Verdun | Xbox One20/3/2017  Verdun may only be in its infancy on Xbox One (and indeed consoles in general since making the jump from PC to PS4 last August) but we can’t help feeling that M2H and Blackmill Games’ online shooter could do with some era-appropriate propaganda - preferably featuring the impressively moustachioed Lord Kitchener - in order to boost its already flagging player count.
Running through no-man’s-land is almost a guaranteed death sentence, as the lack of any significant cover and masses of barbed wire mean players caught in the open are easy pickings for snipers and machine gunners. Instead, it’s much better to utilise what little cover there is to get close to enemy positions, whilst saving dashes across open ground for the frantic, over the top charges that see slow and considered ranged combat give way to tense, often exhilarating, close-quarters action. It’s clear the developers put a lot of effort into replicating realistic wartime action, packing the game with uniforms, weapons and historically accurate battalions that have been meticulously researched. While we’ve (thankfully) never been involved in any situation even remotely comparable to the First World War, crawling through mud, shell craters and barbed wire only to be cut down agonisingly close to your objective by artillery, or poking your head above the lip of a trench only for it to be picked off by an unseen sniper certainly felt like an authentic representation of grim wartime combat. The pursuit of authenticity means that most of the game’s maps are large seas of mud with the aforementioned shell craters and trenches their only significant features, but there are a couple based on the early days of the war whose shallow ditches, green fields and sparse woodlands offer some respite from the doom and gloom.
It’s clear the developers put a lot of effort into replicating realistic wartime action, packing the game with uniforms, weapons and historically accurate battalions that have been meticulously researched. Verdun has four online modes: Rifle Deathmatch (a free-for-all contested with bolt-action rifles), Attrition (team deathmatch with all weapon types enabled), Squad Defence (more on that in a moment) and Frontlines, which is the most reliably populated. Frontlines tasks players with battling it out for control points in a game of tug-of-war based on some of the most infamous battles from the period, while Squad Defence is a horde-like mode than can be played offline, but AI of questionable intelligence make it easy to pass up. For a competitive versus match in Frontlines, you ideally want both teams to consist of sixteen players separated into four squads of four, but that isn’t always attainable. While frustrating, the lack of competition did make trying all the different classes (which are often jealously guarded by other players) a lot easier. Classes within each squad are limited to one per player, with the types of weapons available varying depending on which nationality and type of squad you’re currently representing, but most offer some variant of sniper, heavy/specialist gunner, grenadier and squad leader. Each class has three tiers of equipment usually featuring a mix of close-quarters, ranged and specialist weapons. These are unlocked with career points, which are earned as you level up, but they’re handed out so generously that they become redundant almost immediately.  There’s also a levelling system that rewards players with passive upgrades and cosmetic bonuses if they continue to perform well with a squad, such as reduced reload times and updated uniforms. It’s a nice idea, with no perk seeming so overpowered that it upsets the game’s balancing, but with each squad’s progress tracked separately, it can be a little hard to keep on top of.
It’s hard to shake the feeling of what could have been when playing Verdun, especially when you find a full match and the game’s potential is almost realised. With more players matches begin to flow as teams attack objectives from multiple directions, and utilising the communications wheel to issue orders and warnings becomes a necessity instead of just a novelty. Sadly, these moments are few and far between. If M2H and Blackmill could fix some of the more serious issues holding the game back then it would be an easy sell, but with Battlefield 1 recently adding Back to Basics - a mode which does away with scopes, tanks and automatic weapons for iron sights and bolt-action rifles – those who were looking for a more authentic WW1 experience may have already found it in DICE’s shooter. It’s unfortunate, because Verdun needs all the support it can get to be at its best. Pros
Cons
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