Attentat 1942

With far right extremists being on the rise again, I think this game is very important. That is, e.g., considering that one fifth of Germany is voting for a far right extremists party that actively tries to change how the history is viewed, trivializes it etc...

Here the game does an important job in getting people to remember. Nicely researched, historically accurate facts and also images satisfy this. Despite this not being a pleasurable time to remember, the developers also did a great job in turning this into a game. That is it works surprisingly well as a game, the drawn scenes, mini games and interview parts and encyclopedia go nicely together. Personally I think a game like this might even be the best way for this. Compared to a movie one gets way more information in the game's encyclopedia and through the interaction with the characters via the interviews, also the game gets one directly involved. A book of course can have more information etc., it is however very hard to read on this topic...

All in all, very important, great game!

TLDR: A decent FMV game telling stories of those directly impacted from WW2. While it severely lacks in engrossing gameplay, it makes up for this through some good historical narrative and footage.

PROS:

➕”X-ray”-type information (like from Prime Video)
➕Informative and factual

NEUTRALS:

🔹Good message, but bad conclusion presentation

CONS:

➖Unclear direction at times
➖Lacks gameplay

Content (Game world/Narrative) – [6/10]

The game world, mostly told through FMV, is a depiction of the 1940s-era war setting. The only issue I have is the relevance of the footage being shown versus what footage just is available of that time period. I think Attentat 1942 would have benefited greatly from some on-site present day footage, for example.
The narrative is simple, which is finding information about your grandfather. It does have a wholesome ending about a reunion between two friends that each thought the other died, unfortunately doesn’t do much with the conclusion.

Gameplay (Mechanics/Difficulty) – [2/10]

A common issue with FMV/visual novel games - poor gameplay. Here all you really do is click on objects or make some small choices. No real mechanics.

Graphics (Quality/Technical) – [6/10]

Most of the game is FMV, and good quality. What isn’t FMV is drawn visuals, comic book style, which is just okay.
No technical issues or bugs found.
i9-13900KF | RTX 4090 | 64GB RAM | 1440p @ 240hz | Windows 11 installed on SSD

Audio – [5/10]

Average, nothing really stuck out to me.

Replay Factor (Longevity) – [3/10]

You can redo segments for missed story holes or try to get achievements, but it's mostly a one-and-done.

Final Verdict – [6/10]

Attentat 1942 (A1942) is a FMV point-and-click adventure game with a strong emphasis on the historical accuracy of citizens during World War II. You play as the grandchild of a Czeckoslovakian couple. As your grandfather is ill and doesn’t appear to have much time left, you want to learn about what happened to him during the period of WW2.

To start with the negatives, to me the biggest one is the lack of meaningful gameplay, especially considering the length of the game. Since it's about a 2.5 hour game, I would say perhaps ~20ish minutes of that consist of an actual minigame with gameplay elements, like finding items that could be considered anti-German paraphernalia, or navigating a conversation in a way that the character would. These minigames are good at setting the tone of the story, but occur too infrequently and are too sparse.

As for the positives, I think A1942 was good at showcasing the horrors of WW2 from a civilian, and especially husband/wife perspective. It presented a single small tale of a handful of people directly affected by the Nazi invasion and really makes you think about all of the other untold or lost stories that will never be found because of the atrocities of war. Despite listing it as a neutral, I like how the narrative ultimately ends on a high note by two friends being reunited when each thinking the other was dead. Granted, the game ends off specifically at a really awkward part, but I still think its a good message and one that is backed by historical evidence.

Overall, A1942 is a decent game. I’ve played better visual novels/point-n-click adventure games, but I commend A1942 for committing to the teaching of history. Especially in modern times, if history is forgotten then it's doomed to be repeated. That being said, considering its price, it's a tad expensive for the amount of playtime available, but it's a no-brainer to pick it up on sale if you have any sort of interest in learning about WW2-era stories from those that went through it.

Recommend? [Y/N]

Yes

You can find my curator page here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Synik_GR

recomendo. muito bom, adorei essa forma de misturar a fotografia/vídeo real com as animações parecendo HQ também.

This was highly informative, historically accurate and a great piece of labor overall. I found myself completely losing track of time and getting immersed into this little game, caring very much about all characters and wanting to know everything about them. It's a good thing that mini games and interviews can be repeated as it's easy to miss certain things on the first attempt. Anyway loved it and hope to see more games like this in the future!

Very good game. Not much else to say. Can be completed in an afternoon. Runs great on Steam Deck.

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I bought this game in discount, it was $14 MXN in august, but I waited till I got a new gaming laptop to try it.
It was kinda funny that a historical and interview game was the welcomer, but I dont regret on anything.

Even tho it could be seen as a graphic novel and minigames, its more than that: the interviews are realistic to the point the characters story telling feels extremely real, seeing the live expressions of each one as you make them questions is great, to the point I reflect a lot when I finally finished it; its a journey to the events of Heydrich attentat and how you investigate your grandfather's story.
I want to poin out that you need to be really meticulous in what you ask or either way you wont get all of the info you need, even if repeating the interview you wont know all you need to know.

The jumps between the character's faces, the historical footage and the in-game art/mini comics makes this even better, feeling it vivid and realistic to a point you feel another one of the characters.

Its worth your time, to explore and learn about one of the many stories about the ww2, and how this one story collects a great amount of other side stories of lots of people.

10/10 of a game, will try others of Charles Games definetly.

I didn't finish it. Not because I didn't want to, but because the style of the game- it got stale very fast.

I wouldn't have minded but it seems that progress seems to stop after a couple of interviews and at some point you have to spend coins to re-do them. I just couldn't be bothered listening to the same stuff for the third time.

It's nice to see something different, but it could have been done better.

Good first game by Developer Charles Games (at least on Steam), which seems to be a group of people who came together in a Czech University.
A FMV interactive Movie educational history game about a (fictional) Biography about your grandma and grandpa's fate in the German WW2 occupation of the Czech Republic after the Munich Pact.
Not less or more content than in other FMV titles, I bought it together with their other FMV title "Svoboda 1945: Liberation" in a discounted bundle, well worth the sale price for this game's experience alone, haven't even played the other one yet and am already satisfied & it has a good Soundtrack, too.
Will probably take you around 4–6 hours to complete the whole story, maybe a little more if you have to replay some of the interviews to get all the (linear) achievements or even have to completely start over if you run out of Coins (minigame currency; you can replay them to get all of it, which can become tedious however) [can skip seen scenes, but not minigames].
I liked this game even better than Beecarbonize, which is a simulation card game about climate change funded by the EU by the same studio and was also good (and is free, so try it out).
The Biggest Con is original language only available in Czech, not English, German etc. however, there are English and other subtitles and the sound fits the game and setting well, even if you can't understand it.
Also, sometimes you have to click on the speech bubbles to advance, so you have to read the subtitles anyway which kind of mitigates this.
I liked the beginning and mid game, but think the ending and outro had more potential.
All in all I really liked this game though and can recommend it, I'm looking forward to playing Svoboda 1945: Liberation and their other games I haven't played yet.

P.S. If you liked Attentat 1942, maybe also try Svoboda 1945: Liberation on Steam and Train to Sachsenhausen - which is a history-based game that relates to the dramatic events tied to the closing of Czech universities in November 1939 - for free on PC from the Developer's Website or on Google Play / IOS for mobile.

Vynikající hra o historii Česka za druhé světové války. Velmi doporučuju !

I really like the game with it's FMV and in the way that you interview people from the time to understand the story more, but progression feels strange. I got stuck and the only choice is to replay the interviews.

I mainly got this to see high-quality videos of Reinhard Heydrich strutting around.

It's a puzzle game/documentary mix, and it takes under 5 hours to complete. It's not crap but I don't recommend buying this for more than 5 euros.
It doesn't really offer any new information about Heydrich's rule in Czechoslovakia either.

It is very informative but it annoyed me to no end that I could not skip minigames that I have already completed. When I ran out of coins I had to skip the ending scene a looot of times. It was extremly tedious to complete it to 100% and get all the information. It is nice to hear them tell their own story but I could do that via YouTube or other media sources and hear much more. Sadly I can not recommend this game.

I love this kind of indie masterpieces.