Unlike most games set in the Netherlands during WW2, Survive, Resist, Collaborate is not crawling with Allied airborne troops and obsessed with bridge securing. Due out later this year but trial-able now, SRC is a text-based tale of a triangular friendship torn apart by conflict.
Compared to World War II Armored Recon, its story is wiry, and its choices clearly delineated. When the sleepy village of Gilze becomes part of the Greater Germanic Reich, three school chums on the cusp of manhood are forced to make momentous choices. Peter and David take irreconcilable paths. How Jan, the protagonist, navigates the war, is up to you.
Without access to the ‘unpolished’ text, it’s hard to say whether the game has benefited or suffered overall from AI titivation. As I detected the manicured hand of a robot editor long before reading the Steam blurb which confirmed AI involvement, maybe Asterism shouldn’t have let a machine re-phrase their opus.
It will be interesting to see whether Brave People, a point-and-click adventure with a not dissimilar premise to Survive, Resist, Collaborate, ever vaults the dyke that separates mobile and immobile gaming.
Having dabbled with the demo on my phone, I reckon this eye-catching offering would find an appreciative audience if ported to PC.
I’d love to see a standalone PC version of Dutch Resistance: Orange Shall Overcome at some point too. While it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever purchase this well-received co-op (but solo friendly) board game in its pricey original form, a relatively cheap digital version would be awfully hard to resist.