KickStarter Conscript - WW1 survival horror by one-man Kickstarter

[Parsimonious cook]

Damn bro, I thought this was going to be vaporware, glad to be proven wrong. Demo was p. gud, will be getting this on release.

 

[FreshCorpse]

It is even better that this is going to remain a psychological horror without monsters (there is some paranormal activity hinted at in the demo, but not something that screams "THEY ARE REAL!").

Yeah I am hoping this will remain a "low [ideally zero] magic" setting. That is a big part of what it is so compelling

 

[Saldrone]

 

[FreshCorpse]

The game seems to be part of Steam Next Fest and he's updated the demo. I probably won't play again but will wait for the full release.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Release date set for 23rd July 2024.

 

[Infinitron]

https://af.gog.com/game/conscript?as=1649904300

 

[FreshCorpse]

So did anyone play it? The reviews are pretty good

 

[Ivan]

So did anyone play it? The reviews are pretty good

I'd think Zombra may have. This is definitely a title worth picking up though, especially if you're a fan of oldschool survival horror. I already have enough on my plate until the Xmas sale.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

I bought it on release but only got around to it yesterday. Played the first chapter (about 84 minutes according to Steam). It is p. gud indeed. If you played the demo back in the day, you know exactly how it plays - Souls-like combat including boss enemies (there is a heavily armored stormtrooper at the end of the first chapter that can take fuckload of damage and cannot be stunlocked), occasional key-searching and puzzles.

Atmosphere is top notch as well. Definitely worth getting.

 

[motherfucker]

Mobik simulator lol

 

[Zombra]

So did anyone play it? The reviews are pretty good

I'd think Zombra may have. This is definitely a title worth picking up though, especially if you're a fan of oldschool survival horror. I already have enough on my plate until the Xmas sale.

Thanks for reminding me. I forgot to get my Steam code off Kickstarter. Just installed, let's just see when I have time to try it

 

[Tyranicon]

Steam reviews are very good. I'm considering checking it out, but I'm too busy to play games anymore :/

 

[Harthwain]

I got this, but I didn't have time to play yet. I will trying this weekend.

 

[Silva]

Is this more exploration-based like Darkwood or puzzle-based like Resident Evil?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

I wouldnt compare it to Darkwood. Its combat focussed + you spend a lot of times searching for keys/specific items that let you advance further.

 

[Alienman]

Story any good, or is it just a combat game?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Too early to tell at this point, tbh fam. There certainly is a story:

You are looking for your younger brother who lied about his age to get into the army. Both of you are deployed at Verdun, your brother gets injured and loses some kind of heirloom timepiece that belonged to your father. At the end of the chapter 1 you get knocked out during a German assault on your trench and when you wake up you find out that you were left behind, Germans are in the trench and the survivors - hopefuly including your brother - retreated to a different part of fortifications. You set out to search for him.

Where it goes remains to be seen.

 

[United Nations]

Is this one worth playing?

I read somewhere that it's 2024's best PC horror game.

 

[Ivan]

I could sworn I read Zombra's Steam review recommending it. But maybe I'm tripping.

 

[United Nations]

Currently in Chapter 2, default difficulty.

Pros: difficult enemy encounters (I haven't integrated barrel rolls just yet), soundtrack is decent, trench ambience and color schemes are excellent, as are the pixelated character models.

Cons: shitty 90's-tier background art, combat is basic and clunky, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much backtracking, pathfinding sucks, using a mouse pointer with a keyboard control scheme is really awkward, in-game map is difficult to interpret, environment interactivity is minimal and makes no sense (lack of a pickup-able shovel amongst a rack of shovels), enemy AI is so bad they walk right past you and don't get aggroed.

 

[United Nations]

Still stuck in Chapter 2, and the disgusting amount of backtracking I'm doing is fucking insane. There's no way in fuck I'm investing anymore time into this bullshit, it's giving me a headache. The combat is absolutely terrible and one dimensional. The puzzles are okay, but the amount of backtracking through mazes with multiple floors with no toolkits to fix my broken trench torch is plain stupid and not fun at all.

 

[United Nations]

Decided to push through until I beat this game, and now I've made it to Fort Vaux, Chapter 6 (endgame).

Now that I've had more time to play Conscript, this is a pretty impressive game given that it was developed by a single person.

Otherwise, its retro graphics and gameplay are very unpolished.

It does seem as if the developer really put his time into creating a historically accurate WWI experience.

But calling it the "best horror game of 2024" is a total stretch of imagination.

 

[Ezekiel]

That German Great War movie two years back that everybody thought was a big deal, and the American one by Sam Mendes, both have the same problem of making it so dark and horrific in such a concentrated space of time that it feels fake (with the German one also having lame twists of fate, irony and over-acting that Germans are much too proud of). The oppressive doom music in these films doesn't help. It adds to the sense of it being too dramaticized. I don't know what this game is about. The war was miserable, but full-blown horror without the calmer moments is the wrong approach. I can't take it seriously.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Mobik simulator lol

Real life simulator pretty soon.

 

[lightbane]

It does seem as if the developer really put his time into creating a historically accurate WWI experience.

If the game feels miserable to play, then he was too successful. Are there supernatural elements, or the standard "hallucinations that can kill you"?