Through the Darkest of Times 12+

First things first— The story portion of the game is amazing, and really hits home the tragedy of the nazis, and it had me on the edge of my seat the whole time and really hit hard. Just simply wonderful, and the little moments present encapsulated a horror not easily understood with just detailed knowledge. Even though I am a WW2 Buff (made the mistake of reading a portion of the nightmarish Nuremberg Trial testimony) and have read a lot into Nazis and their awfulness, as well as have family who have suffered from the Holocaust, the story hit home like almost nothing else.
With that said, the resistance mission portion of the game felt rather unpolished and unclear, and a lot of things didn’t make sense (ie actions from one time period don’t affect another, people get into disputes on missions way too much, you have a hard limit of five agents, and it is almost comically easy to save your agents from the SA prisons and interrogation areas whereas it can be very difficult to do something such as have an anonymous interview with a journalist in 1936). There also isn’t a lot of replay ability. With that said, it is still somewhat good as a game and the story makes up for a lot of it.

Handy Games and THQ Nordic have been on fire with releases like Lock’s Quest and Aces of Luftwaffe! Because of the consistency of quality, they have easily become one of my current favorite developers. With that being said, the purchase of Darkest Times was an automatic one for me.
Most of Handy Games library consists of games that are uplifting to play. This game, however, is a bleak look into a nation that is turning to socialism. The eerie comparisons between what is happening in our country and what happened during the Nazi rise is what really sets the tone. Plans are to be made with your comrades in order to combat this new regime performing Marxism. But you must be careful. Nazi sympathizers come in all forms and can be closer than you know.
I thoroughly enjoy playing this game...even when it gets stressful seeing your co-conspirators getting arrested.

I think this game should be included every school’s curriculum when covering WWII. Not only does it do a wonderful job of teaching history, but it connects you to it in a way that textbooks fail to. Without ever displaying a single swastika, the creators were able to characterize the sheer terror that was spread across Germany when Hitler became chancellor, and eventually the world. You really feel for these characters. You see just how quickly everything changed for so many people. You see how quickly things are capable of changing now.

Seriously, support this game. The knowledge it provides is priceless, and the experience you’ll have in playing it will stick with you for a lifetime.