This review contains SPOILERS! Click to expand.
Warsaw is turn based tactical RPG during WWII.
Story
2/5
We are sending our heroes to aid the momentum of the uprising in Warsaw streets and help raise morale of locals. It has a historical setting with fictional stories. The codex will be filled with character stories, weapons and enemies. There are plenty of events that will unfold stories of our characters and inhabitants.
Objectives
Warsaw is turn based tactical RPG during WWII.
Story
2/5
We are sending our heroes to aid the momentum of the uprising in Warsaw streets and help raise morale of locals. It has a historical setting with fictional stories. The codex will be filled with character stories, weapons and enemies. There are plenty of events that will unfold stories of our characters and inhabitants.
Objectives are way too repetitive and it shouldn't happen on the same run. There was one event as part of the main objective that repeated all the time when picking the same mission rewards.
Gameplay
4/5
Before entering streets, we will have the option to aid some of districts that are losing morale using supplies. There are 6 districts and I've usually finished with only 1 at the end because I didn't focus on supplying them. I have only been able to keep 4 districts when I supplied all of them every possible time.
We will set off with 4 members loaded with supplies, mostly ammo, and choose their starting combat positions depending on their equipped skills and their position requirements. Some skills of new characters are unassigned despite having free slots.
There are events that can be also solved with stat checks, and usually span from 60-80% chance of success. These usually didn't repeat themselves in the same run and when I got into battle there was no exp or reward for me.
We'll be able to run around the city even after finishing the main objective just to collect and refill the loot as it's very limited in inventory. There's also a sidebar with remaining enemy encounters, events and loot to be found.
Weapons we find or get as reward offer higher damage and better abilities than our top skills of any character. Some broken ones from missions can be repaired upon arrival to the hideout.
Weapons use short range, long range and heavy ammo, all in certain numbers per skill. Each has two skills associated with it, even if two have identical base damage, the skills will vary.
Knives are a last resort weapon for everyone when we run out of ammo or stand in the wrong position, it deals very little damage but I never missed or dealt 0. It also pulls or pushes the enemy into the correct position.
We have the same limited Action Points that simply work as a movement and can be spent and less likely received during events. We take turns in combat called Activations and each character has a maximum 3 Stamina points that replenish each round or by certain hero skills.
The more we fight, the more we get EXP, but the heroes will be heavily injured after finishing the mission, having them on low health during another mission. We can choose different ones.
EXP is gained individually so having volunteers is not advantaged as they can not spend them on new skills. Only main members receive improvements in skills and possibility to swap weapons. However it worked out for me to run with pretty much the same heroes every mission despite them being heavily injured and they didn't die due to their wounds. I could add medkit to inventory if not using medic.
As we progress we meet better equipped enemies and more effective companions with 0 experience. Game seems to increase EXP gain per battle in later stages.
Combat itself is slow and can be triple sped up which saves a lot of time. It is very repetitive despite having different enemy types or their positions, certain heroes become broken - unbeatable. Enemies miss often enough to create opportunities for us.
Usually there's an obstacle on one of rows reducing damage received to the character standing directly behind it. Some heroes and enemies can create or repair these obstacles or specifically demolish them.
Some enemy types tend to be pretty devastating if unattended, like warheads (high damage, burn), marksman (high damage, bleed), flamethrower (burn), dog (push, bleed, suppression, small target). Some are pretty weak, observer (no damage), mortar (low accuracy).
There are usually 2 combat objectives that give us extra EXP, like finish before turn 5/6, do not use more ammo than something, do not receive more damage than something, deal more damage than something in one turn, kill 2/3 enemies in same turn or with single ability, have 1/2 buffs on all allies at the same time, kill an enemy with debuff.
Game offers 4 save slots and one will clear up after we fail the uprising. Game saves at the arrival to hideout, before combat in the streets and after results of events. There is possible save scamming when running into an enemy circle. We can avoid deaths of heroes or apply camouflage and take advantage. Only dying to an event can't be cheated.
It has simplistic controls, however they are finicky when moving around solid buildings in the streets and our camouflage and compass get used up even when we're stuck and trying to move.
Replay value
3/5
Each new game is a bit different and offers different mission choices, events and companions. We can pick our 3 heroes when starting a new game. Some events may occur in different runs or different heroes may join us. We will not unlock all heroes in one playthrough and have a limited number of them unlocked per run. I had 14 unlocked out of 17 after the 4th run. 28/32 enemies and 33/47 weapons. Game clearly doesn't offer all its features at once.
It's a pity the game doesn't always bring some fresh characters and ever changing events. The outcomes are the same if we succeed or choose the same options. We are able to unlock all skills and stats for a single hero in the end and we can fill up our 4 slots easily with high end active and passive skills.
I tried all difficulties. Easy is basically running through gameplay without challenge. Regular is a bit easy. Challenging isn't really hard and Extreme is slightly hard and forgiving. Whoever says this is very hard doesn't really know how to play a game.
Graphics
2.5/5
It has unique looking characters, their skill animations and weapons. Different environments depending on the places we encounter enemies.
Central room is a bit destroyed later on, the city is also damaged. We might play in the same districts in later stages. Smoke and clouds cover up areas. There is also a night/day cycle.
Once we're in the streets all enemies, events and loot positions do not change and we just have to discover them, while some enemies will have a small or big spotting radius to detect us.
Another small problem is that pictures are reused over and over in different types of events, so unless we read the text associated with them, it feels like doing the same thing again.
Music
2.5/5
Repetitive but subtle music. Non spoken story, companions and enemies shout in their language when acting.
Similar games?
Gameplay: Darkest Dungeon/Iratus (combat system), Slay the Spire (random events).
It's NOT similar to This War of Mine.
We're spending most of our time fighting in turn based combat.
It doesn't run in real-time during missions or in a safehouse.
It misses survival features, like eating or sleeping.
This is an RPG with stats based combat.
We don't construct anything.
Hardware requirements?
Low and mid gaming.
How many hours?
7-8 per one run.
Verdict
6/10
Game has great potential with combat mechanics but falls short in storytelling that is represented with text and some events are too repetitive. Map is small and feels the same whichever district we play. The stats about uprising are uninteresting. However codex is good.
More diverse music and story narrators are so much needed. Game difficulty is pretty forgiving and some items and weapons skills are too powerful and heroes become brokenly strong after a few missions because there's too much loot and experience from foes despite having very limited inventory.
It's a pity I wasn't able to unlock all heroes after finishing on all difficulties and good thing there were sometimes brand new events, however some runs may be less interesting than others.
If the game had DLCs, more content and further balances, it might pick up on popularity but developers seemed to have abandoned the game and haven't got planned new updates.