Parents' Guide to Warsaw

Let's get one thing out of the way right now: This is a game without a happy ending. That doesn't qualify as a spoiler for Warsaw if you have any knowledge of WWII history. The ill-fated Warsaw Uprising ended in a crushing defeat of the Poles by Nazi forces. Warsaw doesn't set out to change this outcome or to sugarcoat the brutality of the war. The game is dark, gritty, and somber, with a constant cloud of doom looming overhead. It's not so much a game that you can win, but rather one that you fight to lose as little as possible. It's also about the story to some extent. While the characters you recruit aren't necessarily fully fleshed out, they do have their own background stories, which serve as fictional windows that offer glimpses into the reality of what life was like for those caught on the frontline of war. If nothing else, Warsaw is a game that has a heavy emotional impact.

Setting aside emotion for a moment, Warsaw is a bit of a mixed bag. The game can be played multiple times, with a vast number of radical changes based on what random events players stumble across and the choices they make at certain moments. Sometimes these choices, even made with the best intentions, backfire in a spectacular manner, forcing a major setback to an already losing situation. There's a lot of micromanagement required, but there's also a lot that feels out of the player's control, with sinking morale and dwindling supplies sometimes unable to be fixed due to the random placement of certain events. This is made worse when you find yourself woefully unprepared for a battle because you either forgot to load up on ammunition or simply had no idea just how big an upcoming battle would be. While Warsaw makes for a great snapshot at the darker elements of WWII, it's hard to find comfort in fighting a perpetually losing battle.