War Mongrels – -apkrig

Polish developers from the Destructive Creations studio are known for their love of telling dark and brutal stories full of blood and controversy. Their new isometric real-time tactical game War Mongrels will be no different in this regard. We will look at the Eastern Front, a bit like in last year’s Partisans 1941. Now, however, we will experience all the woes of World War II in the skin of Wehrmacht soldiers.

The authors of Hatred or Ancestors Legacy have prepared a short demo demonstration, which should entice us to a possible full game. Destructive Creations claims that the individual missions have a basis in real history and that we will see many topics that are not so much talked about. So let’s see if we can trust them.

A German soldier on the Eastern Front

From the two available missions that I had the opportunity to taste, it can be concluded that, at least in some aspects, the above-mentioned promises are not just pleasing PR speakers. But let’s take it gradually. The game introduces you to a story in a nice comic book, which shows that the two main characters Ewald and Manfred have already spent three years on the Eastern Front and are forced to carry out orders that are a bit against their beliefs.

The film’s introduction to the story is the first major positive. I liked the transition from a touch of art directly to realistic graphics, which is unparalleled in the genre of real-time stealth games, at least in my opinion. The game looks beautiful, believable, with the right amount of detail and period realities.

The two missions are very different. In the first one, I was thrown into a tumult of battle, from which it was necessary to secretly get both of our heroes, and thus desert from the Nazi army. In the second I experienced a slightly more stratified action – first I had to provide food for both heroes in a Nazi-occupied village and the whole culminated in the release of the prisoner Lukas, with whom we sabotaged the train bridge and freed the prisoners from the train to be killed by Wehrmacht soldiers.

Quiet, quiet and noisy

As in other games, which draw their inspiration from the legendary Commandos, the quiet procedure and careful planning of individual actions is important here. Ewald and Manfred have different abilities and their proper use is the alpha and omega of the whole game. The conical vision of the enemy is familiar to all Commandos fans, but I really like that every action is differently loud, so you think twice about killing someone with a knife or trying to lure them to a safer place. A bit like in Desperados III.

As for actions, in addition to sneaking, the key items for our two heroes are to attract enemies. Manfred can throw bottles of pine, from which each soldier likes to squeeze, while Ewald controls the whistling or his own throwing box, which can lure even entire groups of enemies. There is also the opportunity to wear various types of clothing, including military uniforms.

In addition to the stealthy approach, action missions also appeared in both missions, when it was necessary to use weapons. With a simple keyboard shortcut, you switch to the action mode, in which you aim and shoot at everything that moves, as quickly and accurately as possible. The action line adds a certain flair to the game, although I personally wouldn’t mind its absence in a thoughtful, creepy game at all.

Pre-alpha version with pre-alpha issues

My praise so far must be taken with a slight margin. I played a version that the authors refer to as pre-alpha, and in terms of quality, it’s familiar. For example, the controls are completely non-intuitive. I’m used to marking characters and using the right mouse to perform actions, but the game requires the exact opposite and it is not possible to redo anything in the settings.

By far the biggest problem, however, was the storage of positions. For some reason, the game is saved at a completely inopportune moment, and if something goes wrong, a subsequent restart will usually cause your opponents to see you, even if you were lying on the ground hiding at the time of saving. The authors still have a lot to care about, because War Mongrels are almost unplayable because of this kick.

It was far from a single mess. Sometimes it happened to me that the character refused to perform any action except movement. I kept telling myself that I had to respect the unfinished state of the game, but if something like this happens to you twenty times during a three-hour demo, you get up slightly frustrated by the computer, whether you like it or not. Perhaps the authors will be able to cope with this before publication.

Cooperation as a vision of the future

As for the promises for the future, there should also be a cooperation mode for two players, which is something I am really very curious about. From what I’ve seen, the pair might be an excellent experience – and unrivaled, because neither Shadow Tactics nor Desperados III offer cooperation.

It was the third Desperados who made it clear last year that the genre of stealth tactical games had not died out, and its popularity was slowly and surely rising. War Mongrels is trying to surf on a similar wave and there are definitely plenty of reasons for cautious optimism.

The technical condition is sad for the time being, but since then there are alpha versions. Hopefully, the authors will respond adequately to feedback to provide players with a fun, balanced experience sometime in the future. The game should arrive on both the PC and the new generation console, and I will be watching with excitement what will come out of it. It certainly has potential.