This review contains spoilers

This was a great historical game, the story does not feel over-the-top or too ridiculous, its grounded enough to be believable and yet it shows so many aspects of WWI. And the photography was wonderful. Because of the painterly style and the detail in every area, there was so much to take photos of, and I usually took more photos than was required. I do find it a little strange that the photos didn't reappear in the credits or something like that, as it would have been a nice way to wrap up the journey.

My biggest disappointment with this game was in the ending. I was happy with all the choices I made to get the ending I did (Peace), but it was one of the worst outcomes and left me feeling like I chose "wrong". Unsurprisingly, it is the most commonly obtained ending according to Steam achievement stats, with double the players choosing to go to Kurt instead of going home. I tried all of the different endings to see if there was a better outcome, but honestly, all of the endings involving going to Kurt are pretty bad, despite it being the most climactic ending. Any way you go with it, someone dies, unless you get the "Peace" ending, in which case everyone lives but Harry's life is destroyed and Kurt is left bitter and unresolved.

Bizarrely, by far the best outcome is to abandon your friends, and then have Kurt put down his gun in front of Barrett. Even the closing scenes in the "Forgiven" outcome imply that everyone's journeys were resolved and they left with some peace of mind and a life beyond the war.

Well, again according to Steam stats, that is the least seen ending. A third of people who made it to the end saw it. I can understand the intention of showing how the war is meaningless and we should strive to avoid it, but abandoning Kurt felt wrong, and there was no ending I was really happy with, despite there being 7 in total (most of them being devastatingly, clearly, bad outcomes).

Ignoring the ending of the game, I had a great time with 11-11.

Reviewed on Feb 16, 2022


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