Partisans 1941

not sure why this game has such low reviews, it's a minor masterpiece. We rarely get games that humanize Soviet fighters without playing into stereotypes or propaganda of some kind. The way the narrative frames the differences between the partisans and the collaborators goes even further, making this not just an enjoyable piece of historical fiction, but an evergreen commentary on how people and cultures respond to fascism, whether they will resist, or succumb because it is convenient. You can tell the developers' real feelings towards their country are represented in this game. And as a game, it is good. You sneak around to shoot, stab, and explode Nazis. You alternate between the cathartic violence of missions and the cozy daily camp life of your partisans. A well rounded and enjoyable experience. This game remains an enduring favorite of mine.

Overall it is a very fun game, I rate it a 7.5/10. Gameplay is rewarding and every character has unique abilities that you have to consider when building a team. The inventory is a good challenge and reminiscent of the Men of War games. I've always been a fan of stealth games, so this ranks high up there for me. Economy, sound design, and weapon variety are all something I think this game excels at. It's a nice addition that those who are not going on missions can stay home and work on ways to improve your base or go on side-missions of their own. That way everyone can contribute to the party each turn.
That said, this game is definitely not for everyone. For one, it is meant to be incredibly slow paced. While you technically can go in guns blazing to most missions, you'll likely end up failing them more often than not. And some characters are built to be much more combat-focused than stealth, so they end up being useless for half the game. So taking it slow and methodical is the way the devs intend you to play, and they tend to punish gameplay otherwise. There is a survival mode if you purchase the DLC but I didn't get much out of it. Your characters cannot die in the game, but they can get injured and have to miss a mission or two. I do wish there was an optional permadeath setting to limit save-scumming.
Then there's the story and the characters. While very fun to play through and the missions are challenging, they are very cookie-cutter. If you're looking for a compelling story, this is not the game for you. The ending is not very satisfying and the missions don't connect very well into one another. They play more like campaigns independent from another. As for characters, every partisan in your roster is solely devoted to the cause of driving Germany out of Russia (which I'm sure is fairly accurate to the time). But what that does is it makes them all very bland and reduced to being reminders of what makes Russia great. The main character, Zorin, is essentially Soviet G.I Joe. Even the supposed neer-do-well rogue oozes a sense of plucky patriotism. In a setting where you are a small partisan group taking on the German army, there is a lot of opportunity to make this a deeply character-driven game, but they unfortunately didn't go that route.
All things considered, it's a very fun game to play. They make shooting and knifing fascists incredibly satisfying. If you can get past the blatant appeal to patiotism, then it's an enjoyable experience. Props to the devs!

The atmosphere of the game is impressive, and the ability to approach missions in different ways really enhances the feeling of guerrilla warfare. I like the classic specialization of the different heroes and the way they can be upgraded. The camp management mechanic is also an interesting idea.
On the other hand, the experience is weakened by technical flaws, such as dump AI that doesn’t notice missing comrades or even an explosion right next to it. The repetitive camp management also tends to slow the gameplay down rather than enrich it.
Still, these shortcomings can be overlooked, because in the end the game’s strengths outweigh them.

enjoyable and challenging stealth tactics experience. funny, too, if you level up sanek's slingshot. the bushes are filled to bursting with bodies.

It's great to FINALLY kill fascists with the army that ACTUALLY won ww2!
I really loved this game, it's simply beautiful and has GREAT mechanics similar to old-school strategy games which I love, and the thematic is just the best.
But the devs REALLY need to add hovering over items to show info or compare guns, it's really tiring to right click everytime
That said, the game is great!

This is a really good and a unique game. Tactical games like this (like Commandos) usually doesn't have a character progression and have restrictions on which character you can pick up to your next mission.
The game also have some unique mechanics like taking cover and automatically shooting the enemies that comes in range. Shooting doesn't alert the whole map like Commandos which I continuously beaten using stealth. With Partisans, you are not afraid of shooting. In fact, you look forward to position your troops at the right location with the right cover to bring hell to your enemies.
Having said that, the game is a little bit rough around some parts. There is not enough information about some of the items you find. I am into the 10th hour and I still don't know what some items do. Some times when I just pick certain abilities, the enemies get alerted without me even using it. It's not a deal breaker but as usual with these types of games, you have to save frequently.
Last thing, I don't know Russian and the whole dialogues are in Russian which makes me a little bit disconnected. I am a bilingual person and English isn't my first language. Honestly it's bold to take a decision like that in modern gaming. I'd have appreciated it if I had the ability to listen to the dialogue in English.
If you enjoy this types of games, you will enjoy everything unique about Partisans 1941.

Many people write about bugs, I don’t know, maybe I was just lucky, but I only caught a couple of them in the entire game, which were cured by loading a quick save. Otherwise, the game is not bad, and it was quite entertaining to play through using mostly just a knife and mines, with minimal shooting only in missions where it was necessary.