This time of year it isn’t unusual to see an abundance of titles coming to the system that would describe themselves as survival horror of some kind, but in the case of Conscript the term takes on a very different type of feel. Rather than taking place in a suburban or some remote rural setting, this time you’ll be facing horrors in the trenches of the Great War.

Generally confined to trenches and tighter areas, you’ll quickly find that the style of play can be as intense and challenging as facing any supernatural creatures. You’ll need to learn how to effectively ambush, reload your weapon quickly, and sometimes when simply to run to attempt to better set yourself up for success. In general your resources will be scarce, you won’t be able to afford to be sloppy, and there can be death around just about any corner.

Putting all of this together, even though the threats you’ll face will be quite human (though sometimes, admittedly, seeming to take superhuman damage), the survival horror label fits the overall experience quite well. You’ll need to move cautiously, your fortunes can turn sour at a moment’s notice, and you’ll need to be very aware of your resources, even having to sometimes move things around a bit to manage your limited pack space. While intermittent performance issues and load time frustrations can pop up periodically, and there’s not much in the way of “horror” here in the sense most people would be looking for, it has a pretty unique feel and can make for some challenging moments to be sure.