CONSCRIPT is a harrowing, masterfully crafted survival horror experience that swaps out the typical zombies and mutants for something far more terrifying: the historical reality of the Great War. Developed primarily by Jordan Mochi (Catchweight Studio), it’s a love letter to the “Golden Age” of survival horror (think Resident Evil and Silent Hill) that proves you don’t need jump scares when you have atmosphere thick enough to choke on.
The Premise
You play as a lone French soldier during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Your goal isn’t to win the war or become a hero; it’s simply to find your missing brother amidst the chaos of the trenches. It’s a grounded, intimate story that makes the massive scale of WWI feel personal and claustrophobic.
Key Strengths
- Atmosphere & Art Direction: The pixel art is bleak, muddy, and intentionally grainy. It perfectly captures the “Thousand-Yard Stare” aesthetic. The sound design—distant shelling, screams, and the squelch of mud—does more heavy lifting than most AAA horror titles.
- Classic Survival Mechanics: This is “Old School” in the best way.
- Limited Inventory: You’ll constantly agonize over whether to carry an extra clip of ammo or a healing item.
- Manual Saving: Save rooms provide the only sanctuary, creating genuine tension when you’re deep in enemy territory.
- Non-Linear Level Design: The trenches are a labyrinth of locked doors and shortcuts that reward exploration and backtracking.
- Brutal Combat: Every shot counts. Melee is desperate and clunky (by design), making every encounter with an enemy soldier feel like a life-or-death struggle rather than an action set-piece.
- Historical Weight: The game treats its subject matter with immense respect. The horror comes from the reality of chemical warfare, the grime of the trenches, and the psychological toll of attrition.
The gameplay in CONSCRIPT truly shines through its punishing environmental storytelling. Unlike many horror games that rely on supernatural entities, the “monsters” here are human soldiers who share your same vulnerabilities. They will hunt you through the trenches, climb over barricades, and hide around corners. This creates a constant sense of paranoia because you know that a single well-placed bayonet thrust or a stray grenade can end your run instantly.
The save system adds a layer of psychological pressure that defines the entire experience. Because you can only save your progress in specific “safe rooms” using a limited-use ink ribbon equivalent, every excursion into a new wing of the trenches feels like a genuine gamble. You have to constantly weigh the risk of pushing forward to find a key item against the safety of retreating to save what you’ve already accomplished. This back-and-forth movement turns the map into a living puzzle where you are always calculating the shortest, safest route to avoid unnecessary conflict.
Potential Drawbacks
- Deliberate Pacing: If you’re looking for a fast-paced shooter, this isn’t it. The movement is slow, and the puzzles require actual thought and observation.
- Difficulty Spikes: Some of the boss encounters and limited-save windows can be punishing for players not used to the rigid constraints of 90s-style horror.
Final Thought: CONSCRIPT is a triumph of indie development. It successfully translates the “survival” in survival horror into a historical context, reminding us that sometimes the scariest monsters are just men following orders in the mud.
