World War I was, for lack of a better term, a real shit show. It claimed the lives of 20 million people, and will forever serve as a testament to humanity's unique talent for inventing new, horrifying ways of killing one another.
While not nearly as iconic as the second World War, WWI has only just begun to gain traction in the world of video games. This is due to the fact that the majority of WWI was fought from inside a series of wet, smelly, and extraordinarily unhygienic trenches. When combat rose above ground, advances were made in inches and feet, rather than miles - and at the expense of countless lives. Needless to say, there's a reason why the subject doesn't translate well into the FPS format - a genre defined by its fast-paced, twitchy gameplay. As a result, games based on The Great War, such as Battlefield 1, end up taking certain liberties with its portrayal of the conflict in order to make things more palatable for players.
Then there's Beyond The Wire, a new FPS developed by Redstone Interactive and published by Offworld Industries. Their mission is simple: to deliver an authentic, FPS experience set in the first World War while sacrificing very little in the way of historical accuracy. I would normally be hesitant to trust such an ambitious project, especially one coming from a relatively unknown studio, but the involvement of Offworld Industries - whom is perhaps best known for their game, SQUAD - carries some credibility.
Reservations aside, the developers are promising a wealth of appealing features - intense, large-scale combat of up to 100 players, a unique melee system that emphasizes on tactical, close-quarters combat, and the ability for players to construct fortifications to really make their foxholes their own, ya know?
Beyond The Wire is scheduled to release in early access on Steam sometime this year.
