Conscript
Released: June 16, 2024
Developer: Jordan Mochi, Catchweight Studio
Publisher: Team 17, Catchweight Studio
Systems: PC (reviewed), PS5, Switch, Xbox X/S
Conscript does a wonderful job of capturing the filthy, violent horror of the travesty that was World War 1. The mud, the blood, the desperation, all perfectly represented. Unfortunately it also captures another aspect of the Great War - exhaustingly repetitive drudgery.
Despite an amazing atmosphere, despite a perfect idea of turning the war into a survival horror without need for supernatural elements, Conscript's tiresome backtracking and generally sluggish gameplay soon convert terror into frustration and becomes actively discouraging. Even by survival horror standards, it's extreme.
There’s enough here to compel me to keep playing, but my desire to progress was consistently threatened. It wasn’t a great sign when, after feeling like I’d been playing for ten hours, I checked the time and was shocked to learn it’d only been four.
Still, I adore the premise.
Much of Conscript’s design has clearly been inspired by Resident Evil. The Spencer Mansion is replaced with soaked trenches as you run around gathering keys and other tools to gradually expand your range of exploration. The safe rooms with their interconnected storage chests, the way diaries and documents are presented, the soundtrack is evocative of Capcom’s classic horror franchise.
In a nod to Resident Evil 4, you can even slot gems into treasure to up its value - though you trade in cigarettes with this game's merchant, because there's a war on.
Here, however, there are no zombies. No mutants. The monster is the war itself. Your enemies are human, German fighters armed with battering implements and rifles. Aside from some liberties taken with oversized rats, the horror found in Conscript is grounded, which only makes it all the more horrific.
As a French soldier looking for his brother, you root around the trenches after German forces have pushed their way in. They now patrol your old base, forcing you to pick your way carefully through.
Combat is slow paced and methodical. Whether using a melee weapon or firing a gun, your attacks require a lengthy wind up to be effective and the same is true for your enemies. Maintaining distance, knowing when to roll out of danger, and being careful as hell around anyone with a firearm are essential tactics.
Even a single soldier can take a while to down, and multiple opponents significantly lower your chances of living. Much of the time, running away is your best option, and you’ll save a lot of hassle by leaving and re-entering rooms, since everything resets. This is a quirk that should be utterly abused.
In truth, combat isn’t particularly enjoyable, and while that may be the point, it’s also mandatory in some places and advisable in others. Sneaking is possible, but stealth has drawn the short straw when it comes to getting any sort of focus - you have a smattering of curtains you can hide behind, offset by enemy patrol routes that often make their use pointless.
One plus point is that enemies have some extreme blinkers on and can’t hear you even if you sprint. It stretches credulity at times as you can stand right next to them, but I’ll take any advantage I can.
It’ll take a mere handful of hits to kill you, and thanks to a highly limited inventory and an obligatory scarcity of resources, healing isn’t trivial. Enemies will soak several smacks or bullets each, which contributes to the slow pace of fighting. You will constantly be making distance to charge your attacks in a routine that gets old.
Then there are the rats. Hard to hit, capable of reducing your max health via infections, with bites so quick they’re borderline contact damage, Conscript’s rats are fucking horrible.
Grenades can blow up holes to stem the rats while barbed wire does the same for soldiers. You can also use fire to keep the rats away, provided you have the fuel and a lighter.
Gun combat is slightly better... when it's you with the gun. It feels pretty good to pop an enemy from a distance, though the old fashioned weapons still require you to run away for readying and reloading.
At the beginning of the game, you have so few resources that everything feels harshly brutal. Safe rooms are spread thin, and the main trench in which you’ll spend ages doesn’t have a save point near the center, meaning it’s a trek to either end every time you want to protect your precious progress.
To give you an idea of how punishing the game wants to be, you’re asked to opt into automatic checkpoints and unlimited saves. Quite frankly, if this option wasn’t here, I’d have stopped playing entirely. Moving through the environment is so slow, dangerous, and repetitive that I dread to think how disheartening it’d be if I couldn’t save at will. Even with that freedom, death will still mean retreading a long slog that I’d already trod a multitude of times.
The backtracking only gets worse in later chapters. Once the game takes you to larger outdoor areas, it ironically becomes a maze with even more convoluted routes than the trench system. This is made worse by the scenery's perspective obscuring paths, and the pixelated brownness of everything only worsens the clarity. Still, you get a truck to help reaching the top and bottom of the whole area... once you're done with it.
If you expected a stamina bar that drains to nothing after a couple seconds of sprinting and slows you right down when it does so, you won’t be disappointed. It’s a great way to drag the pacing even further down, but otherwise adds absolutely nothing of worth when it keeps hamstringing you out of combat.
Should you want to be able to pick up all the super useful items strewn about, your pathetic inventory size will make you backtrack even more to return to storage boxes. As well as all the items, weapons, and ammo, your meager slots also hold your key items and wearable equipment. Even passive boosts, such as improved movement speed or better healing, require gear that hogs a slot if you want the benefit. Even with upgrades, you'll fill up quickly.
I’ve spent so much time just walking through the same rooms, many of which are devoid of anything after the first visit. It’s hard to stay absorbed in the atmosphere when the world becomes boringly overfamiliar.
Some players will absolutely love this, and I love that for them. They’ll buy into the grinding trudge and they’ll find the challenge edifying. I simply can’t. I should be scared of combat because it’s scary, not because death will send me back to the last checkpoint halfway across the map and force me to snail my way back… again.
Despite the graphics’ tendency to make routes harder to navigate, I do enjoy them. The constant sense of muddiness portrays just how unpleasant trench warfare is, and there are some beautiful little lighting and reflection effects. The moody music is great in its subtlety, and the sound effects clearly let you know where enemies are and make combat feel all the more vicious.
Visual storytelling permeates background details. The bodies and blood-soaked surfaces contribute to how vile one’s surroundings are, and it’s always impressive when such disturbing imagery can be communicated with a limited visual style.
Exploring a new place the first time around is a fine time too. Searching around for gun upgrades, cigarettes for trading, and important items is enjoyable. There are sequences and simple environmental puzzles that I found genuinely engrossing.
Despite my level of annoyance, I nonetheless find Conscript compelling enough to keep returning to it after swearing off the damn thing. It’s the kind of title that has me frequently muttering “I hate this fucking game” even while I’m glued to it. For all it does to make me feel like I’m wasting my time, it’s doing enough right that I’m still spending it.
With its dark mood, clever conceit, and grounded horror, Conscript has a lot going for it. I loved initially picking my way through the merciless world, and I’m impressed by how well it demonstrates the misery of WWI. The ponderous pace is a real problem though. Going back and forth through the same areas is boring, and too often is a “challenge” confused for unnecessary padding and arbitrary restrictions.
It’s a potentially great experience brought down to decent by its enthusiasm for trudging bollocks.
6.5/10
