Part game, part documentary, Svoboda 1945 Liberation teaches about a troubled past Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Part game, part documentary, Svoboda 1945 Liberation teaches about a troubled past A Czechered history. Feature by Robert Purchese Senior Staff Writer Published on 16 Aug 2021 2 comments I had to learn so much about World War 2 at school I presumed I knew all about it. The Battle of Britain, yep, Dunkirk Spirit, got it. Except, of course, I don't - I don't know all about it. How can I? How can anyone? I know something about it from a British point of view, plus a bit more I've accrued along the way, but this was a world war. There are myriad ways in which myriad communities were, and still are, affected by it, all around the planet. How can I know about all of that? Especially sitting where I'm sitting, in the bounds of Britain. I can't just expect a different perspective to come to me, can I? Svoboda 1945 Liberation Developer: Charles Games Publisher: Charles Games Platform: Played on PC Availability: Released 3rd August on Steam for £12 But today it did. Today I learnt about a plight I had no idea about until now, and I learnt it from a game. It's a Czech game called Svoboda 1945 Liberation, and it's about Germans living in the borderlands of (then) Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War. They had lived there long before, but when the war ended, they were driven from their homes, and brutally so. Svoboda 1945 brings their story to light, and it does it in a curious way. It's a kind of documentary game, part filmed live action sequences, part historical archive footage, and part graphic novel. You play the role of someone investigating an old schoolhouse in 2001, which belonged to a German family during the war, and somehow it also involves your grandfather. Ostensibly, you are there to decide whether the schoolhouse should be destroyed or preserved, but secretly, you're unearthing something much deeper and darker. Watch on YouTube A video of me playing through the opening of Svoboda 1945. Svoboda 1945 plays out in a mix of live action interviews with dialogue options, adventure game-style rooms to explore, and interactive storyboards and maps that have things of interest you can click on to interact with. And though it's not a Hollywood production, it holds together pretty well. Actually, the dourness of it - the kind of muted grey tones and performances - fit the subject matter well. They gel with the black and white historical archive footage, and it feels authentic and convincing. Dialogue; a room to investigate; cards while talking at the pub; and an illustrated recollection. As the story builds, and a sense of a secretive past emerges, tension begins to mount. This is a fictional story based on real world events, and is interesting in its own right, but as a way to also educate an audience about something - or show them a new side to it - it becomes fascinating. I particularly admire that it comes from the Czech Republic, and that the maker, Charles Games, isn't flinching from what is clearly a sensitive topic in the country it's based in. But then this is what the studio wants to be known for doing. Its previous game, Attentat 1942, did almost exactly the same thing, but it was about Nazi occupation as told through the eyes of the survivors. Charles Games' work is a timely reminder of the unique power games have to take us somewhere else and show us things from new perspectives. I think it's also a reminder for us to look for games beyond the boundaries we're used to, too, because we know how those go. There's a whole world of stories out there, and the more open we are to hearing them, the more we will encourage them to appear, and the richer we will all be as a result. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 28 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? 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