1916: World War I with dinosaurs and demons

It may surprise you that 1916: Der Unbekannte Krieg (‘The War You Never Knew’) is not the first game to add dinosaurs into a game about one of the world wars. As the second game I’ve seen in the dinosaurs + world wars genre (which I hope one day is a real thing), 1916 is taking a significantly less silly approach than Dino D-Day. As a ‘first person avoider’ game, 1916 places you in the shoes of a terrified soldier trying desperately to locate the nearest ladder out of the trenches. Why is our protagonist’s goal to find what would normally be the quickest way to get shot during WWI? Well, this unlucky soldier has apparently lost it and as far as he’s concerned, the trenches are full of murderous dinosaurs. I’d choose bullets over dinosaurs, too. That was 1916 before its former student team decided to expand it from a project to a full game.

An interview with VG247 drops some more details on the new 1916:

“He took a first person avoider game – in which the object was to be killed by dinosaurs and escaping via a ladder – to one lonely, deranged soldier’s quest to find his lost squad, and along the way the horrors of WW1 were seen through his eyes. Airplanes become flying lizards, tanks become giant maggots and so on. The fact that all the monsters are in the soldier’s mind, that is brilliance at work!”

The track record of using sanity as a mechanic notwithstanding, every game I’ve played that tried it was a worthy experience. If you’re like me and can’t wait to check this one out, go play the browser version.

Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun