World War One Game Idea

[IBlackKiteI]

An interesting part to go over with would be the Christmas Truce. Have a little bit where you play goalie in a football game or something. See the Germans on the other side of the line as more than just faceless enemies you are trying to kill. Watch them laugh and smile. It might actually add a little weight to killing in an FPS.

Holy shit, if done right that'd be downright incredible. I can't think of any game that's done something like that.

In fact, just that idea has gone from me majorly supporting a big budget WW1 FPS to completely supporting it. Damn, we need one.

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Cool idea OP, though due to the limitiations of the weapons of the First World War you probably wouldn't want to drag a game which would be mainly about attacking and defending trenches for too long. In other words it'd probably work better a short-ish game.

I've had this game idea floating around my head for a while and at some point theres a WW1 style trench warfare sequence which you don't have to exactly fight, but the trenches are the only viable way to your main goal so you have no choice but to proceed along them and try not to get killed. As it goes on the protagonist and his companions become more and more unnerved not just at the hellish combat itself but also their own allies, many of which have gone insane due to being stationed at such a shitty place for so long.
The main character also remarks at the signs of just how long the defenders have been there, things like thousands of shell casings, skeletons, MG's which have had their barrels practically shredded from the constant firing along with some less obvious stuff like dragging barbed wire across bunker slits to prevent grenades from getting in, or sharpening the ends of tools so they can be used as weapons.

Anyway what I mean is that a WW1 game would require an immense attention to deal compared to other settings, particularly trench life and the unique way the war was fought, but if it's nailed then it'd be great.

 

[JSF01]

You know there was other fronts that did not devolve into just trench warfare. If the game took place in those settings it could be very interesting and also educational.

 

[Nieroshai]

The game would have to be more than an FPS. There would need to be fighter plane sections, maybe some battles with the Red Baron as a boss? The shooter combat would have to have a lot of trench warfare, like what was featured in the 360 rerelease of COD2. Except you'd have more of a focus on up close in personal combat. I'd like to see knuckledusters and bayonets. And machinegun nests need to be a bigger worry. Otherwise, I can't really see how COD's formula wouldn't fit WWI with a little tweaking.

 

[firelightning1]

I think this could work as a game. I like that your trying more to capture the intensity and horrors of war as opposed to the, as I like to call it "Call of Duty Approach," where your guy is an unstoppable super soldier who mows down enemy soldiers like they are paper targets making your AI allies look incompitent and useless and your enemies look, well stupid.

I really like the idea of no cutscenes because like you said for a war game that really breaks up the action but I don't think it would work as well in practice because the action will still be broken up by loading, unless you have some new super game making program that completly eliminates loading for a game that massive and I'm assuming detailed with high graphics and frame rate.

The ending is good I like that, the hero doesn't always live and sometimes has to die (looking at you entertainment industry, and Fallout 3 you are the worst offender here, you had it right but then you had to go and take it back).

I like the tie in with Hemingway it might teach people a little bit more about history.

Also it seems like alot of games these days deal with WMD's like nuclear weapons but this is the only war in human history that had wide spread use of WMD's like chemical weapons for example. Imagine the horror of after years of high explosive shelling suddenly your posistion is filled with gas and the men around you start to drowned on land from blood in their lungs. That would be a good moment only I'm not sure how that would work without killing off that character... damn you Call of Duty for doing it first.

The only complait that I have is ironically with the ending that I love so much, it would be nice if you had the 11th hour of the 11 day of the 11 month when the guns fell silent, because if you had the sound track properly done with constant shelling and gunfire and then for the game to suddenly go quiet, I think that would be a really powerful moment in gaming history right there.