So, you may not have heard, but way back when in '41, some not so great guys called 'Nazis' invaded the USSR. This made the local people pretty irritated, and some of them started bushwhacking the Germans during their occupation. It's some thrilling and poetic stuff, and it's surprising that there haven't been any games based on it (that I know of) until Partisans 1941 came around.
Reminiscent of the pretty good Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Partisans is notably more action focused. Where in Shadow Tactics, a wrong step would get your guys killed pretty quickly, in Partisans you can actually have gun fights against the Nazis and not get instantly owned.
So how does a real-time stealth-action game translate to the Eastern Front?
LIKE DEFIANCE (2008) BUT LESS DEPRESSING
The story follows one Commander Zorin, a Red Army officer, who is captured by the invading German forces, but manages to escape in the first level, which is good because this would be a very short game otherwise. On Zorin's way out, he stumbles into one of his men and a local boy, who takes the group to a hideout in the swamp. This hub can be upgraded in between missions to allow your soldiers to forage for more food, customize weapons, and go complete off-map operations to get more resources, among other tasks. The hub isn't particularly deep, but it does offer a nice extra layer to the real meat of the game: the missions.
RELATED LINKS:
The Wargamer's Guide to WW2's Eastern Front
Steel Division 2 Review
Review: Kursk – Battle at Prokhorovka