Gallipoli Preview: Intense and authentic WW1 warfare

The folk over at BlackMill Games have been offering up great and authentic World War I experiences for years, multiplayer options that perhaps best rival the Battlefield series. Unlike DICE's famed shooter franchise, BlackMill has trended towards offering unique games themed after different theatres of conflict, and in the past this has included the brutal trench warfare of Verdun, the savage and frosty action in Tannenberg, striking yet equally harrowing combat in Isonzo, and now the focus is shifting to the desert to put Gallipoli front and centre.

Yep, after formerly taking us to the Western, then Eastern, then Alpine fronts, now we're heading to the Middle-East for an instalment that does play a little differently to its predecessors. I'd know as during Gamescom I had the luxury of being given a walkthrough of this upcoming chapter in the series, with BlackMill explaining how they are iterating on the formula.

For one, anyone who has played the developer's other shooters will be familiar with what this game is looking to achieve too. It's gritty and authentic World War I action, which means you should expect heavy weapons that are a nuisance to use and reload, the constant thunder of mortal shells and explosions that rock the level, a lack of vehicles as boots-on-the-ground trench warfare takes centre stage, and specific design choices and content additions that reflect this particular theatre of war. Essentially, don't expect a Battlefield 1-like experience where you can zoom around the map, gunning down tons of enemies that cross your path in an arcade shooter-like fashion. This game is closer to Hell Let Loose than it is to Battlefield in practice, prioritising a more accurate depiction of war first and foremost.

Now this more accurate nature comes in various places. For one, the character models are designed to be authentic, meaning you will see mostly British forces against the Ottoman Empire. But this doesn't mean you will only witness the English fighting the Arabs, as the Allied forces also included Indians and Australians, with some of the former even being so accurately portrayed that they don't wear boots in battle. Otherwise, the weapons fit these forces, so don't expect to see Russian arms from Tannenberg or Italian tools from Isonzo, here mainly it will be Lee-Enfields, Webleys, Smith & Wessons, and so forth. Similarly, there will be many very specific tools, including the famous jam tin grenades, which are basically a botched explosive made in a tin formerly used to store jam. Again, authentic combat is the emphasis.

In terms of the actual warfare, as the desert is pretty flat unlike the mountains found in Isonzo, don't expect to be hiding behind rocky outcrops. Craters and trenches are once again your best friend and this means that even though the action takes place on big maps with plenty of objectives to fight over, you will find yourself funnelled into tight areas where both teams collide. If you do decide to leave the comfort of the trenches (if you can call it that), you'll be at risk of machine gun fire and dug in enemies, as in Gallipoli one of the main changes is that building is easier and less restricted. You can build a machine gun emplacement where you see fit, and even help drive the frontline forward by building supply zones where you desire to ensure your team can keep pressing onward. This might seem like quite a minor change, but it's vital to the setting as desert warfare is a very different beast to European action and requires a new way to tackle the challenge at hand.

Beyond the authentic and realistic combat - which is also quite unforgiving as real warfare is, meaning if you get shot you'll probably die - BlackMill's typical approach to squad-based multiplayer continues to shine through, proving that this will be another great Battlefield contender. It will even feature crossplay, meaning PC and console players can team up to conquer the objective-based action across the different desert maps.

BlackMill isn't reinventing the wheel with this game, it's simply offering a new way to play, and I can appreciate that. The WW1 series has offered strong multiplayer action for years, and from what I've seen I have little reason to doubt that Gallipoli will break that trend. It's brutal, challenging, authentic, loud, and everything you could want from a WW1 multiplayer game.