This is one of the best Indie games I have played in quite a while. For the low price that it asks for, it was so worth it, since I am a sucker for WW1 and WW2 shooters. This is a PC game that has been ported to PS4 and Xbox One, however it runs and controls really well.

By default, it runs at 30 FPS, however you can unlock the frame rate in the settings. At first I didn't know this until someone told me about it, and you can also turn off Motion Blur and Depth of Field effects, thank God for that.

Tannenberg is a pretty skill heavy game. Unlike most other shooters, there is no aim assist, and pretty much any gun will kill you in one or two shots, even a pistol at medium to close range.
It's not like a casual shooter where you can just sprint everywhere and light up everything. You could do that if you wanted to, but that risks you running out of stamina and getting shot in the open. This game is designed to be played slower like more hardcore, realistic shooters like Squads or Insurgency.

You have to take your time and carefully plan out your advances and work together with your squad mates. Or you could just be one of THOSE guys and just sit on Artillery duty and spam objectives with gas, smoke, or recon (though everyone does get a gas mask).

Health regeneration is extremely slow (if you do manage to survive a bullet or a grenade explosion), reload times are very slow (hell, some guns can't be reloaded at all until you empty out the chamber), and all of the weapons in this game are single-shot, whereas Battlefield 1 mostly consist of fully-automatic guns.

Because there is no aim assist, this game requires you to have really good aim in order to succeed because again, single-shot weapons only, however there is a mechanic where you can hold your breath for a brief moment so you can get a better shot with just a push of a button, and you're gonna need to do this because the weapon sway is so bad that it's like your soldier is holding a gun for the very first time and is on the verge of getting severe PTSD.

But when you learn to hold your breath before each shot, and you take your time, you'll get used to it, in fact, this game has some of the most satisfying gunplay I've seen since Rainbow Six Siege.

When you hit those one shot kills, oh my God, it feels SO good. I just cannot describe how amazing it feels when you hit those insanely long range shots, it's like pulling off nasty trick shots in the old Modern Warfare 2 days.

This game is insanely realistic, and the developers nailed the historical accuracy. It feels authentic and it respects the source material, something that Battlefield 5 completely shits all over.

Everyone speaks in their native languages, they shout to each other and at enemies, and when they get shot they either cry, scream, or choke on their own blood before dying. It can be kinda gut wrenching to listen to. These battles feel grounded and immersive.

I also like how the loading screens have text that tells you about the battle that you are just about the enter, pictures and all.

If you want to make this game even more immersive and realistic, you can actually turn off the User Interface. Anything on the screen can be turned on or off: The scoreboard, the mini-map, the squad list, the ammo counter, the stamina bar, hell, even the hit markers.

You can also turn off the sound of the hit markers, increase or decrease the amount of blood and gore, increase the Field of View, change the Depth of Field, and turn on/off tutorials. You can make this game as accessible or hardcore as you want to, it's insane how much customization you have at your disposal, but there is a problem and it's the text size.

It's incredibly small, sometimes you might have to squint a little to see it. The kill feed is almost invisible it's so damn small. There is an option to make the text bigger, but.. it doesn't do anything. Is it a bug? I would assume so, and I would hope that this gets fixed because it can be a struggle to see things at times.

I really love the attention to detail with the weapons in this game. The Mosin Nagant, Karabiner 1888, Martini Henry, Gewehr 1898, Vetterli Vitali M1870, Pusca Romana M1893, Steyr M1912, M1911, Luger, they all have pretty sexy sound effects and reload animations. The fact that this game has a Mosin Nagant was reason alone for me to play the game. What can I say? I love Mosin Nagants.

Every team gets three Loadouts, but they vary on what country you're playing on. As you level up you get Loadout Points, which you use to unlock these Loadouts. They're incredibly easy to come by, you'll pretty much never run out of them.

Each Loadout is preset, meaning what you see is what you get. It's not like other games where you get to make your own custom classes. That may sound disappointing to you, but it makes sense from a realistic standpoint.

I mean, why would a German soldier run around with a Japanese Type 30 Arisaka rifle and an American M1911 pistol?

Each squad mate has a role to support each other like in Battlefield, and each role has perks that buff you.

However, it's very confusing... Even now, I am not really sure how it works 100%.

There's the Infantry class which has a whistle that can temporary buff your teammates stamina and decreases suppression, there's the Support class that drops ammo and grenade boxes, there's the Grenadier which have grenades by default and they can throw them faster and farther than anyone else, and then the last one, I really don't know what it is.

I say that because, the Role names are in a different language, so I can't read it, I'm only just guessing what each Role is based on the icon and the abilities. So I don't really know what it's meant for. I think it's supposed to be a class mainly for bayonet users, judging from the perks it has.

Then you got all the Squad perks on the far left and Uniforms and whatnot, it's all insanely off-putting, which also doesn't help that the text is miniscule, I'm still trying to figure out everything. It's like I'm looking inside a College Algebra textbook: off-putting and difficult to understand.

Bayonets are pretty stupid in this game. A single poke with it and your ass is fucked. There's actually an effective play style where people just rush with bayonets while inside of objectives zones, which is why I always have a sidearm out, because having to carefully aim at your target while they're running at you with a bayonet is nerve-wracking, and getting stabbed can be pretty frustrating at times.

The graphics are dated and the character models are hilariously goofy but who cares as long as the game plays well? Plus, you can't really fault the developer for that. They don't have a AAA budget, but what makes this game special is the amount of effort and respect that was put into it, something that many AAA developers take for granted, for the sake or pushing either identity politics or aggressive microtransactions.

They did the locations, weapons, and voice acting very well.
Tannenberg was developed by people who actually have a passion for war simulator games, the game is fun to play and has heart, unlike many AAA games these days, and it deserves so much more attention. Because it's an Indie game, it doesn't get enough recognition. It suffers from a very low player base. At most I saw around 100 people playing. The rest of the lobby is filled with bots.

But every time I log on there are always people playing, and as of a couple weeks ago, the game is now cross-platform with Xbox, so there are even more people playing.

The game has 9 maps, satisfying as shit gunplay, tons of iconic weapons, it's spot on with the realism and historical accuracy and immersion, it has a stat tracker if you care about shit like that, and the best part? No microtransactions. Yeah, hard to believe, you get everything the game offers when you buy it.

So when its full price is $20, how can I say no to that? But if the low player numbers put you off, then I suggest waiting for a sale. I do hope this game on console blows up some day, because I hooked all my friends into playing it with me and we're having a blast with it.

Give me a game that utilises trench fighting to its fullest with in-depth very real skirmishes, territorial gains and sense of despair. You might say this is something EA did with Battlefield one, but even then I’d strongly disagree… it isn’t as authentic as you might think but neither is this game by a long shot.

Tannenberg seems to completely abandon the concept of trench warfare not only in its gameplay but the overall map execution that act more as directionless battles utilising open cover more than actually digging into a trench or even a foxhole, it’s very disappointing in its setting that feels more like a world war 2 FPS with a world war 1 skin.