Enemy soldiers often abandon their running animations and teleport across the battlefield, and at times, bullets just seem to pass through them without doing any damage at all. A camera that jumps around while you move your aim does and that’s before your session suffers from the frequent lag.
Enemies in the distance are little more than a blur that blend into the environment and even with a scope are difficult to spot.īut bad visuals don’t ruin a game.
Looking down the sights of a barrel is hard enough when your vision is impaired by the low resolution graphics. Verdun goes to great lengths to keeping things real, but along the way it has forgotten some of the basic principles of first person shooters.īut the truth is, even with these issues, they wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it weren’t for the appalling framerate. Even when you get shot, it barely registers. Thank god there wasn’t a penalty for Friendly Fire. There is even an indicator as to who is an enemy or an ally, unless of course they are shooting you. The principle is that you don’t set off on your own and wait for your fellow soldiers to spawn around you before taking the enemy head on.īut despite its success in capturing the essence of a First World War battlefield, even if you can get used to the style of play, the reality is that Verdun suffers from a lot of imperfections which leaves it feeling like a mess. There is also a selection of orders that you can dish out to your squadmates, to try and coordinate some sort of attack, but these are a bit clumsy to use and for the most part you will just find yourself ignoring them. They simply act as the central node for your group, and while its a good way to try and keep players together, it can feel like a chore more than an enhancement. You are constantly prompted to stay within the field of influence of your designated NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) but you’re not penalised or rewarded either way. Sticking with your squad is the best way to survive. Where Verdun emphasises the slow approach, it similarly encourages teamwork. What players need to submit to is Verdun‘s different style of playing, taking things slowly and carefully and travelling with greater numbers. The time and effort it takes to just get to the trench, you won’t be in a hurry to get shot. There’s a lot of time spent waiting for something to happen, whether it’s for the enemy to attack or for the all clear to move forward. You’ll find yourself crawling across the battlefield to keep yourself as hidden as possible, moving from shell hole to shell hole, slowly inching your way closer to the enemy foothold. The one-shot kill system encourages a more tactical approach. If you run around waving your gun in the air, hoping to be king of the battlefield, you’ll only find yourself stuck in a respawn cycle more times than you’d care to mention. This is not a game for those hooked on the experiences of the popular giants of Battlefield and Call of Duty. This is where Verdun may be a bit difficult to swallow. It’s a take on the classic Conquest mode, but with an emphasis on momentum rather than kill streaks. It was a constant push back and forth until something gave in. But then again, that was often what trench warfare felt like. It’s very rarely a straightforward advance from trench to trench and at times it feels like you’re getting nowhere.
Once the enemy is repelled, its back over the top to push your advance. If you fail to take the enemy trench, you will be forced to retreat and defend your own. Simple enough but far more difficult in reality and often feels like a game of tug-of-war on a much larger scale. Two teams take turns to cross No Man’s Land with the objective of taking the enemy trench. Frontlines is where you will spend the most of your time and is by far the best way to play. Verdun offers four different modes to play: Frontlines, Attrition Warfare, Squad Defense and Rifle Deathmatch. But what is noble in theory is clumsily executed in a game that succeeds in capturing the fear and strategy of the Great War, but also the boredom. While Battlefield‘s latest installment goes for the blockbuster approach, Verdun revisits the battle and others like it with a focus of capturing the real essence of trench warfare. The Battle of Verdun began in February 1916 and is recorded as the lengthiest battle of the First World War, lasting ten months and claiming around 700,000 dead, wounded or missing soldiers.