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.

 

[DJjaffacake]

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.

The Germans did develop submachine guns [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP18] towards the end of the war, so it wouldn't be unfeasible to have those in a WWI game. Although not this one, since it's set before they were completed.

 

[Li Mu]

STOP THE PRESS!
A game in which the main characters are not American? Is this allowed? I'm pretty sure there is a law against such a thing happening.

I'm guessing there will be DLC which fixes that. Because as we all know (according to the big devs) Americans wont play games unless it's about an American fighting for FREEDOM!

(I know this isn't true, but it's what devs seem to think, otherwise why would 90% of FPS games be about Americans, despite them making up only a small percentage of the worlds population and also the worlds gamers.)

 

[orangeban]

Hmm, could be interesting. Too bad (for me) they set it at Verdun rather than the Somme, I know much (but still relatively little) more about the Somme.

Anyway, could be interesting. From the little I do know about Verdun, I know the French were on the defensive and eventually won in the end, so they may be the easier side to play on.

I wonder if we could have other in-depth WW1 sims, "U-Boat: 1916" (Commit war crimes against civilians, or, maintain the British blockade and do the exact same thing!), or "Tunnels: 1916" (If the Germans don't get you, the gas will!) or "Tanks: 1916!" (It's like a horse, but metal, horrifying and deadly! Plus, if it's not French, it'll probably sink!).

Edit: Oooh, ooh, I got more

"Generals: 1916" (Throw your men to their deaths, become an Earl!)

"Home Front: 1916" (Realistic starvation action! Unless your German, in which case, MORE STARVATION!)

"Cavalry: Earlier than 1916 because we eventually figured out what the Hell we were doing" (Don't worry, horses are bullet-proof, your commanders wouldn't send you to pointless deaths because they don't know how machine-guns work!)

"Recruiting Sergeant: 1914" (For the British, lie to get in physically inadequate men and boys! For the Germans, conscription!)

"Flamethrower Operator: 1916" (Y'know how everyone says in WW2 games that shooting flamethrower tanks so they blow up is unrealistic? Well, that's totally realistic in WW1!"

"Shell Shock Victim: 1916" (Experience the retro cure for PTSD, execution! Do not pass Go, do not collect a war memorial inscription!)

 

[ElPatron]

The speed he is acting on the bolt is just... slow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_minute

This war saw a lot of machine gun use. Suppression by individual soldiers was as important as by machine gun crews (and today it still is, which justifies the full auto/burst modes of fire found in many battle rifles and assault rifles).

I understand they are trying to prevent the "360 quickscope" style of playing, but... even the Trench Gun had no disconnector, which allowed it to slam fire.


Now you know why the Germans complained about scatter-guns being inhumane.

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.

This.

 

[orangeban]

The speed he is acting on the bolt is just... slow

Yeah, but the speed in those videos wouldn't really have been achieved in WW1 either. Veterans reached about 10 shots a minute, recruits could manage about 5.

 

[IndianaJonny]

I hope they continue to press this as a sim rather than a 'pew-pew' shooty FPS. I mean think about it - if they do this historic focus right, surely they'll turn people off playing it for 'fun-shooty-times' and the only way we'll be able to stomach 'playing' this is as a faithful recreation of the horrific circumstances the soldiers faced.

by centering the game on the battles of course. Also, WWI was not solely a trench based war. You would have gameplay in forests, towns, & so on. But lets explore trench combat.-Fight starts in the trenches, the smart ones keep their heads down, the retards charge over the top and get gunned down. One side would be on defense the other offense, offensive team charges across the field to reach the best points they can survive from. They work through the trenches of the defenders until they reach the objective. All the while it is going to be a brutal fight. Little to no cover in the charge & sharp corners ripe for ambushes once in the trenches. Major body count but still massive potential for a fun game....

You can present it honestly but limits need to be remembered. Particularly with how far you go. Trench combat is one thing but life in the trenches is another. Think of it as honesty, & brutal honest realism. In one you play the game like a shooter with the limitations of its era. The other? You force the players to play the game like they live in the trenches for a week before they see any action other than the guy next to them dying from a sniper shot.

I might be okay with the 2nd but i know i would like the 1st.

I'm not sure if you re-read over your bit here, chum, but you appear to give a very 'clean and tidy' impression of what trench-fighting involves - nice, neat bullet wounds and all that.

As Karloff mentions in the article, 130,000 unidentified bodies in one burial site alone (God only know how much was left of them to 'identify'). Lengthy barrages churning the ground into mud, leaving German concrete fortifications largely unscathed, men drowning in the mud, wounded men screaming and sobbing through the night out in no-man's land, men shooting comrades by accident..sometimes not by accident, the 'souvenir hunting' that went on. Heck, the video on The Trenches own site [//www.thetrench1916.com/] doesn't pull its punches.

I'm not coming down on you RT, I'm just questioning whether this is best described as "massive potentional for a fun game".