Warsaw had first announced itself at the beginning of March. It promised to be dark, as realistic as it could be, and an extremely intense strategic turn-based game. The trailer showed that, all the features showed that. But it’s always hard to tell how much of that is true until you get your hands on it.

The demo at PAX East was up and running, and the developers were there showing the ropes. I got a chance to experience how intense this game is meant to be. And it doesn’t pull any stops. The tutorial shows you how to move around the districts of Warsaw, Poland, and how to start up fights. The first thing that caught me off guard was when one of the characters popped up to fire, it was in your face and loud. The whole game was aware of how serious these events are and how much of it is meant to be real.

At the hideout, it was clear the stops still weren’t being pulled. When I was gearing my team up for the next patrol, in the roster of characters there is a literal child. Helmet on, gun in hands, ready to fight. I didn’t have the heart to bring him with me. Though going out into the district again, I realized I wasn’t prepared and was quickly overwhelmed.

I spoke with a developer afterwards and gave him my initial reaction of the realization that this game was meant to be serious. He explained to me that the Warsaw in the game was the same Warsaw in Poland 1944. The street names are all the same, the city is the same. And if I returned there after doing one of the missions, more of the city would be broken down.

From there I was told how Pixelated Milk wanted to make sure that while they were being as realistic as possible, that they would still have a game. A description of if it was realistic it would be two people sharing one gun, and five bullets. The two people wouldn’t last very long. And while it would make good for shock value of this time in history, it wouldn’t make for a good game. So they took these historically accurate place and weapons, and infantry roles and put it into this extreme strategy game.

Warsaw is aiming to come out during 2019 for PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.