I have fought in many wars throughout my life as a video gamer: from both World Wars to future conflicts in space. Call of Duty, Battlefield, Valiant Hearts, Medal of Honor, War Thunder, World of Tanks/Warships, Insurgency Sandstorm, Hell Let Loose, Sniper Elite and a long list that would cover several paragraphs of this post.
I am passionate about war games, as is the case with works in cinema, series, comics and more. And that’s precisely why I couldn’t help but be curious when an old friend told me about Conscript. It is a video game developed by Jordan Mochi and distributed by Team17. Its launch is scheduled for July 23, 2024 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Conscript: the most brutal and terrifying face of war
I came across the Conscript demo while looking for interesting games during the last Steam Next Fest. I had a friend’s recommendation and my curiosity, so I installed it in no time and prepared to shoot a few shots in the First World War. However, what I found was light years away from the epic Battlefield 1.
The story of Conscript It begins in some dark and unhealthy trenches during the Battle of Verdun, one of the most notable battles of the entire First World War. He faced France and Germany. The game puts you in the shoes of an ordinary soldier who was fighting to survive to see his mother and brother again, another fighter lost in the labyrinthine French trenches.
There are quite a few important things to mention about that game, but first and foremost I want to point out that it is not a heroic, epic, action-packed Hollywood experience. It is a serious and raw adventure about the great conflict in which it takes place. And it manages to create this incredible setting with much more limited graphics and sound than large productions like Battlefield 1.
The gameplay is directly inspired by classic video games, needless to say the most notable is Resident Evil (2002). I’m sure that any fan will feel a very sweet taste of Capcom’s original work:
- Inventory system and item combination
- The map and the absence of marks that indicate the objective of the mission
- Movement around the stage through rooms
- Extreme ammo rationing, even on lower difficulties.
- A life that flies in high difficulties, although permissive in lower ones.
I didn’t have to worry about zombies, but I did have to worry about much worse things: enemy Germans storming the Allied trenches and both machine gun and artillery fire. Added to all this are corpses and huge puddles of blood, allies and enemies screaming in pain as they crawl through the mud, and an almost total absence of a soundtrack. You hear everything that happens: explosions, the noise of artillery, shots, footsteps, whistles…
As far as I could play, progression comes in the form of weapon upgrades, buying and selling equipment at merchants, and solving puzzles to advance the story. As I said, Conscript has a classic vibe to it Resident Evil.
I haven’t mentioned it, but surely at this point you already sense it: it is a survival video game set in one of the most brutal and horrible scenarios that humanity has known. It may sound exaggerated, but I admit that I have had a really bad time (in a good way) walking through the trenches of Conscript.
I think the developer has achieved its goal with me: it has made me feel horrified by the setting and overwhelmed by the pressure of having to solve the puzzles to advance while surviving under the assaults of the Germans and the constant fire of machine guns and artillery.
I understand that Conscript doesn’t come easily to the eyes, especially at a time when many people are asking for wild techniques like Red Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, Demons’ Soul’s Remake and Resident Evil 2,3 y 4 Remake to start talking about buying; and I even admit that this is not my type of video game, but I think giving its Demo a chance has been a great success.
I finished playing Conscript with the certainty of having discovered a little gem and I did not hesitate to add it to my Wish List on PlayStation. I don’t think I’ll buy it at launch, but I’m sure I’ll end up adding it to my library and playing it at some point when I really want an experience like that. Unlike Once Human, I highly recommend you check it out.
In iGamesNews | Call of Duty turns 20 and these are the 20 most epic moments we have experienced in its stories
In iGamesNews | Nothing Russian: Call of Duty’s most controversial mission divided the development team and could have been very different from how we know it
In iGamesNews | I miss the war campaigns of Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty WWII, and it will probably be a long time until another one excites me as much
