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

polygon.com:

The first World War is often given short shrift when it comes to its place in Americans’ cultural memory, especially compared to World War II. The reasons for this are as myriad 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 could be more aptly described as a cat’s cradle of trade alliances mired in a sinkhole of militarized barbarism triggered by the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the domino effect of what followed shortly after.

In novels, movies, television, history books, and, yes, video games, World War II is often characterized as a “righteous” war; a battle for nothing short of the fate of human civilization between the forces of democracy and fascism. Compared to that, nothing about World War I feels righteous — only regrettable, as all wars invariably are.

Conscript, the latest game from solo developer Jordan Mochi (aka Catchweight Studio), is a survival horror game indebted to the inspiration of such series as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, though the game’s creator wholly resists the temptation to rely on supernatural or sci-fi tropes in crafting this game’s own tableau of terrors. Instead, Conscript is an unvarnished portrait of the horrors of trench warfare, mustard gas, and getting the top of your skull caved in with the business end of a trench shovel.

The game is set during the Battle of Verdun, the longest battle in World War I, which claimed more than 700,000 lives. Players assume the role of André, a French infantryman conscripted to fight against the German army alongside his brother, Pierre. After being separated from Pierre following an enemy raid on their encampment, André must brave the dangers of a base overrun by enemy soldiers in a mission to reunite with Pierre and safely return home. But, as resources dwindle and the German opposition grows increasingly more belligerent, André is forced to resort to ever more desperate