Ad Infinitum Preview – From the horrors of the trenches to the horrors of home

thesixthaxis.com:

The almost countless wars that have taken place throughout history have left deep scars and fissures that take generations for people, countries and cultures to heal from. Of them all, it’s the two world wars that still have such a firm grasp in our memories, the horrors of war laid bare, the brutality, death and destruction revealed through the growth of technology and media in the 20th Century.

Drawing upon the trauma of World War I, Ad Infinitum weaves a psychological horror around dark and twisted memories of the front lines and the ripples that were felt through a military family.

One of the key elements that horror games can lean upon is a sense of disorientation, and that’s absolutely felt as you’re whipped between different times and places. Are the moments where you’re on the front line the past and the abandoned mansion that you explore the present? What of the manifestations of terror that will haunt and chase you? Are they real? Can they actually harm you?

The opening moments bring one of the greatest fears of trench warfare to the forefront: going over the top, and trying to survive in the hellscape of mud, barbed wire and death that was No Man’s Land.

One of the most interesting decisions for Ad infinitum is to base this around a German family with some French heritage. Within the UK, we’re inundated with films and TV shows that depict the two World Wars from the British and American perspective, and it’s easy to conflate the actions of Germany between the two wars, but the reasons for WWI’s outbreak are far more complex, and the distinction between “good” and “bad” more difficult to pin down.

Given the family’s background and that you play as a German soldier, it feels strange to me that the game’s default