The Trench - an upcoming indie WWI tactical FPS

[zool]

I first heard about this game a few months ago, and I don't think I've seen it mentioned here on the Codex. Made by a small French indie team (Gallica Game Studio), the game will be using Torque Engine and try to accurately simulate WWI warfare. Here is the description on the official website:

THE TRENCH is a first person shooter video game on PC taking place during the First World War. You assume the role of a French foot soldier mobilized on the Verdun front. One of the main gameplay mechanics is that you begin the game 3 days before the German assault on the 21st February 1916.

This time allows you to prepare for the future assaults of the Germans. You can request field artillery placements on a precise zone, air support, Trench raiding and the positioning of foot soldiers in strategic places.

These 3 days will allow you to prepare the structure and the scene of the approaching battle.

This also offers the player an important level of replayability.

The fact that they're putting some much emphasis on that particular feature is very encouraging I must say, and why I think it deserves to be called a "tactical" FPS. Other features include dynamic terrain deformation, melee combat, infiltration and a *gasp* cover system, historical weapons, dynamic environment (the game takes place on one single large map).

There is a teaser video on the front page and another pre-alpha gameplay video here. Apart from the overdone skybox, I think it looks pretty good.

Here are a few screens from the official website:

 

[Ulminati]

Huh... If they add in a cool injury system, this could pe pretty sweet. I'm talking bleeding wounds needing bandaging which will take time. No regenerating health except between assaults (and with limited medical supplies to distribute across wounded soldiers). Also, I want to be able to gut a kraut with my bayonet.

 

[Destroid]

Really taking that shit filter to another level. Although this is more like greywater I guess.

 

[Trash]

Sounds like a bit of much needed originality there. Will keep an eye out for this one. Thanks!

 

[Phelot]

Certainly sounds cool, but I think the reason for the lack of WW1 games is because of the static nature of that war... Although having an entire game with small, local goals like "capture this bunker" would be cool as opposed to "Kill Mustaffa before he detonates the nukes, causing WW3!!!!!!!!!"

 

[Gord]

Yes, depicting the major parts of WW1 would look something like this:

Sit in the trenches for weeks, your feet soaked in muddy water until one of the officers decides out of boredom to attempt another strategically useless move.
So you get to attack hill 145b by storming from trench 17, lose at least half your squad in the process.
If you succeed, on the next day, prevent counter attack from your new position in trench 18.
Then again wait in the trenches, mix in a little bombardment by heavy artillery.

Repeat process with next hill.

All this in the graphically exciting setting of an area that has been bombed for months - expect a lot of brown.

Well, maybe they evade this by focusing on this one specific part of the war, but still I guess a game like this may be mostly depressing and boring.

 

[Destroid]

Didn't they drop far more tonnage in WW2? Although perhaps it was more spread out.

 

[Yeesh]

Didn't they drop far more tonnage in WW2? Although perhaps it was more spread out.

Sure, they had planes for dropping in WW2. And you're right the fighting in the Great War was confined to static battle lines that were far, far less common in WW2.

 

[saenz]

Yes, depicting the major parts of WW1 would look something like this:

Sit in the trenches for weeks, your feet soaked in muddy water until one of the officers decides out of boredom to attempt another strategically useless move.
So you get to attack hill 145b by storming from trench 17, lose at least half your squad in the process.
If you succeed, on the next day, prevent counter attack from your new position in trench 18.
Then again wait in the trenches, mix in a little bombardment by heavy artillery.

Repeat process with next hill.

All this in the graphically exciting setting of an area that has been bombed for months - expect a lot of brown.

Well, maybe they evade this by focusing on this one specific part of the war, but still I guess a game like this may be mostly depressing and boring.

Exactly, and don't forget the joy of bunkering down from mustard gas attacks. WWI was a total suckfest from an infantry standpoint. The only game that's both fun and manages to get it right is WWI medic:

http://bay12games.com/ww1medic/

 

[Deakul]

Holy fuck.
Getting this even if it sucks.

 

[deuxhero]

As for World War 1 video games, I think Peter Jacob's chapter in Eternal Darkness (You play as a bunch of people in historical places who happen to get the titular book. Jacobs is a war reporter and is covering a field hospital in France during the war) managed to have some incredibly thick atmosphere, even before everything goes to shit. The one minor touch that made all the difference was the artillery in the background and the screen shake that goes with it.

Really taking that shit filter to another level. Although this is more like greywater I guess.

Nah, this uses the acceptable variation of "backgrounds are brown" (In the one setting where it is completely fitting) "everything else has noticeable color that make non-background stuff stand out" (note the uniforms and rifles are much brighter). Deus Ex used it (except backgrounds were grey and other "industrial" colors with the odd green grass) for great effect


Worst bit is that the iron sights aren't aligned right, but other than that, pretty good for pre-alpha

 

[Erebus]

It's an interesting idea. The battle of Verdun is to the French what the battle of the Somme is to the English : the symbol of how hellish WWI was.

It wasn't exactly the usual trench warfare : the use of artillery was exceptionally intense.

Amusingly, the french general who defended Verdun later became the leader of the Vichy regime, collaborating with the nazis.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Yes, depicting the major parts of WW1 would look something like this:

Sit in the trenches for weeks, your feet soaked in muddy water until one of the officers decides out of boredom to attempt another strategically useless move.
So you get to attack hill 145b by storming from trench 17, lose at least half your squad in the process.
If you succeed, on the next day, prevent counter attack from your new position in trench 18.
Then again wait in the trenches, mix in a little bombardment by heavy artillery.

Repeat process with next hill.

All this in the graphically exciting setting of an area that has been bombed for months - expect a lot of brown.

Well, maybe they evade this by focusing on this one specific part of the war, but still I guess a game like this may be mostly depressing and boring.

You don't have to present every hour of war. Just attacks and counterattacks with losses from bombardment applied inbetween.

 

[schluberlubs]

Man, I've been really hankering for an In-depth SP FPS which Isn't Just some linear thing-a-me-bob trying to stuff Its UHMAZING cut-scenes down your throat, here's hoping they pull through.

Worst bit is that the iron sights aren't aligned right, but other than that, pretty good for pre-alpha

I think that's meant to be aim-sway, sort of like In Red Orchestra.

 

[Gord]

Sure, they had planes for dropping in WW2. And you're right the fighting in the Great War was confined to static battle lines that were far, far less common in WW2.

If I remember correctly, one of the main goals of Hitlers Blitzkrieg was to prevent the static trench wars common in WW1. Besides, adcances in weapon technology helped somewhat, too.

 

[MetalCraze]

Indies will fuck it up for sure. Meh.

 

[deuxhero]

Man, I've been really hankering for an In-depth SP FPS which Isn't Just some linear thing-a-me-bob trying to stuff Its UHMAZING cut-scenes down your throat, here's hoping they pull through.

Worst bit is that the iron sights aren't aligned right, but other than that, pretty good for pre-alpha

I think that's meant to be aim-sway, sort of like In Red Orchestra.

"aiming" using only the front sight!=aim-sway

 

[Annonchinil]

Well they could have covered the more mobile aspects of world war one instead of 1916. Leading stormtroopers during operation Michael would have been cool.

 

[oscar]

Leading stormtroopers during operation Michael would have been cool

Mhmmmmmmmmmmm.

The "setting up your troops positions and where you want artillery support" before battle sounds cool. I wonder how much control you have over your own soldiers.

 

[zool]

One of the developers posted on the official forum that the release date is November 11th of this year.

So for pre-order, all those who have pre-ordered her registered for the beta this summer.

In anticipation we plan to provide some technological demos and ingame footage which will be downloadable or playable directly in the browser.

And indeed we have planned, if all go well, to release the game on the symbolic date of 11 November

 

[commie]

Yes, depicting the major parts of WW1 would look something like this:

Sit in the trenches for weeks, your feet soaked in muddy water until one of the officers decides out of boredom to attempt another strategically useless move.
So you get to attack hill 145b by storming from trench 17, lose at least half your squad in the process.
If you succeed, on the next day, prevent counter attack from your new position in trench 18.
Then again wait in the trenches, mix in a little bombardment by heavy artillery.

Repeat process with next hill.

All this in the graphically exciting setting of an area that has been bombed for months - expect a lot of brown.

Well, maybe they evade this by focusing on this one specific part of the war, but still I guess a game like this may be mostly depressing and boring.

Too bad every war is the same then eh? Look at WW2. For 9 moths sitting round on the border with Germany from 1939 to 1940. Then there's the virtually static Eastern Front north of Stalingrad for much of 1942 etc. Every game on war ignores the sitting around bit and concentrates on the 'interesting' part so why assume that a WW1 would have to show the sitting around bit?

Didn't they drop far more tonnage in WW2? Although perhaps it was more spread out.

Sure, they had planes for dropping in WW2. And you're right the fighting in the Great War was confined to static battle lines that were far, far less common in WW2.

Check out the fighting on the Eastern Front, Romania, Middle East. Lots of fluid to and fro combat. Static lines also were VERY common in WW2 after 1941. Apart from North Africa and the Normandy breakout along with Market Garden and Southern France, the rest of the fighting in the west was mostly a static grind as in Italy, Normandy, Hurtgen Forest. On the Eastern Front, much of the front line was static trench warfare except for local offensives after 1941 until 1944 with the exception of the drive to Stalingrad and Kharkov. Even Kursk was basically a WW2 version of attacking the Somme. In the Pacific it was basically a bloody grind against entrenched Japanese defenses. WW2 was a lot closer to WW1 and vice versa than people like to imagine because of the myth of the Blitzkrieg and the Desert Fox. The former was obsolete by 1941 and the latter only really operated in a minor theater.

 

[zool]

Indies will fuck it up for sure. Meh.

Yeah, because professional devs never do.

 

[zool]

A new update that should please Khor and all the fans of the Chauchat LMG.

 

[Black]

You know, at this point I have had enough of war shooters. WWI, II or III, urban war, tropical war, desert war, I don't care.
Hell, I don't even care if it's good, I just want to puke when I see yet another fps in these themes.