Most strategy games generally tend to go the path of managing massive armies in real-time, while queueing up workers to hit the resources as buildings chock out units to attack the enemy with. Minor variations of the above formula include point capture and squad-based battles that were pushed out with more emphasis on base-building like Company of Heroes and Dawn of War, while others were more squad- and unit-based like World in Conflict, Men at War, and Commandos. Of course, the other variation tends to play the game in turns like a board game until a victory condition is achieved by one of the players—Total War games being one of the best examples. Unit and combat-heavy simulations generally tend to do more on the story front to make up for the somewhat lackluster multiplayer options these games ship out with. New games generally tend to be turn-based or real-time with base-building options from the get-go, with few unit combat simulations now being released. 63 Days is a bold title that tends to bring back the legacy of games like Men at War and Commandos and spin their strands to keep the audience hooked. I was very excited to see another game trying to bring back the good old days in a way that it is more playable for a modern audience.
63 Days is a real-time tactics game made and published by Destructive Creations, the publishers behind Ancestor’s Legacy. We reviewed the same back when the game launched, and it was one of the shining feathers in the cap of the studio. Since then, Destructive Creations have clearly been cooking, because they have come up with a bunch of games with different themes, 63 days being one of them. The squad-based strategy game launched on Steam on September 26, 2024.
63 Days Of War
63 Days is a tactical strategy game that takes us back to the roots of the genre itself. The game plays in a very similar fashion to Commandos but has a slightly simpler premise to it. The game is set in the invasion of Poland by the Nazi forces and subsequently sees the player assume command of a multitude of young Polish rebels who are fighting against the Nazi forces. The game is split across six chapters, which can either be played in solo mode or can be hosted for online multiplayer for up to three players. Most missions are way easier to do when you have cooperative friends playing as the other characters, as it will allow the player to focus on playing as a single character to its fullest strength. Sadly, there is no skirmish mode like other games, but I do not feel like the game needed one since it had a greater focus on the narrative than the gameplay itself.
The game lacks a serious amount of content, but it does manage to put together a decent story within the six chapters in which it tells its story. There’s a handy tutorial as well, thrown in to explain the basics of the game to newcomers. Considering the way the game shipped out, a custom editor that allows players to make their own scenarios would have been beneficial, but such a feature did not make its way into the game.
Hitman : Nazis Edition
63 Days sees several members of the Polish Resistance do what it takes to take the fight to the Nazi forces occupying Poland. The main duo for the game, Lynx and Youngster, are sons of a military family who get dragged into the war when the German planes start bombing the cities in Poland. The players are tasked with controlling Lynx and Youngster and other members of the resistance – Heniu, Storm, and Helga—as they engage in several activities that help the war effort.
The game shows hints in the form of the path to take and the way to go to proceed in the missions, but the player gets complete freedom to choose the path of action they want to take. On lower difficulties, the player even has the opportunity of going in guns blazing and wiping out the entire camp, but the game rewards those who play the game in stealth mode because it is far more challenging and far more rewarding to play the game that way. Some moments do come down to pinpoint accuracy and spur-of-the-moment actions followed by an instant save to mark down a crucial advantage gained over an enemy—all for that perfect completion score. There’s a lot of strategic depth involved since different characters specialize in different things. With each progressive chapter being unlocked, more possibilities are opened up. Each chapter has a fixed cast to play as – which puts slightly more stress on the multiplayer aspect of the game as it eliminates agency available for the player.
The game plays better with another player and is designed to be played in conjunction with other players. There is a way to plan out actions for multiple actions at once, but it is way easier to just have multiple players with constant vigilance as it becomes hard to manage multiple characters especially when it becomes heated. Most of the missions generally have enemies placed at very crucial vantage points (even in easy mode) that need to be taken out and disposed of before moving freely through an area. This adds artificial padding to the game, making it feel longer than it is supposed to. I do agree that the game is extremely small (with only six chapters) so some amount of artificial padding is required to make the game feel worthy of purchase (from players who value the length of a game before trying it out), but it still feels extremely unnecessary. It also causes design issues as it limits the options available to the player to approach the objective (especially if everything comes down to split-second action execution).
The story tells itself with decent pacing, but the game’s horrible difficulty structuring often distracts players from the actual story. From recapturing and holding key points to helping the local populace, the game takes place in a variety of urban landscapes that force the player to study the environment and figure out a plan of action to complete the mission. Some places are accessible by particular characters only, so proper execution is needed to avoid getting spotted by the Nazis (and trust me, there are a lot of them on every map, patrolling crucial points).
Dull World War 2 Vibes
63 Days has some of the best environments for a tactical strategy game that I have seen in recent times. The lighting of the environment is just phenomenal (even though it might affect visibility issues in certain sections of the map). The somber atmospheric design also brings out the theme of hopelessness that is reflected in the Polish, with streaks of sunlight standing for the heroic resistance against the Nazis. The game has some minor performance issues, but it did not have any major bugs or errors as such.
The game’s world has a lot of ambient sounds reflecting the objects in a particular area. All sights and sounds are made to enhance the environment—make it more awesome for the player experience. The game did not have much music to talk about, but I dare say that a country under the yoke of foreign subjugation does not have much music to talk about.
Real Talk
63 Days is a decent strategy game that plays just like Commandos and offers a very gritty atmospheric experience of the German occupation of Poland. If players do not have a problem with the length of the game, it is definitely worth getting in a sale and playing with the squad to complete the scenarios one by one.
FINAL RATING: 65/100
