The French Create Realistic Trench Warfare Sim

[Karloff]

The French Create Realistic Trench Warfare Sim


Developer Gallicia will take you to the bloodiest carnage of the Western Front in The Trench: 1916.

The Great War isn't something that comes up often in gaming. Flight sims can make you a Knight of the Air, and occasionally Lovecraftian horror games use the setting to create gloomy tension, but actual trench combat is seldom simulated. French developer Gallicia hopes to change that with its first person shooter The Trench: 1916, and its trailer shows off the shell-blasted environment and some gameplay.

In The Trench you play as either a French or German soldier, three days before the siege of Verdun. The player gets a little time to prepare defences or assault plans, and then the attack begins in earnest. The developer promises deformable terrain, dynamic weather and day/night effects, stealth and vicious hand-to-hand combat, as well as traditional shooter-style game play.

Not for nothing was it called The Hell of Verdun; the Douaumont Ossuary contains the bodies of over 130,000 unidentified Verdun dead, killed on a battlefield less than 20 kilometers square. Verdun was the original mincing machine, into which generals flung their troops without much pause for thought. It's an interesting subject for a French developer to tackle; "on ne passe pas [they shall not pass]" - as General Nivelle told his troops - seems an unusual motto for a first person shooter.

No release date for this PC title as yet.

Sources: The Trench [http://kotaku.com/5923829/a-world-war-one-game-that-drops-you-right-in-the-trenches]


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[TilMorrow]

I'm so tempted to simply write "It's funny cause it's being made by French people" but that might be going a bit far.

The idea sounds interesting and if done right would be good game to play. Let's just hope it doesn't end up like the ending to Blackadder Goes Forth or an extended version of World at War's beach landing each time an attack starts.

 

[mad825]

Interesting yet so dull. The life expectancy of you won't be very long, probably get trench foot before shooting the first frog/jerry. And that's if shell shock gets to you and then you put your hand above the trench to get it blown off by a frog/jerry sniper.

I have some very bad quarrels with the Torque engine...Still, I hope I can replicate the first of the Somme..From the English point of view.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Greeaaaaaaaat just what we need: Another brown, cover based, first person shooter.

Except for, you know:

The developer promises deformable terrain, dynamic weather and day/night effects, stealth and vicious hand-to-hand combat, as well as traditional shooter-style game play.

 

[AnarchistFish]

I'm so tempted to simply write "It's funny cause it's being made by French people" but that might be going a bit far.

Yes. Shut up.

(Fucking knew someone would say that)

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Uh.

Maybe there's a good reason we haven't seen many WWI shooters? Something to do with the whole 'get out of the trenchs, walk across No Man's Land, get massacred' aspect of the war. A truly realistic Trench Warfare game would include one minute of gameplay before a German sniper of machine gunner or just another German soldier shot you (or a French/British/American shot you if you played as Germany)

Not that I don't think it's admirable, I just don't see how it can represent WWI honestly. If you do any more than make it to another trench and kill maybe two people then it's basically immediately unrealistic.

 

[felbot]

well i am exited, not to many ww 1 games i can think of, i do wonder if they're gonna cover both sides instead of just the French.

 

[Andrew_C]

Ideally, to recreate the feel of trench warfare you shouldn't be able to respawn when killed. At all. Not even on another server.

Greeaaaaaaaat just what we need: Another brown, cover based, first person shooter.

I see what you did there.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I'm really starting to get sick of this realism trend in gaming.

I for one only care for realism when it's supposed to be a sim. Since this game claims to be a sim, I'm ok with it. Similarly how I'm ok with the extreme realism in Red Orchestra since it was supposed to be accurate to WWII.

 

[Mojo]

Love the concept of a WWI trench warfare game, will keep my eye on that!
The animations and that muzzle flash don't look great to be honest, but I hope that's only because its pre-alpha. If the game play is solid its a must buy for me.

 

[UNHchabo]

I remember trying out the Half-Life mod The Trenches [http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-trenches-half-life], but I honestly can't remember what opinion I had of it.

Anybody else ever play it?

 

[robert01]

Has anyone ever really wondered why trench warfare is often ignored... it was boring as hell in terms of war related stuff. Two sides shooting at each other hiding in the ground until one said built up enough balls or got drunk enough to run into No Man's Land and rush the other side. That is all there was too it (until Germany started using chemicals). Might be an interesting game though.

 

[Still Life]

Looks like a really interesting idea for a game. Hopefully they can turn it into a compelling and informative experience.

'Meat grinder' is a particularly apt description if you've read about some of the major battles on the Western and Eastern fronts.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

I'll say what I say every time someone suggests a WWI shooter, pathetic though I may be to keep screaming when no one can hear me:

There was a lot more going on in WWI than sitting in trenches and suicide charges over no-man's-land. There were proper battles, tank battles, air battles, infantry battles, street battles, river crossings, beach landings, cavalry raids, and so on and so forth. And you are forgetting that Western Europe was only one theater of operations. There is more great material than you could possibly shove into a single WWI video game however epic in scope.

The real problem that actually exists with making a WWI game is the weapons. Personally I could do without assault rifles and be very sparing with the semi-autos. It wouldn't bother me that those weapons did not exist or were practically experimental. But I can't imagine Activision is about to make a AAA title where the player has to wait a quarter of a second between shots to work the bolt.

This trench sim looks very exciting. I will definitely keep an eye out for it.