Oldschool trench warfare!

Play: Kongregate
Wiki: CGI wiki
Developer: Armor Games

Ah, the good old days-back when Sherlock Holmes was solving mysteries and British people were swapping beads for large swaths of land in Africa. “Hello what is your name? Ah yes, Mr M’tumba. Look what I have for you these beads; you can have these, clicky claky. I’ll just take the land from where you are standing to the horizon.” Upper-class people ate cucumber sandwiches, talked about this new invention, electricity, and engaged in homosexuality while the lower class shovelled coal, women grew moustaches and a kick in the scroats was the best form of contraception.

Ah yes, it was perfect, that is until the bloody Huns screwed it all up and started a war over a Scottish indie band called Franz Ferdinand.

Three years later, the Germans and British are firmly locked in a mud party playing peek-a-boo with machine guns and an excessive amount of artillery. Warfare 1917 takes place in the time when trench warfare was beginning to loosen just a bit. Taking control of the Brits or the Jerries, in two campaigns, you take command of a sector in which you must destroy the enemies’ presence and break through their lines. This isn’t an easy task as you will have to deal with the fact that your enemy will be doing the exact same thing, except in a different language-which, by the way, doesn’t mean a thing.

The game play and strategy firsthand doesn’t seem that great, but then again, neither was the real thing. Basically, your option is to send men over the top into no man’s land and hope they don’t all die from gunfire and artillery. The game really shines it’s light when choosing which men to send over the top. You have your regulars who are there as cannon fodder, assault troops, sniper and defensive troops. As you win more levels, more of these specialist troops will become available as well as different forms of artillery and even a tank!

The differences in troops affect the way the game is played, with assault troops being really handy in taking a trench but piss poor in holding it. This forces you to mix it up a little bit and send over combinations of different men to get the job done. Trenches are your lifeblood in this game; with each selection of new units, you will have to wait for more reinforcements to become available, as you will use your trenches to stack up your trenches. The trenches hold three units at any one time, which creates a balancing act on choice of next unit. During my gameplay, I found that keeping a couple of units in the trench was pointless as the AI would realize this and simply order a barrage of artillery fire on the trench, quickly making it a bloody canal. I must say, for a flash game I found the AI rather solid; it rapidly tried to counter my haphazard strategies. After winning a level, I was surprised to find a reward XP system built into the game, which rewards you with points which you can use to unlock further equipment and upgrades for your units.

The graphics are presented in a side-scrolling 2D manner and I must say, ConArtists have done a fantastic job on the graphical side. The scenes are gritty and grubby looking and generally make you feel that sense of ‘get the fuck in the trench’, with the vivid explosions and artillery-made outdoor landscaping with mud and mangled barbed wire. The sound design is equally as amazing, with far-off battlefield ambiance noise, explosions rattle out with the whistle of impending shells along with the clang of shrapnel hitting the ground. This is simply stunning to hear the level detail that has gone into the sound. You can even hear the chatter of the troops, which fade in and out depending on the actions of troops. This game reeks of top quality design all-over; it’s like enjoying a nice set of breasts, no matter how hard you try, you will continue to stare in amazement until someone slaps you.

Overall, this game is a must-play for all those who enjoy the odd strategy game. While taking around 20 – 30 minutes to finish off a campaign, the game is rather short. But with a custom battle editor thrown into the package allowing you to set up your own skirmishes, you will soon find yourself wasting countless hours sending wave after wave of men over the top.

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