As the pair edge closer to the fighting, the gameplay escalates you might, for example, have to duck and dive to avoid snipers or time runs according to when machine-gunners are reloading, and there are some stealth sequences. Talking to people and making conversational choices influences the story and the ending, and you must choose what Kurt writes in his frequent letters to his wife and daughter at home. There’s a lot of walking around, taking in the atmosphere and, often, trying to figure out what to do next there are no maps or icons urging you towards an objective. Sometimes they work together in occasionally clunky, laborious puzzles.
Harry takes photos, Kurt fixes radios and eavesdrops on the enemy from spy tunnels dug beneath trenches. The game takes in various locations, most notably Vimy and Passchendaele. Their stories unfold, month by month – and eventually become entwined. Harry is a photographer, Kurt an engineer. Neither protagonist wields a gun, uniquely for a first world war game. Meanwhile, Kurt, who is tormented by the fear that his son Max may have been killed at the front, enlists in order to find him. But Harry is recruited by the somewhat narcissistic Major Barrett to take photographs at the front. Neither is at war when the story starts in November 1916: Harry is working in a Toronto photography shop and Kurt in a zeppelin factory. The game follows two characters on opposing sides of the war: Canadian Harry and German Kurt. It also heightens your attention to the story, which has a fable-like quality, as if vividly but distantly remembered.
The game avoids explicit bloodshed, but still communicates the grim nature of trench life. It is a clever ploy, and is in keeping with the game’s contemplative tone. The mission of 11-11: Memories Retold, released before the centenary of Armistice Day, is to provide insight into the war, particularly for younger generations.Īardman Animations’ first full-length game takes an impressionistic approach, with its visuals – which employ a “living painting” effect inspired by the likes of Turner and Monet – seeming to boil and flow. C reating a commemorative first world war game is bold, given the traditionally blunt approach to warfare that video games have, but boldness is to be expected of Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman Animations.