Forgotten but Unbroken Review (DeathOnRedBull)
Silent Alliance-COM '44
If you're a fan of XCOM and Silent Storm, you'll probably want to investigate the rather clunkily titled 'Forgotten but Unbroken'. The Jagged Alliance comparisons are less so, but there's still some DNA in there.
At time of writing, the game is under full release, but like others have mentioned, there are still a few problems here and there, from balance issues, to full on bugs. The UI can be a bit unintuitive, but when you get used to it, it's not that bad. The devs are very responsive and communicative, and are open to suggestions, so that's always a good sign.
The mechanism of having to wait for missions to appear while you manage moral and resources at first seems slightly unorthodox, but then again, is it any different to responding to UFO sightings in X-Com or Xenonauts? Probably not, but the feeling is that of having player agency diminished. The way that in other games in the genre you can see targets on a strategic map, and plan to go for them feels somehow more gratifying.
On a plus note, there are many great things about the game; the art style, the music, and the level design. The levels all feel suitably WWII-ish, straight out of a 1970s war film. Blowing up fuel depots, V2 rockets, and train bridges are all present and correct, and the amount of varied graphical assets in the game is impressive.
Nothing can beat the voice acting in Silent Storm for sheer horrendousness, but right enough, it seems WWII games of this genre can't help but try to approach; the voice work here isn't terrible, but it's cheesy enough to grate on you. There are characters, and a kind of narrative, but this all feels a bit tacked on, and inconsequential. I didn't start to care about any of them, and the story (such as it is) doesn't seem to bear any real relationship with in-game events - things just pop up from time to time for us to watch, and that's what's happening now - apparently.
But, all that said, is it fun and enjoyable? Most definitely yes. I had a good 40+ hours completing the game, and some moments were very tense and memorable. I think perhaps the devs might have realised some of the difficult options they might choose to do differently next time, but overall, I'm giving this a thumbs up; it's a good effort from an indie developer, and certainly isn't doing any harm to the turn-based tactics/management/strategy genre.
Good stuff - overall.|
EDIT: I've just gone on to play the other WWII turn-based game released earlier this year (Classified: France '44), and there are some strong similarities here; the moral mechanic when under fire, the way machine guns work, the overall time limit - the list is growing. Not sure whether this has made the game go down a bit in my estimation, but from what I've seen so far, it's now feels like more of a copy than anything else. Oh well - it's still fun, though.