This week sees the release of a survival horror game set in the trenches of Verdun during World War I. In Conscript, you send a soldier into the trenches as a lone fighter, wandering between blockhouses and safe zones in an attempt to find your brother, who has gone missing in action. To do this, you stab, shoot and sneak your way through the trenches, planning the best routes and conserving your limited resources whenever possible.
Conscript is clearly inspired by survival horror classics, particularly the early Resident Evil games. You’ll need to take a lot of notes to solve all the little puzzles and backtrack, and you’ll want to look closely at your map of the trench environment as you move between areas. There are safe rooms and so on.
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World War I is definitely a novel theme for this kind of survival horror, but a fitting one. What’s a more interesting, labyrinthine level design than a complex network of trenches destroyed by artillery fire? The developer knows it’s a good one, and the game’s description emphasizes elements like item management and route planning as important to the game.
What seems to set Conscript apart from other survival horror games of its kind is its atmosphere of grim despair and melancholy, rather than jumpscare terrors and monster dog squids or whatever they throw at you in Resident Evil these days. It’s also unique among old-school survival horror games in that you can’t avoid every fight, because this is a war. So immerse yourself in the game’s way of playing this clunky, even awkward survival horror combat. If you focus on that, you’re presented with neat little Resident Evil 4 systems to play with: things like collecting cigarettes to trade for weapon upgrades.
Conscript was developed by indie developer Jordan Mochi and Catchweight Studio, published by Team 17, and is Steam Deck verified. You can find Conscript on Steam for $20. It’s coming out on July 23, but there’s already a demo. There’s also the official website conscriptgame.com.
