Partisans 1941 pleasantly surprised me, and it even became one of my favourite games from the last year. Not only that it had a complex, satisfying combat system, but its captivating atmosphere managed to beautifully capture some of World War 2’s Eastern Front themes. Due to that, it was an excellent real-time tactics title, even though it had a few issues here and there. Thus, I naturally lusted for more content, and I am sure I was not alone. Luckily, my wishes came true, and I finally got back into battle. No pun intended.

One should keep in mind that this new addition aims at players familiar with the mechanics. It focuses more on delivering a challenging experience rather than on expanding the story, so if you stumbled upon this article without playing the original Partisans 1941, then feel free to read my review for it here. I am sure you all already finished reading it by now and are keen to continue, right? Let us start, then!

What disappointed me at first was the lack of a coherent narrative in this downloadable content. While the original plot was not something extraordinary, as it was pretty bland and generic, it still, at the very least, provided a decent background, gripping atmosphere and, especially, a motivation for continuing forward. Sure, there is a brief introduction before each mission, but that describes your objective rather than a meaningful storyline. One could argue that its omitting does not matter because this title revolves mainly around partisan “work”, meaning from killing various Nazi soldiers to blowing up their equipment and stealing supplies. Yet, those story elements in the base game humanized the characters, so I cared for them a bit. That is simply missing here, and you will not find here the camp part, where everyone talked about their fears and hopes between the levels either.

Instead, this expansion focuses mainly on the gameplay, which is as good and enjoyable as before. You should still try to finish the objectives stealthily; otherwise, Nazis might find out about your presence, and you can be sure they will send every dispensable Hanz and Wilhelms upon you, as well as some of your treacherous ex-comrades. And your small but brave squad simply does not stand a chance against such forces unless you manage to prepare beforehand, like with well-placed mines and other traps. I like this approach a lot, as it rewards me for exploration and planning.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2522173609
However, these new missions come with an exciting twist! There are four difficulty modifiers, which can reduce your partisans’ health, their amount of money before each task used for equipment, increase the number of better units, such as Waffen-SS members, and also add reoccurring reinforcements that will try to hunt you down once the time limit passes. Enabling all of them at once provides a decent challenge, so it requires from you to be familiar with the game. While I have finished Back Into Battle in about eight hours, I have, admittedly, beaten only three levels with all of the said modifiers at once so far. It seems that jumping back into this title after a long pause proven to be deadly to me. Or perhaps I just suck.
You can watch quite a long video of my stealthy playthrough of the second mission, with every modifier activated, here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGrJLcQfJEk
Apart from the abovementioned content, there is also a Heroic Defense, which is basically another take on the famous wave defense mode. You have to survive through twenty waves and defend your lovely State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aka the Red Banner. If Nazis happen to pull it down, you lose. Simple as that. To be perfectly candid, I was never a fan of this particular mode, so I naturally did not enjoy it here either. Thus, I only tried it a few times. I admit that this addition has its place here; it is just not for me. It is a shame that it has only one playable map, though.

Well, I think this expansion managed to force me to try out different approaches in the levels, especially due to its challenging modifiers, as I had to improvise a lot, which is always enjoyable in strategic titles for me.

Overall, Partisans 1941 – Back Into Battle provides what it promised to deliver—a more challenging and replayable experience. Even though I was a bit disappointed at first, as I would prefer a bit more of a story-driven approach, I still think it is worth getting, simply because the gameplay’s core is so fun and satisfying. Thus, I have no problem with recommending this downloadable content, whilst I wish it would offer a bit more.

PC Specs and Performance

I played it with an i5 8300H, GTX 1060 6GB, and 16GB RAM, at highest settings, at 25-60 frames per second, at 1920x1080 resolution. As in the original game, some locations provided more frame drops down to 20 frames, which is quite annoying at times. Not unplayable, but heavily noticeable and displeasing.

Acknowledgement

This game was provided for review purposes by the developers through DitD. Thank you!

Curator link

Remember that Blue Lips Never Lie! Thus, follow my curator, Blue Lips and their Quips, to find more honest yet humorous reviews!

[h1][b]Putting on my ushanka, yet again…[/b][/h1] [i]Partisans 1941[/i] pleasantly surprised me, and it even became one of my favourite games from the last year. Not only that it had a complex, satisfying combat system, but its captivating atmosphere managed to beautifully capture some of World War 2’s Eastern Front themes. Due to that, it was an excellent real-time tactics title, even though it had a few issues here and there. Thus, I naturally lusted for more content, and I am sure I was not alone. Luckily, my wishes came true, and I finally got back into battle. No pun intended. One should keep in mind that this new addition aims at players familiar with the mechanics. It focuses more on delivering a challenging experience rather than on expanding the story, so if you stumbled upon this article without playing the original [i]Partisans 1941[/i], then feel free to read my review for it [url= https://steamproxy.net/id/1AviaRa1/recommended/1227530?snr=1_5_9__402][b]here[/b][/url]. I am sure you all already finished reading it by now and are keen to continue, right? Let us start, then! What disappointed me at first was the lack of a coherent narrative in this downloadable content. While the original plot was not something extraordinary, as it was pretty bland and generic, it still, at the very least, provided a decent background, gripping atmosphere and, especially, a motivation for continuing forward. Sure, there is a brief introduction before each mission, but that describes your objective rather than a meaningful storyline. One could argue that its omitting does not matter because this title revolves mainly around partisan “work”, meaning from killing various Nazi soldiers to blowing up their equipment and stealing supplies. Yet, those story elements in the base game humanized the characters, so I cared for them a bit. That is simply missing here, and you will not find here the camp part, where everyone talked about their fears and hopes between the levels either. Instead, this expansion focuses mainly on the gameplay, which is as good and enjoyable as before. You should still try to finish the objectives stealthily; otherwise, Nazis might find out about your presence, and you can be sure they will send every dispensable Hanz and Wilhelms upon you, as well as some of your treacherous ex-comrades. And your small but brave squad simply does not stand a chance against such forces unless you manage to prepare beforehand, like with well-placed mines and other traps. I like this approach a lot, as it rewards me for exploration and planning. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2522173609 However, these new missions come with an exciting twist! There are four difficulty modifiers, which can reduce your partisans’ health, their amount of money before each task used for equipment, increase the number of better units, such as Waffen-SS members, and also add reoccurring reinforcements that will try to hunt you down once the time limit passes. Enabling all of them at once provides a decent challenge, so it requires from you to be familiar with the game. While I have finished [i]Back Into Battle[/i] in about eight hours, I have, admittedly, beaten only three levels with all of the said modifiers at once so far. It seems that jumping back into this title after a long pause proven to be deadly to me. Or perhaps I just suck. You can watch quite a long video of my stealthy playthrough of the second mission, with every modifier activated, here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGrJLcQfJEk Apart from the abovementioned content, there is also a [i]Heroic Defense[/i], which is basically another take on the famous wave defense mode. You have to survive through twenty waves and defend your lovely State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aka the Red Banner. If Nazis happen to pull it down, you lose. Simple as that. To be perfectly candid, I was never a fan of this particular mode, so I naturally did not enjoy it here either. Thus, I only tried it a few times. I admit that this addition has its place here; it is just not for me. It is a shame that it has only one playable map, though. [h1][b]… and taking my ushanka off for now.[/b][/h1] Well, I think this expansion managed to force me to try out different approaches in the levels, especially due to its challenging modifiers, as I had to improvise a lot, which is always enjoyable in strategic titles for me. Overall, [i]Partisans 1941 – Back Into Battle[/i] provides what it promised to deliver—a more challenging and replayable experience. Even though I was a bit disappointed at first, as I would prefer a bit more of a story-driven approach, I still think it is worth getting, simply because the gameplay’s core is so fun and satisfying. Thus, I have no problem with recommending this downloadable content, whilst I wish it would offer a bit more. [b]PC Specs and Performance[/b] [quote]I played it with an [b]i5 8300H[/b], [b]GTX 1060 6GB[/b], and [b]16GB RAM[/b], at highest settings, at 25-60 frames per second, at [b]1920x1080[/b] resolution. As in the original game, some locations provided more frame drops down to 20 frames, which is quite annoying at times. Not unplayable, but heavily noticeable and displeasing.[/quote] [b]Acknowledgement[/b] [quote]This game was provided for review purposes by the developers through [b]DitD[/b]. Thank you![/quote] [b]Curator link[/b] [url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/41545671][quote]Remember that Blue Lips Never Lie! Thus, follow my curator, [b]Blue Lips and their Quips[/b], to find more honest yet humorous reviews!