1.2) Style
Nachthexen is a form of bullet hell, which is a type of rail shooter that puts the player amidst a deluge of opposition (hence the name). To summarize, Nachthexen core gameplay alternate periods of tension with bursts of action. When approaching an objective, Nachthexen plays out like a very peculiar stealth game. Unfortunately for the player, however, the German soldiers in game tend to not react like, say, thugs hired by evil corporations nonchalantly guarding top secret facilities with their backs facing windows. They usually notice when the storehouse next to them violently blow up after being bombed. Thus, any attack made by player tends to bring opposition in the form of the eponymous bullet hell : small arms fire, FLAK guns, night fighters….
It should be noted here that Nachthexen missions are markedly different than most missions in his genre. The player almost never does the routine of the majority of flight-related games, such as blowing up Wunderwaffen prototypes, destroying capital ships, bombing top-level HQ, the kind of mission that ends up saving the whole war effort. The player rather receive tasks that are as mundane as virtually suicidal, such as strafing enemy airbases (with modern aircraft on standby) or harassing enemy forces by machine gunning trenches and barracks (which tends to irritate massively the said enemy forces without actually killing them. Mission profiles involve recon flights, light bombing, partisan support, air evac, harassment, interdiction….
However, Nachthexen will also have a secondary game centered on the eponymous Night Witches. Simply said, this secondary game is essentially a mini-RPG, based on pilots with randomized backgrounds, stats and relationship: all of this can have a variety of effects during missions. Various events in the core game and after missions can change those values.
The different values assigned to pilots are critical for the campaign game. The idea here is that each campaign (a succession of random mission) is not really scripted: the storyline is created by the player actions in missions and between missions. While the said plot will not be Shakespeare and ground breaking, at the very least this will be a storyline in which players actions have a clear impact.
1.3) Genre and Unique Mechanic
Rail-shooters or flight games usually have with the player flying a quality aircraft, either from the start or after a few missions. The progression from a dignified flying coffin (such as a TIE Fighter in the eponymous game) to a machine that can effortlessly mow down legions of enemies can be justified in many ways, both plot-wise or game-wise. The player can be simply promoted, his side can have a prototype to test, or he can simply use in-game cash or real cash to purchase an aircraft/starfighter/dragon that don’t combust spontaneously when the enemy look at it.
And here is the unique take of Nachthexen on the matter. From the first mission to the last, the same machine is used: a Po-2 biplane. There is no way to upgrade it, and you will not receive a new aircraft, despite increasing difficulty. This lead to a key point: the fact that Nachthexen is impossible to «win», by design. As per many bullet games, it will end up with the player dying, sooner or later. But Nachthexen fairly unique RPG elements with the pilots will give an ending more intricate than a high-score screen.
To summarize, the core game (the missions) try to give the essence of night bombing while not being an accurate stimulation. There is thus no convenient mini-map pointing with red arrows where the target is-simply a navigator NPC that try to guide you with variable accuracy. In the same vein, the only time when the player actually see the Germans aircraft, guns and tanks is when they break the blackout-when they open fire.
Usually, an action mission in Nachthexen will involve the player making several passes over an enemy «camp». Each flyover gives chances to the player a chance to locate enemy assets. The said assets will briefly appear and will be afterward visible on the map. To summarize, each time the pilot «sees» something, she can locate it more precisely-the first time, it will be a wild guess, the third time the location will be almost pinpointed. Unfortunately, each flyover also increases the chances to alert the enemy.
This basic see/try to not be seen dilemma is spiced up by a variety of conditions: possibility to cut the engine for a gliding approach, shifting cloud cover, weather effects, moonlight or lack thereof, skills and experience of the pilot and the navigator….
