Through the Darkest of Times

Get a taste of living through momentous events...

It’s incredibly difficult to truly comprehend the enormity of the atrocities of Nazi Germany. But this pigeonhole-defying game, while still fully failing to communicate the scale of events, opens your eyes somewhat wider in a very impressive way. The result is an incredibly affecting emotional journey through history.

You and your small band of resistance members are German citizens. The story begins with Hitler becoming chancellor in 1933, and runs right through until the aftermath of the war in 1946. Each turn represents a week, and you need to decide which tasks to assign to each of your members.

Success in each task is determined, in part, by the total value of the relevant attributes offered by the characters you assign. Things aren’t as simple as that though. Even if an action is successful, there’s a high chance that at least one member will start to gain the attention of the authorities. If I leave this unchecked, the Gestapo will arrest them, taking them out of action. Any heat on any members assigned to a task starts to increase the risk of failure. I need to select tasks to keep my ever-depleting supply of supporters up, too. If I lose too many supporters, or group morale hits zero, it’s all over.

Nobody around me can be guaranteed to be immune to the toxic charms of the charismatic Hitler and his all-powerful party. Most of these supporters of fascism, rather than being cartoonish villains, are otherwise unremarkable and… nice. They bake cakes. Host parties. Talk to me politely. There are vocal and angry critics of the Nazi regime, but they risk not only arguments with their peers, but the potentially deadly wrath of the authorities.

One side of the game explicitly tells the final chapter in Hitler’s rise and fall, from the perspective of ordinary citizens trying to navigate the repulsive views of their friends and inconceivably horrific rumours regarding the regime. The other side forces you to juggle the urge for action with the need to care for your group, with no easy answers. It forms a cohesive, uncomfortable whole.