Kill every Nazi in Warsaw now
I got a thing for long shots
The Warsaw Uprising isn't the easiest of settings for a game. The obvious thing is to wargame it - make it a detached military sim that doesn't risk being too heavy or stressful. Warsaw is going for something a bit more close range, though.
It's a turn-based tactical shooter that's as much RPG as strategy game, about managing morale and resources as well as getting the job done and keeping your people alive. A tall order, and Warsaw does it with panache. It's out now.
We'll have more comprehensive opinions sometime soon, but after a brief play it's already very engaging. You run a cell of the Polish resistance, leading a small team of insurgents to shove one up the Nazis for as long as possible until the supplies and/or will to fight runs out. There's a hint of This War Of Mine about it as you avoid big trouble and try to keep everyone back at base patched up, but sometimes you're spoiling for a fight. Getting 'caught' by the sentries as you scoot about the top-down map looking for suppply drops and objectives isn't always a bad thing, not least as the combat is really solid.
It's well presented and unusually quick to get going for an often awkward genre, and I'm impressed how well it marries its satisfying, dramatic fighty bits with its unique tone. It's not jingoistic, but neither is it overly harrowing, and despite its colourful hand painted art, it steers clear of the melodrama of, say, Valkyria Chronicles. After just a few in game days though, I'd already lost a man to a sniper, and two more of my founding four came within scratching range of death. I can see the war of attrition element of this becoming a girthy challenge.
Warsaw is available to buy now on Steam for £18.99/€19.99/$23.99. It's made by Pixelated Milk and published by Gaming Company.