Gerda: Flame in Winter, a review of a Danish adventure about WWII

There II. World War it was a conflict fought on many fronts, or rather a tragedy on a grand scale. As such, a wide variety of events have become a major source of inspiration for art since the second half of the twentieth century, and as a result, video games have also drawn on complex issues related to the actions of Nazi Germany.

However, the fronts that are often most affected are open warfare, major military actions, and the most symbolic stories. Occupation of France and Paris, military campaigns in Africa or events in concentration camps, with horrors discovered in the final stages of the war.

But the Second World War affected everyone and everywhere. farthest and unknownIt’s hard to find a word in broad-spectrum analysis, overwhelmed by the loudest realities of Axis actions.

Gerda: A Flame in Winter therefore sets out to tell us a “small” but no less important story. It does this by letting us in. Denmarkan area less cultivated by video games puts us in the shoes of a hero who won’t necessarily act out of pure goodness.

To learn more, keep reading ours Gerda’s review: Flame in Winter.

Tinglev

Gerda is a young woman of Danish descent on her mother’s side and German on her father’s side. By profession, nurse Gerda After years of studying in Berlin, he returned to Denmark shortly before the German occupation (1940). The woman spends years under Nazi rule with her husband, Anders, trying to cope with the limits of supply and freedom imposed by the foreign invaders.

But his adventure began in 1945., the village where the couple lives and the whole story unfolds when her husband is captured as a member of the Tinglev resistance. Forget the soldiers at the front, the war machines, and military tactics on a global scale: Gerda A Flame in Winter puts us in the shoes of a woman who suddenly finds herself alone, with few friends, few resources, and a simple desire for revision. his own wife.

Score chart adventure

Gerda A Flame in Winter a modern graphic adventure where we will be called to make various choices that will affect the plot. We will have to constantly maintain dialogues and choose how to act in certain situations in order to gain the trust of those around us.

The whole adventure is based not only on the macroscopic choices made at key moments of the plot, but also on small interpretations that can make our lives better or worse. relationships with characters with “communities” of main and Tinglev.

Aspect half Danish and half German, Gerda is on a dangerous but certainly useful frontier: she can befriend Danes and Germans (not all Nazis, let’s remember). She can also openly favor the rebels or maintain a positive relationship with the occupation.

Let’s be frank, the game doesn’t really allow us to passionately praise German action and generally pushes us towards resistance, but we will still be. decide how to actHe also uses the help of some Nazis to try to free Anders.

Two other elements are also important: the objects we will find in settings – such as food, doctors, and luxury goods – and “mental” pointsare classified as Compassion, Intelligence, and Intuition. The latter accumulates between one “level” and the next: at the moment, Gerda writes in her diary what happened at the very last stage of the game, and we will have to decide what the woman’s feelings on the subject are. For example, after Anders is captured, we may understand his actions and the need to fire the Nazis, or we may admit that he was reckless and put us in danger.

Mental points are used to “win” certain. discussions, to get a definite result by spending one point. If we don’t have the necessary points or even an important object, we can choose a “neutral” dialog element or try to achieve a positive outcome with excessive affirmation at the risk of a negative outcome. In the latter case, the outcome will depend on a roll of the dice, which will be conditioned by relations with the person we are talking to and the groups to which he belongs.

Gerda A Flame in Winter is therefore a kind of chess game here every action is determined or determined by the points available to us. Sometimes this “spot-hunting” breaks our role-playing attempts and finds us in the awkward situation of being positively associated with both occupation and resistance, but to some extent it is Gerda’s hallmark because it is Gerda who, to a certain extent, keeps her feet in two shoes. is . to their mixed origins.

exciting story

The most important thing is that Gerda A Flame in Winter puts us at the center of someone. exciting story. The cast of the adventure is diverse and interesting, uniting Danes, Germans, Nazis, rebels, regime sympathizers, profiteers, survivors, and many others who move in a gray area and whom we can praise or criticize according to our conscience.

adventure, five/six hour periodis always stimulating and allows us to delve deeper into Tinglev, which started as an ordinary village and became the center of attacks, conflicts and intrigues. Obviously, Gerda A Flame in Winter offers many different endings and is replayable, because throughout the adventure we will often have to choose which places to visit and which characters to meet, so we will lose the opportunity to see other sequences. Not only will there be parts of the game that will not be seen in a single game, but the fate of some characters will be determined by our (not being) actions. All that matters to Gerda is saving Anders, but will our conscience allow us to sacrifice everything and everyone?

Gerda The Flame of Winter is also very nice visual and sound level. The graphic style is inspired by Scandinavian Impressionist painting, and each chapter is a small painting: but even for a game that doesn’t focus on details, it runs much more static than in motion, as the animations are a bit rough and bring the characters to life. plastic dolls rather than humans. Pathfinding is also a bit dubious at times, creating an awkward back and forth dance of Gerda as she tries to get to the point we show her. The soundtrack always accompanies each episode and effectively conveys Gerda’s difficulties. Finally, we confirmed that Gerda A Flame in Winter has lyrics. ItalianDubbed in English or Danish.