Conscript review

What is it? A relentlessly bleak throwback to Resident Evil set in the real horrors of the First World War.

Release date July 23, 2024

Expect to pay £19.99/$19.99

Developer Catchweight Studio

Publisher Team17

Reviewed on Radeon 5700 XT, i5-9600K, 16GB RAM

Multiplayer No

Steam Deck Verified

Link Official site

Once upon a time, survival horror needed monsters. Whether it was a horde of shambling zombies and packs of ugly mutated canines or a swarm of screeching, flying lizards and, well, even uglier mutated canines, much of the mood in the landmark examples of the genre was defined by these fantastical creatures. Conscript, Jordan Mochi's top-down throwback to Resident Evil, needs no recourse to such supernatural threats. The brutality and madness of the First World War's longest, most senseless battle will suffice. 

The year is 1916 and Andre, a teenager from provincial France, has been trucked off to Verdun along with his brother, Pierre, to sacrifice themselves for the greater good at the slowly collapsing front. The protracted standoff, in a battle originally intended by the Germans to serve as a meat grinder for the local resistance, has turned into a never-ending nightmare. 

Soldiers suffering from starvation and lack of sleep cower in the trenches to shelter from the constant shelling, flanked by the bodies of their dead comrades. To make things worse, Andre has made a promise to his ailing mother that he'll keep Pierre safe, but his wounded brother has been captured during the latest German offensive. The task of rescuing him initiates a series of ordeals that bears every hallmark of old-school survival horror, made even bleaker for the fact that nothing our hero witnesses would be out of place in a history book.

Conscript faithfully sticks to the original survival horror blueprint, with each area (whether the winding corridors of a battered French fort or the still-smouldering ruins of a bombarded village) a maze of interconnected hubs of carnage peppered