Review of Freedom 1945 – an emotional story from our history

Charles Games Studio, made up of researchers, graduates and students of Charles University, began its journey in 2015 with the publication of an educational simulation Czechoslovakia 38-89: Assassination. The authors wanted to get this project into schools as a teaching material. It is therefore not surprising that historical accuracy and cooperation with historians from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic already played an important role at that time. This teaching aid became the basis for creating the game Attack 1942, which has collected a number of awards in our country and in the world. A historical adventure telling stories from the time of the Nazi occupation and the assassination of the deputy imperial protector Reinhard Heydrich, brought a unique experience, which I still remember as a fan of strong stories and history.

• Platform: PC (peer-reviewed version), Mac, iOS, Android
• Date of publication: 3. 8. 2021
• Producer: Charles Games (Czech Republic)
• Genre: story adventure / visual novel
• Czech localization: year
• Multiplayer: born
• Data to download: 9 GB
• Game time: 2+ hours
• Sales version: box and digital
• Price: PC 350 CZK (Steam), PC 499 CZK (Xzone)

Interactive history textbooks

Now Charles Games is returning to the scene with the title Freedom 1945: Liberation. The period of Nazi occupation alternates with several central themes related to the end of World War II and the subsequent onset of communism. The story of the game will take you in the shoes of a conservationist to the fictional village of Svoboda, which lies on the Czech-German border. Here you have to decide the fate of the local school. Will it become a monument, or will it go to earth? As in the case of the Assassination, the story is told in the form of feature interviews with live actors. The various inhabitants of the village will tell you their memories, stories and opinions at the end of the Second World War, from here the Germans from Czechoslovakia, the elections in 1946 or the onset of communist totalitarianism and collectivization.

In these interviews, you will always be given a choice of different questions that the characters will answer. The performances deserve great praise. While amateur actors played in the Assassination, in the case of Svoboda, the authors addressed professional actors from theaters. The difference is obvious at first glance. The overall impression of the game clearly benefited. During the interviews, other interesting topics will be discussed. For example, you talk to Volhynian Bohemia about its origin and the battle in the Dukelsky Pass, in which he participated as a soldier. The individual characters will have a different view of the above-mentioned historical events. It is logical that, for example, the view and memories of the Sudeten German Grötschel and the Communist Klepal will be significantly different.

How would I behave if I found myself in the skin of that character?

The developers do not force any view on you, but on the contrary, it directly encourages you to make your own opinion and picture from the available statements and factual information. Each person will always present their own truth to you. Who you lean towards is up to you. The game sets a mirror for you. I asked myself a question several times while playing. How would I behave if I found myself in the skin of that character? It should be noted that the mentioned statements are definitely not on a positive or joyful note. Freedom 1945 does not tell a story of victory and liberation, but a story of revenge, oppression, violence and strife, which in part still persists among the people, which some characters will show you sharply.

The atmosphere could be cut

But this is usually the case with topics that no one wants to talk about too much. Although conversations are the most important part of the game, you will also experience other forms of narration. I can praise the visually very successful animated passages of a comic character, which will take you directly to the second half of the 1940s. Interviews are sometimes supplemented by period footage. They will remind you again that this is not a fictional narrative but a real part of our history. The overall dense atmosphere is completed by a successful soundtrack from the music duo DVA. In addition to interviews, animated cartoon passages and period shots, you will also enjoy several mini-games.

As in the case of the Assassination, we are talking in the case of Svoboda 1945 about an interactive documentary work, where the element of playability and challenge is largely behind. Partial puzzles and minigames are therefore easy in terms of difficulty. Their strength lies in the connection to the story and real events. Basically, a primitive mini-game in which you have to pack a suitcase simply gets a completely different charge when you realize that you are not packing for a holiday, but you are preparing for a wild relocation.

It can take more than four hours to get the game up one hundred percent.

In sum, the minigames are a little more imaginative than in the Assassination. However, non-players will still be able to handle them without any problems. Some topics that are not directly related to the story of the village are only briefly mentioned in the game. You can find a detailed description of them in the text encyclopedia, the individual chapters of which you will gradually unlock. It is a bit of a pity that even in the case of the encyclopedia, the authors did not choose a more interactive form and did not supplement the plain text with more period materials or audio recordings, which would motivate younger players in particular to study it.

Aimed at fans of powerful stories and history

And how is the game time? If you hurry, you can get to the end of the story in two hours. However, Freedom 1945 with its conclusion motivates you to repeat the whole experience and ask the characters a little different questions or go to them in a different order. One hundred percent extraction can therefore take more than four hours. I have to admit that after finishing it, I thought that I would have survived the game without any problems for a longer period of time and interviewed all the characters more in depth. On the other hand, I didn’t feel that the developers were depriving me of anything. On the contrary, they aroused my interest in learning more about some of the events that were even slightly tapped in the game.

Svoboda 1945 is a free continuation of Attentat 1942. Both titles from the Charles Games studio are a unique interactive work of a documentary nature with an emphasis on story and historical accuracy. The game element in Svoboda is also limited to a few basically simple minigames. If you are primarily concerned with the gameplay and difficulty, Freedom will not completely satisfy you. However, if you would like to fully immerse yourself in an emotionally charged and unique story told from an important period in our history, then I can recommend Svoboda 1945 with a calm heart.

We test the latest PC games on a powerful computer LYNX Grunex 2020.