Fandom Apps Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. The game takes place on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918, in one of the bloodiest conflicts in world history. We were inspired by the infamous Battle of Verdun France in 1916. The game offers four distinct game-modes: Frontlines, Attrition, Rifle Deathmatch and Squad Defense.
Verdun (PS4) – Battlefield 1 it is notBattlefield 1 isn’t the only WWI shooter out this year, but does the more authentic approach of Verdun make for a better game?The First World War setting of Battlefield 1 is certainly a brave and unexpected one for DICE, but it is far from the only game to take place during that period. Strategy games and flight sims have been using the setting for decades, and as well as Ubisoft’s there’s also been a number of action games. But they’re all niche titles that most gamers will never have heard of, and in fact Verdun was originally released, to very little fanfare, on PC Early Access in 2013. But now the console versions are suddenly very much in the spotlight.Despite all its many positive qualities, the one description Battlefield has never deserved is ‘realistic’. It’s more realistic than Call Of Duty, certainly, but DICE themselves never pretend that it’s an actual simulation, and always prioritise gameplay over authenticity.
This is especially true of Battlefield 1, where they’ve had to bend and fudge many of the details; especially with regards to the effectiveness of weapons and vehicles. But that is not Verdun’s approach, and that’s just one of the reasons it’s not much fun to play.
AdvertisementWhereas a large part of Battlefield 1’s marketing efforts are concentrated on proving that the First World War wasn’t just about trenches, Verdun is instead obsessed with them. It’s a multiplayer-only game set purely on the French front, a squad-based game where your team of 16 try to push the French generals’ drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin.
Or otherwise prevent its movement.This is the main game mode, called Frontlines, which makes good use of the setting and the nature of trench warfare. The idea is to attack your opponent’s trench and try to hold it long enough to move the frontline forward.
If you fail though the defending team then gets their chance to launch a counterattack and move the line in their preferred direction. This is clearly a very solid idea for a multiplayer game mode and not very different to those in other Battlefield games, or even Battlefront.And yet somehow Verdun manages to make the whole experience as confusing, and indecipherable, as possible.
As straightforward as the above sounds, actually playing the game it’s almost impossible to work out where to go or who to shoot. Both side’s uniforms look almost identical in the heat of battle and unlike any other multiplayer game your team-mates are not highlighted unless you aim at them. You play as part of a four-man squad within the overall team, and they do show up automatically, but that barely helps the endless confusion of who you’re actually meant to be fighting. Although at least there’s no friendly fire.
AdvertisementAnd since this is a first person shooter obsessed by authenticity you almost always die in a single hit; often oblivious as to where the shot came from because there’s no killcam. You slowly (very slowly, since each match lasts at least half an hour) begin to realise that the best tactic is to just creep around the trenches and to never put your head above the parapet unless you absolutely have to. Again, that’s all very realistic but what it means in practice is sitting around doing nothing when you thought you were meant to be playing an online shooter. Verdun (PS4) – are you my mummy?With other aspects of the game it’s not clear whether the problem is the game being a slave to realism or just very low budget.
The graphics are awful (the texture pop-in and frame rate problems in particular, as well as the frequent crash bugs), but the shooting is also terrible. It’s almost impossible to aim your rifle in a hurry and even when you hold your breath, by pressing in the left stick like a sniper game, the sights more often than not still end up skipping around screen as if with a life of their own. Whether that’s realistic or not we don’t know, but it’s certainly not fun.The other game modes are simply Team Deathmatch and free-for-all, with Squad Defense being a sort of Horde style survival mode set in a forest. But the game is dominated by Frontlines, and the game lives or dies with it.
Which is a shame, because there are some interesting ideas – especially in that each squad is assigned specific class-type roles, such as calling in artillery support or acting as scouts and snipers. On the PlayStation 4 though, where hardly anyone has a microphone, the chances of co-ordination within a squad, let alone the whole team, are next to zero. In Short: Its goals are noble enough, but this low tech shooter takes its realism too seriously – as the drudgery and unfairness of trench warfare is made all too real.Pros: The Frontlines game mode has a lot of interesting ideas, including the tug-of-war style structure and the use of squads, and creates a very unique pace and style of tactics.Cons: The game is a technical mess, and the PlayStation 4 highly unsuited to complex team interactions. The gunplay is no fun at all, and the game as a whole is highly frustrating to play.Score: 4/10Formats: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, and PCPrice: £15.99Publisher: M2H Game StudioDeveloper: M2H Game Studio and Blackmill GamesRelease Date: 30th August 2016 (Xbox TBC)Age Rating: 18Email, leave a comment below,.
Originally posted by:Hi all, I'm pretty new to Verdun and I have a question on this subject of squad progression. I have checked several other threads and found answers to most of my questions, but not this one:Everytime I quit the game, it says 'you will lose your current progress'. This is about suqad progress, right?- do I really lose it, or is it stored until I play with the same squad again?- if I really lose it, what do I have to do to prevent it?Thanks in advance for any helpful remarks:)It refers to your in-game score, so your K/D, score, and whatever you gained or did in that match gets erased. Not the game you had with your friend(s), it is stored until you play with the same people who played with.