Attentat 1942

Attentat 1942 is a 2017 Czech video game. It tells the story of Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia during the Second World War through the eyes of survivors. The game is built on personal memories, interactive comics, and authentic footage. Characters in the game and their stories are fictional, but they are based on personal testimonies and extensive historical research.

The game was developed by scientists from Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University, and Institute of Contemporary History of Czech Academy of Sciences. Attentat 1942 stems from the educational project Czechoslovakia 38-89, but has been enhanced and further developed for worldwide public. The game was released for Windows and Mac on the distributional platform Steam on October 31, 2017,[1] and comes in the Czech language with English, Russian and German subtitles.

Content

Attentat 1942 is a point-and-click adventure game in which the players assume the role of the grandchild of Jindřich Jelínek. They discover that their grandfather was arrested by the Gestapo shortly after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, ruler of the Nazi-occupied Czech Lands and leading architect of the Holocaust. The players' aim is to find out the reason why the grandfather was arrested and what role did he play in the attack. The players pose questions to the grandmother and other eyewitnesses of those events and slowly discover the story of the family and learn more about life in Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Critical reception

The game holds 75% on Metacritic based on 13 reviews indicating generally favourable reviews.[2]

From the reviews:

  • "It captivates from start to finish by humanising history brilliantly."[3]
  • "Attentat 1942 will be a treasure not only for a fresh perspective on a widely reported period of time but also for the amount of work that you can see the developers put into making sure their story fit within the confines of history."[4]
  • "Attentat 1942's poignancy managed to stir me on several occasions, and its ending in particular was touching."[5]
  • "Attentat 1942, as a game, is an excellent meld of historical documentary authenticity and solid genre gameplay."[6]
  • "Attentat 1942 does a beautiful job exploring a tragedy with all the respect and sensitivity that its survivors are due."[7]

Awards

Controversy

The game was released on Steam in October 2017 in all countries except for Germany, where it remained block due to the controversial German practice of not giving rating to the games containing Nazi symbolism. In May 2018 Attentat 1942 won the "Most Amazing Game" Award at the A MAZE festival in Berlin, but the visitors could not play it. They could only watch a censored trailer with no swastikas and Nazi salutes, and the jury played the game behind closed doors.[13] In August 2018 the policy of USK, the authority providing ratings for video games, has undergone a change and since then even games with Nazi symbolism may receive rating, depending in their individual "social adequacy". Attentat 1942 was therefore released in Germany as the first PC game with Nazi symbolism with the USK rating received after the policy change.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Save 50% on Attentat 1942 on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  2. ↑ "Attentat 1942". Metacritic. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  3. ↑ "The Flare Path: Czechs and Choppers". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  4. ↑ "Review: Attentat 1942". destructoid. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  5. ↑ S, Matt. "Review: Attentat 1942 (PC)". www.digitallydownloaded.net. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  6. ↑ "Attentat 1942 – Review". Gaming the Past. 2017-11-24. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  7. ↑ "Attentat 1942 Review – GameCritics.com". gamecritics.com. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  8. ↑ MAZE., A. "A MAZE. / Berlin – April 25–29, 2018". Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  9. ↑ Fogel, Stefanie (2018-06-29). "'Life Is Strange: Before the Storm' Wins Big at Games for Change Awards". Variety. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  10. ↑ "2018 Independent Games Festival announces Main Competition finalists!". IGF. 2018-01-02. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  11. ↑ Game Development World Championship (2017-11-29), Game Development World Championship Winners 2017, retrieved 2018-09-21
  12. ↑ "Výsledky 2017 - ČESKÁ HRA ROKU 2017". ČESKÁ HRA ROKU 2017 (in Czech). Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  13. ↑ "We're making the first game that legally shows Nazi symbols in Germany – here's why you should care". Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  14. ↑ "Attentat 1942, a video game unavailable due to Nazi symbolism, finally released in Germany". Retrieved 2018-09-21.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.