Nazis, I hate these guys
I don’t think there is any villain in a video game that is more enjoyable to take down than Nazis. Bloodrayne, Indiana Jones, Wolfenstein, hell even Uncharted had some zombie Nazis in it. Developers Artificer’s new game Sumerian Six is a real-time tactics game that sees a supernatural team go up against Hitler and the Reich. Looking at Sumerian Six its easy to write it off as a Commandos clone, a tactics game from the early 2000’s but the fact that players can decided to be stealthy or go in guns blazing in Sumerian Six, make it a bit more approachable to the stealthier games in this genre.
MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
In Sumerian Six its explained that after the first World War scientists discovered something so terrifyingly awful that they hid it away. Enter Adolf Hitler who has fond out about its existence wants it, in order to stop him six scientist from the original team reform the ‘Enigma Squad’ in a bid to stop Hitler from getting his hands on a powerful energy source that is capable of creating the ‘Wunderwaffe” (wonder weapon) Which makes this not a battle of military might but sees science vs the powers of the occult which is genuinely something that I cant think has been done in a game before and felt very fresh and new.
Each of the members have various abilities and powers, the first member that players will gain control of is Sid. Sid has the power to hide within other people and emerge from them at will. This makes him able to get into places where a guard is patrolling or something similar. Each of the characters can combine their abilities to pull off some devastating combos in combat. In fact, one of the best features in the game is the action planner, which allows players to freeze time and queue up moves and all characters can make their move at the same time. Sumerian Six is a game about trial-and-error and it would behoove players to make good use of the quick save options. The great thing is that stealth is optional, if players manage to trip an alarm, they only need to eliminate the nazi SOB who sounded it and stay hidden. As long as they aren’t seen, everything will return to normal, coming off of Star Wars Outlaws that has lots of insta-fail missions when you get caught in stealth; Sumerian Six really felt like a breath of fresh air.
Throughout my time with Sumerian Six I never had a real technical issues in-game. Which in the year of our Lord 2024, is really a miracle because it became all too common that games launch broken. In fact, the real issues I had with Sumerian Six is the somewhat brain-dead enemy AI that players will face throughout the 20-hour game. It will be common for them to not even notice that guards are missing from their posts, this is great for helping to make the game feel approachable but even when you crank the difficulty the Nazi’s don’t get any smarter.
With the downfall of Mimimi Games, I feared that the real-time genre was all but lost. Its still a crying shame that their final game, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew didn’t get more attention because it had a fantastic story and excellent gameplay. But the developer may be gone but their legacy is strong with Artificer games; Sumerian Six is a triumph in the genre with its immensely replayable levels, forgiving stealth approach and its quirky characters. Artificer has crafted an enjoyable game that blends the occult and science in an interesting story AND lets you knock out some nazis, what’s not to love here?
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
