CONSCRIPT

Lightening Does Strikes Twice!

Wow! It's another WW1 survival horror masterpiece! Last year it was Amnesia: The Bunker, check out my review...

Amnesia: The Bunker

An Evolution for Amnesia and Survival Horror

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and this time around it's Conscript! At a surface level the comparison of the two games feels appropriate, both being in the survival horror genre and also set during WW1. However, when digging into the meat of these games they diverge quite significantly in a couple ways. Let's get into it.

Scope

Conscript's scope covers the entirety of the war front. From one moment to the next you'll be finding yourself in unique situations and locations. You could be about to hop out of a trench into no man's land or wandering the streets of a deserted French town. You could be lost out in a battlefield or entering an old fortress. You could be staring at a maze of corpses or operating a massive artillery installment. It's diverse but all feels like the early 20th century and WW1.

It's very much unlike the appropriately titled Amnesia: The Bunker in this sense. Amnesia is a tightly focused horror game about being stuck in a bunker with a monster. On the other hand, while playing Conscript, I kept seeing parallels to movies like Saving Private Ryan, All Quiet on the Western Front, or 1917. I think it kind of fits in that class of media: odysseys through 20th century war. Each of these pieces of media show the chaotic nature of the warfront, sometimes you have clear instruction, other times you need to make your own way. For the individual, survival is, at the end of the day, the goal.

Yes, Conscript is also horrifying in that "war is hell" sense too, but the classic definition of Horror in media really takes a backseat to the journey. The film 1917 is really such an apt comparison, because it is through and through a war movie. The distinction being that it's entirely from one man's perspective, kind of like a singleplayer video game. While the overarching plot of Conscript revolves around you finding you brother, many of the steps along the way involve being a messenger for officers, crossing no man's land, and navigating past Germans. If you haven't seen 1917, well that's kind of the plot of the film too in a nutshell.

There's one specific scene in 1917 which I thought may repeat itself in Conscript. In 1917, the protagonist and comrade come across a crashed German plane with the pilot still alive inside. Slight spoilers for the movie, but the German, seemingly injured and near death, asks the Brits for a drink of water. When the Brits let their guard down for a split second, showing a bit of compassion for another human being, the German lunges with a knife out, stabbing the one Brit. Compassion is weakness in times of war.

In Conscript, you come across a POW camp where you can interact with a German prisoner. He asks you to find a photo he lost along the river just to the south. I said I would keep a look out for it, but damn if I wasn't thinking about that scene from 1917. How was my compassion going to be repaid? Then sure enough, if you backtrack to a save room in the supply trench after that encounter, the trader and item box are gone but you get ambush by a German. If you kill him, he drops the photo you retrieved for him earlier. I guess that POW camp got liberated... Honestly, it was one of the meaner scares of the game. Any survival horror veteran knows save rooms are your respite from the persistent tension, so when you reach one you breathe a sigh of relief and let your guard down a little. And now look at what helping that German out got me...

Amnesia: The Bunker is so clearly a survival horror game set during WW1. It's super effective at what it does, being tightly focused and really damn scary. Conscript flips the script by feeling like a WW1 game first and then utilizing survival horror mechanics as a means to an end. Conscript has such an ambitious scope and accomplishes so much that I'm comparing it to $100 million Hollywood movies. This game was made by one guy, wow! One more detail in Conscript, sometimes when you think you've killed an enemy instead of being dead, they'll be maimed, screaming on the ground instead. Even if you come back later, they're often still there screaming in pain. You'll frequently come upon shell shocked troops on both sides, hunched over in the corner of a fort or shaking uncontrollably out by artillery cannons. The end result is context being placed around war, we aren't killing in a vacuum, actions have consequences, war has consequences.

Survival Horror Staples

Now while Conscript is lighter on typical survival horror themes, its survival horror gameplay mechanics are unmistakable.

Backtracking

Oh boy there's lots of it, fortunately it's more often than not a strength of the game. It's a strength for a couple reasons, first off simply because the maps are memorable, distinct, and just immersive to be in. Secondly and equally as important, it's because the game consistently switches things up on the player. Going into an area, it may be deserted, but upon leaving suddenly German troops have wandered into the zone. Maybe going in the first time around there were a lot of enemies you killed, so when you come back through now you have to deal with a lot of rats eating the dead bodies. The game will also offer little side quests that switch up your priorities, giving a different meaning to something or somewhere you found earlier. All this makes backtracking not feel like backtracking because it's more active than just retreading the same path again.

Route Planning and Little Side quests

The previous section segways well into what I think is a very critical aspect of good survival horror, route planning. Knowing the map, the hazards, and your objectives informs a lot of your decision-making process. Yes, the overall objective is to get to the frontlines for instance, but the interesting stuff is in the details. Like I said previously, Conscript has a lot of backtracking and shakes it up well. So, you'll sit in a save room and pull out your map examining potential routes to get to the frontline. Then there's a mental list of other little side quests that you can hope to slot into your route. The path through the west trench takes me near a locked room that I have a key for now. I think I saw the medic in the bunkrooms, he needs a first aid kit. I blew up a pile of rumble just north of that which means I can go investigate now. Then you can examine your inventory to accommodate such an endeavor. I love it, so much planning and decision-making packed into a signal moment.

Inventory Management

And there's another great segue into another fundamental pillar of survival horror, inventory management. A bunch of what I just said about route planning would fall through if the player could always carry everything they needed at all times. Restricting the player's inventory creates the need to efficiently plan routes. You will continuously ask yourself the question: what is the bare minimum needed to accomplish my objectives? Because, when you're out exploring, you want to open new rooms, discover items, and be picking up any and all resources.

Soldier difficulty starts the player with eight inventory slots, but this can be upgraded further by finding bag upgrades throughout the campaign. In the previous example of getting to the frontlines, I think I sat at eleven slots. My current equipment included a shotgun, shells, a gasmask, a flashlight, and a knife. I needed the helmet key to get through the German trench, the blockhouse key to explore that locked room and look for other soldiers, and an extra med-kit for the medic. That puts me at eight out of eleven items slots, so you can see how we have a choice, bring some extra nice-to-have tools or have space to pick up resources that we find. It would be nice to have fuel and a lighter to burn dead bodies and prevent rats from showing up, but these are the tough inventory management situations that add to the survival horror puzzle.

Survival Horror Extended

Lastly, I'll mention that I was surprised to see a weapon upgrade system in place, akin to Resident Evil 4. There's a decent variety of firearms in the game and each have upgradeable stats like firepower, ammo capacity, etc. The upgrade currency is a generic "gun parts" item and through my playthrough acquired enough to nearly fully upgrade three weapons. This felt about right as I could prioritize one weapon to upgrade in each class, i.e. one handgun, one shotgun, etc. and therefore have a well-rounded, upgraded arsenal. I do prefer the specific gun part upgrades of RE2 or the additional unique upgrades from RE4, but this system works fine too.

Conscript also has health and stamina upgrades, items that provide a passive buff from your inventory, and a few different pieces of gear. All these things add to your sense of individual progression and fit the setting really well. The gasmask is essentially a key item for certain areas, allowing to walk through gassed zones. The puttees and their movement speed bonus are a very nice to have to create separation from enemies. Morphine heals you and ups your max HP, it all makes perfect sense.

Simple but Punchy Combat

Damn, the combat is good in Conscript. It's not that complex or nuanced and I have a few gripes I'll get to later, but overall, it really works. I think in huge part thanks to the sound effects and animations. I made a short video to showcase what I mean. The way the shotgun sends an enemy skidding back, the way a rifle shot contorts a torso, the way the handcannon simply ragdolls a guy is just brutal, and then the screams after are haunting...

Palate Cleansers

Between dealing with the horror of war Conscript provides respite for the weary in typical survival horror fashion, soothing save rooms. The developer really nailed the vibe. The cool blue tones from the save lantern and trader contrast the nasty, disease-ridden orange tinted browns and harsh greys. The save room music hits the spot too with refreshing bells and cords over top an ominous drone, reminding you of what awaits outside.

Between chapters in Conscript, there are short, playable flashbacks of life for Andre before the war. We get to explore around his family's household and get insights into his relationship with his father, mother, and brother. These provide nice interludes between dealing with the horrors of war and provide context for why we're searching for our brother. The game could've just said: go find your brother, it's important, he's your brother. And that could've worked but these short sequences are appreciated and put a little more meat on the bone.

Some Minor Critiques

Here's just some quick comments on areas where the game could do a little better:

• The open areas can be a bit awkward to traverse. While running through trenches and in bunkers it's clear where you can and cannot go. When you get out on the battlefields or roads, now I start looking like a dork bumping into impassible objects all over the place. The one that really frustrated me were the puddles. It seemed totally random as to which puddles you could walk through versus the ones you can stomp right through.
• Once enemies spot you, you cannot hide from them again. Being spotted and then running away is not an option despite it feeling like one. You are often much quicker than lots of the enemies but if you run away, they'll know exactly where you went. Even breaking line of sight then ducking into designated hidey holes doesn't do the trick.
• Leaving and reentering the same area resets all the enemies. I realize this is the case with many survival horror games, but for some reason it felt worse here. It sort of relates to the previous issue, because if you get overwhelmed you can't hide, but you can just leave the area. I tried to not cheese this too much because you can certainly trivialize particular areas by just ducking in and out, picking enemies off one at a time.

Verdict

★★★★

Conscript is a monumental accomplishment for a single developer's first game. Conscript charts new ground for the survival horror genre by taking tried and true survival horror mechanics like inventory management, backtracking, puzzle solving, and route planning and seamlessly transplanting them to the WW1 setting. There's nothing supernatural, no horror-tropes, not a single zombie here, just raw horrors of war and it totally works. The scope of the game is impressive too with my first playthrough clocking in over 14 hours. And that was pretty much all gameplay with a great flow to it. I never really got stuck or had to repeat excessive amounts of playtime. There's replay value too with unique challenges, different endings, and harder difficulties to go with some cool unlocks. For $20, this is an easy recommendation for any survival horror fan.