The Great War: Western Front is a replay of the First World War, announced at Gamescom. Founded in particular by former Command & Conquer, the Petroglyph Games studio offers us a real-time strategy-oriented title in a very dark context. We were able to see it for 25 minutes, and we tell you everything you need to know.
A great tactical war
What you need to know first about The Great War: Western Front, is that it will be split into two very distinct gameplay phases. At first, everything will take place on a large map, where you can advance your troops tile by tile. Roughly, each advance on the tiles will require you to make more or less important choices that will have consequences on the course of the war. You will also have to go through the confrontation box in order to fulfill objectives there, and thus continue your serene progress.
Furthermore, it should be known that each turn will spend a month in the game, and note that obviously you will have displayed on the map the disposition of your troops, the number of battalions and by addition, the number of tanks and artillery supporting you. Of course, you won’t see this info on the enemy side, so you’ll have to think twice before moving your soldiers.
In order to give you a definite advantage on this part there, and even on the fights, you will have a whole skill tree. The one we saw was quite deep, and gave you the possibility to improve various elements such as economic research, tanks or even mustard gas to throw at the enemy. In short, it should be relatively complete, and offer possibilities for improvements and interesting attacks or defenses.
As for the difficulty, it’s a safe bet that the title will be addressed only to veterans of strategy games. Indeed, the amount of information to take into account is so dense that it will be difficult for a neophyte in the matter to get started. That said, the content of the game, in addition to offering a campaign mode, will have skirmish modes, historical battles and even online multiplayer. On the other hand, it will certainly take time for beginners to understand the core gameplay of the software.
Classic real-time strategy, with subtleties
On the second part of the gameplay of The Great War: Western Front, there will be the whole battle aspect. Here, the little guys from Petroglyph Games wanted transcribe trench warfare as faithfully as possible. And it does seem to be a successful bet, from what we have been able to see. But at first, there will be a phase where you will have to place your troops, and various tanks or artillery.
Basically, the goal of these battles – at least the one we saw – should be to capture strategic points from the hands of the enemy, and thus remove the star from this territory to make it yours. During this fierce battle sequence, it was also possible to literally send air strikes, just to clean up. Concretely, the gameplay seemed choppy to say the least, and as always you will have to play it constantly until you have mastered the mechanics perfectly.
It is worth noting that there are several victory conditions. Indeed, you can choose to decimate the opposing troops until you win completely, or have the option to cease fire. By doing this, and if the objectives are met, you will partially win the battle, and thus limit the breakage. As for the armies, they will be present in large numbers, with the English, Belgian, Chinese or of course the German army as the enemy. These are generally the military forces that we could see in the presentation, and we are sure that there will logically be more on the final game, like the French or American army. Spread the word, The Great War: Western Front will offer sharp RTS and tactical gameplay, and we can’t wait to test it.
The Great War: Western Front will be available next year on PC via Steam.