absolutely don’t wish to imply that the game needed to advocate for the resistance’s opposition, but it often feels like the game is telling the player what to think and how to act rather than allowing them to conduct their operations as they see fit.

War, What Is It Good For?

via: store.steampowered.com

It isn’t all bad, however. Through The Darkest Of Times can certainly be fun; the art style, although a strange juxtaposition given the circumstances, is pleasant, and the constant difficulty of keeping a haphazard resistance group together as the pressure and stakes build sometimes makes for a nail-biting experience.

Yet, the title damages its overall appeal by morphing this conflict from one of liberty against tyranny to one of liberals against conservatives, and, while the artists behind the title are free to do what they wish with their narrative, it feels like an ironic blunder to straight-facedly present such a serious, impactful, and important historical period as something so unquestionably black-and-white.

A PC copy of Through The Darkest Of Times was provided to TheGamer for this review. Through The Darkest Of Times is available now on PC.

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