Survival horror game Conscript puts you face down in the mud of World War I

World War I is often underrated when it comes to its place in American cultural memory, especially in comparison to World War II. The reasons for this are as numerous as they are obvious; World War II has a clearly definable antagonist in the form of the Axis powers led by Nazi Germany, while World War I is better described as a cat’s cradle of trade alliances caught in a sinkhole of militarized barbarism caused by the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the domino effect of what followed shortly thereafter.

In novels, movies, television, history books, and, yes, video games, World War II is often characterized as a “just” war; a struggle for nothing less than the fate of human civilization between the forces of democracy and fascism. By comparison, nothing about World War I feels just—only regrettable, as all wars inevitably are.

Conscriptthe latest game from solo developer Jordan Mochi (aka Catch weight Studio), is a survival horror game that takes its inspiration from series like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, though the game’s creator completely resists the temptation to rely on supernatural or sci-fi elements when creating this game’s own tableau of horrors. Instead, Conscript is an unpolished portrait of the horrors of trench warfare, mustard gas and having your skull bashed in with the point of a trench shovel.

The game takes place during the Battle of Verdunthe longest battle of World War I, claiming over 700,000 lives. Players take on the role of André, a French infantryman called up to fight against the German army alongside his brother, Pierre. Separated from Pierre following an enemy attack on their camp, André must brave the dangers of a base overrun by enemy soldiers in a mission to reunite with Pierre and return home safely. But as resources dwindle and the German opposition grows more aggressive, André is forced to resort to increasingly desperate acts of violence to survive.

From my first play session of the first hours of Conscript on my Steam Deck, my biggest lasting impression of the game is how impeccably well-conceived its premise is. Mochi’s game pares down the survival horror mechanics of the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill games and adapts them in service of this game, framing the player’s actions from a top-down perspective that follows them as they weave through the maze-like passages of a war-ravaged trench post.

Bullets whiz overhead as mortar rounds explode across the screen, collapsing trench tunnels and maiming hapless infantry nearby. Enemies snake their way across barbed wire walls and charge toward the player, slashing at them with knives and shovels or peppering them with rifle fire. The pace of the moment-to-moment combat is simultaneously deliberate and frenetic, forcing the player to scavenge for ammunition and weapons stolen from the bodies of comrades and opponents. Each weapon—whether a shovel, dagger, rifle, or shotgun—requires the player to hold down the left trigger to prepare their attack, directing their strike with the left stick and unleashing their fury with a squeeze of the right trigger. Ammunition is scarce, so every shot counts; melee weapons degrade, so every hit now could come at the cost of leaving yourself vulnerable to an enemy later.

The game’s approach to marking the player’s objective through the winding trench tunnels and underground caverns is relatively hands-off, allowing them to instead intuitively sense how best to progress through the game. Players can do this by checking their map and systematically eliminating each of the many paths presented to them as they progress through the story in search of the protagonist’s brother. While this may sound frustrating at first, it absolutely serves the game’s goal of immersing the player in the type of tense, moment-to-moment decision-making inherent to trench warfare.

There are no monsters to speak of in Conscriptas long as there are no clumsy monsters like Resident Evil 2‘s Nemesis of Silent Hill 2‘s Pyramid Head. Or at least none that I’ve encountered in the two hours or so I’ve played the game so far. There are only people: scared, cold, angry people who want to get back to their families and friends just as much as André does. The nature of war, and indeed the game itself, means that many of these characters will never get to experience that.

Sometimes, after I’ve defeated an enemy, I’ll plunder their body for ammunition or bandages, only to find a photo of a stranger or an unfamiliar house. I’ll never know the names of these people or these places; the game offers no explanation of what these memories meant to the soldiers who clung to them in the final moments before their deaths. André still collects them, though. For what reason, I can’t say. Perhaps it’s to remind himself that, despite everything he’s done or will do, he’s still human, and while he may have only done what he had to to survive, that doesn’t change the fact that every anonymous, impersonal killing on the battlefield amounts to a deeply personal, intimate tragedy somewhere else.

Conscript was released on July 23 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on Steam Deck using a pre-release download code provided by Team17. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You may additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.