Jason Moyer on 10/9/2010 at 16:06
I'm pretty sure you could make a good WWI shooter with only a handful of trench missions, and all of those could be based on interesting scenarios (Battle of the Somme, Germany's use of neurotoxins, tank warfare). Otherwise you have other fronts you could explore, early dogfights/air raids, the soviet revolution, etc. CoD was never really about the figthing being great, it's more the overdramatic recreation of interesting historical scenarios, and WWI had tons.
Bluegrime on 10/9/2010 at 18:13
I remember a game from many, many years ago called Beach Head. You were in a gunners nest and your job was mowing down tons and tons of enemy soldiers and material.. I'm fairly sure that would be a nice summary of how a WW1 game would go if your playing as a character with any kind of real life expectancy.
I think it could be kinda interesting, but not something you could make an entire game out of. How many variations of "clear the trench/defend the trench" could you play through before it just all seemed the same? I mean granted it could convey the horrible, grinding nature of the Great War but I'm pretty sure it would also convey bad gameplay.
Koki on 10/9/2010 at 21:12
Thank god none of you have anything to do with making videogames. Your complete lack of imagination and creativity is somewhat surprising, though I guess it fits perfectly with some tastes around here.
So yeah, let's see, how about an FPS where you play as a USMC soldier in middle east? Pffft who would want to play a game (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5tRNs2X5Q4) about waiting for orders and filling up paperwork, (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2S3N0uSSho) am I right?
catbarf on 10/9/2010 at 21:45
The problem is that actiony CoD-esque combat in WW1 was few and far between, and completely misses the entire point of having a game be set in WW1 instead of WW2- namely trench warfare.
I'd like to see a game based around the Zulu wars (Rourke's Drift anyone?) or, better, yet, an old steampunk RPG called Space: 1889.
Absynthe on 10/9/2010 at 21:50
^^ This :D
Bluegrime on 10/9/2010 at 22:00
As much fun as it would be to blow the pointy spikes off zee germans helmets with a BAR, I think World War One is much more enjoyable from the strategic level then the personal one. I think a RTS set there would be a great game since you wouldn't have to play the individuals suicidally charging machineguns with bayonets.
Of course a problem with that would be that the innovative ideas that broke the stalemate are incredibly easy to research now. I fear a WW1 RTS would be played out rather differently then the war itself went, if for no other reason then the average RTS commander realizing the hilarious(ly tragic) and terribly ineffective strategies well before their real war counterparts did.
Jason Moyer on 10/9/2010 at 23:48
Quote Posted by Koki
Thank god none of you have anything to do with making videogames. Your complete lack of imagination and creativity is somewhat surprising, though I guess it fits perfectly with some tastes around here.
Yeah, I still don't see what would be inherently bad about a WWI game. I could probably come up with at least a dozen or so missions in the style of CoD, with specific scripted cinematic moments and an over-arching story.
Here's one - the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand from the perspective of the assassin
Here another for the obligatory mid-game PC death - wouldn't want more than maybe one American mission, but you could have one mid-game with a new recruit helping relieve British forces, start the mission with your buddies bullshitting about baseball and Chaplin, getting briefed on an upcoming tank/infantry charge, an artillery explosion goes off - nerve gas. Everyone's frantically putting on gas masks, you run through trenches past dead and convulsing American/British/Canadian/French/whatever forces as Germans come pouring in, heavy melee combat ensues in the close quarters of the trench, after fighting waves of Germans you're finally overhwlmed and your mask is ripped from your face by two German soldiers, they leave you to your fate, missions ends as your vision is blurring and fading, your character coughing up pieces of his own body, crawling along the trench among the dead before finally expiring himself
I could probably come up with a 20-25 mission campaign split into 3 acts with very little of the missions involving trench warfare, but all of them involving depictions of important battles and/or historical events.
Queue on 11/9/2010 at 01:02
That's a fantastic scenario, Jason!
Muzman on 11/9/2010 at 04:28
Don't forget the inter-force soccer match mini-game.
Koki on 11/9/2010 at 07:36
Quote Posted by catbarf
The problem is that actiony CoD-esque combat in WW1 was few and far between, and completely misses the entire point of having a game be set in WW1 instead of WW2- namely trench warfare.
Then don't make it CoD-esuqe? Maybe more like Vietcong. Wow! Problem solved. Next, USA's national debt
