I had a slight Commandos vibe after the first few missions, but I soon realized how wrong I was. The missions get quite repetitive quite fast. Despite adding new characters with different skills as the game progresses, what you have to do is always the same thing over and over. If you wanna play stealth (which is what you’re supposed to do in this kind of game), you end up always using the same characters since they’re objectively better.

I expected a bit more. Even just one mission different from the others would have sufficed.

The ending came quite abruptly too. I understand there’s “1941” in the title, and not “WWII”, but at least some sort of closure, not just a simple line of dialogue saying something along the lines: “You did good. You are key in the liberation of your country. Well… the end.” without any sort of previously built-up climax.

Last thing. The not-get-caught achievements on Steam are bugged. And the mission names there don’t correspond with the actual ones in the game.

It gets addicting right away, which is a good thing for this kind of game. The whole setting is quite intriguing, even if it doesn’t get properly explored while progressing.

Gameplay-wise, you have a big pool of cards that gets gradually unlocked. The game is not heavily RNG dependent as you’d expect, though. In fact it’s rare to not find a strategy that lets you complete a run independently from the starting cards, even because the starting cards are almost always the same. You basically always manage to change your build as you progress a run. There are a lot of viable builds in that sense. The only flaw I can find may be the fact that once you unlock Dark Markers─a tower that lets you mark enemies enmasse (and killing marked enemies heals you)─it basically becomes impossible for you to lose on normal runs.

Oh, a side note: the game doesn’t require your 100% attention, since after you choose your cards and end your turn you have to wait for the waves of mobs to complete, which require a few seconds every time. What I’m saying is that if you have a second screen it’s an ok game to keep there while watching/doing something else on the other.

Lovely art, lovely animation, lovely music, lovely and bittersweet story.

Gameplay-wise it can be a bit clunky at times since, especially at the start, it can happen to be there staring at the screen and despite clicking everywhere nothing happens. As for the rest, I liked it. I advise you to play the included “Jack DLC” too, since it clears out any doubt you might have about the story.

I’m gonna do a proper review next month, when I’m done with it. For now I just have one question: how come this game isn’t more popular?