May 8, 1945 was the day on which the Wehrmacht surrendered and the war in Germany was finally over. As it is now the 77th anniversary of this event, I would like to take a closer look at one or two games in which you, as a player, do not view the Nazi era from a first-person shooter perspective. I'll start with the wonderful title "Through the darkest of times". It was developed the anti-fascist indie computer game from Berlin-based developer Paintbucket Games and celebrated its release on January 30, 2020.
This January day was probably not chosen by chance. You start your journey through this dark chapter of our history in a highly stylized graphic style on the day Hitler seized power on 30 January 1933. You sit together with two like-minded people in Berlin and found a resistance movement with them, which now needs to be nurtured and shaped.
Chance and strategy are your companions
Age, ProfessionThe religion and political views of your character are chosen at random, and you can actively determine their appearance. The game also determines your first two companions at random. And off you go! Now it's time to find like-minded people in 1930s Berlin, collect money, expand your core group, buy paint or paper and paint slogans on walls or print flyers. The individual skills of your group members will determine how successful the actions of your movement are. If your resistance fighter is Catholic, he is more likely to be heard by Christians, while a worker in Kreuzberg will find it easier to reach supporters. However, if your group members are too diverse, this could lead to a dispute that could damage the Cohesion could in turn jeopardize the big picture.
The game is divided into 4 chapters, each of which is turn-based and leads up to key events of the Nazi era - such as the Reichstag fire, the book burnings or the Köpenick Night of Blood. Your aim is to collect enough supporters per chapter so that your resistance movement continues to exist and makes it to the end of the war. The morale of your group is also crucial for this. The further the war progresses, the greater the loss of morale due to general world events. If someone from your core team is arrested by the Gestapo or killed during a mission, this has a massive impact on the morale of your group. So you see, Through the darkest of times requires tactical decisions and at the same time provides you with historical events in which you actively participate.
Authentic and loving game design with minor weaknesses
Despite some repetitive tasks and relatively little variety in the Events in the chapters, the outcome of which is often relatively similar despite different answer options, I have now played the game to the end three times. This is because the randomly generated characters in your resistance group and the larger interim missions that you have to work towards in a targeted manner entice you with details that fill the story with life. If someone in your group is homosexual, they will probably trigger an event in which they are beaten up by an SA group after visiting a gay bar. Jewish comrades-in-arms will have to hide underground, while other resistance members will marry, have children or stab you in the back and betray you to the Gestapo. As you can see, no two runs will be the same. Added to this is the atmospheric music that at the meeting point of your group and, together with the design of the characters, immediately transports you back to the 1930s and 1940s. And I have to say: when I reached the end of the war for the first time, I actually felt something like relief. Not because I was happy that it was over, but because I had the feeling that I had achieved something great with my beloved characters.
Playful history lesson with clear added value
Through the darkest of times conveys an atmospheric picture of Berlin under National Socialism thanks to the real events, locations such as the Moka Efti and the Olympic Stadium and the authentic music. But that's not all: the game was also to his release the first computer game in Germany to be allowed to show uncensored Nazi symbols such as swastikas and the Hitler salute. This is by no means about glorifying an ideology, but exactly the opposite. Through the darkest of times shows the perspective of the resistance and makes it clear in an almost unpleasant way how frighteningly normal it was for the majority of the population to follow National Socialist propaganda during this time. Therefore, despite the points of criticism mentioned, I highly recommend this cleverly put together package of history education!