My Road To Review
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to experience WWI: Isonzo, also known as simply Isonzo, a multiplayer-only first-person shooter developed by BlackMill Games. The idea of a online shooter set in WWI sounded fantastic, and its trailers and snippets of gameplay had me excited to try this out. Unfortunately, the actual experience of trying to engage with this game was not what I had expected.
Isonzo is more like Battlefield than that of Call of Duty. That’s because it is role-based and each time you spawn you can choose from several classes including Assault, Sharpshooter, Mountaineer, Engineer, Marksman, Officer, and Rifleman. Just like Battlefield, each role has something unique to offer, from different weapons to equipment, and as a result, they suit different playstyles. It also forces players to think differently than just treating each class like some sort of action hero.
The Mountaineer, for example, plays a crucial role in using their binoculars to seek out enemy targets and alter the formation of their allies to handle their opposition. The Engineer; however, is built more on being strategic than that of the more direct Assault class-types, as you place down structures that can assist in victory. The Officer class is another that relies more on strategy as well, with their tactical orders and utilities like gas bombs and artillery blasts.
From the matches I was able to play the gameplay is solid and functions as you’d expect from any modern FPS game set in wartime, and they say if something isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Given that, I enjoyed what I was able to experience. The presentation is also decent, especially the gore, which you can adjust in the settings if you don’t want to see legs flying everywhere. Honestly, this felt like the World War counterpart to something like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. The game doesn’t reach the visual standard set by its AAA counterparts, but it was better than many FPS games of a similar scope in this regard.
Unfortunately, that is where my journey with Isonzo unfortunately ended. This is largely because a game of this scope requires players to keep its servers active. That said, I never saw more than 80 players on the entirety of its EU servers, even with cross-play enabled. When games can have up to 40 players, it makes it hard to test a game when you have one full lobby and then 5 to 10 players in entirely separate ones. While sure, you can set up custom matches and fill them with bots, but this felt like an unfair representation of what the Isonzo experience should be.
The issue only became worse when trying to play the currently time-limited mode, The Ascent. This mode is only available until April 24th. The Ascent brings new climbing-based gameplay that has rarely been experienced in first-person shooters. This mode has you scaling a sheer mountainside with only a pickaxe as bullets and rocks fly past in what might be the most daring way to assault an enemy position seen during war. During each Ascent match, 32 players must battle it out to either hold their position on the mountain or conquer it. It sounds genuinely innovative and I wish I could have played it. Unfortunately, I never saw more than 3 players in a single lobby for this mode which is designed for many more. And sadly, I was unable to add bots to this particular mode, even just to test what this mode could have offered. Even returning to it at different points in the day simply didn’t have the players needed to even attempt trying it. It' felt like some sort of forbidden fruit that I was never able to sample.
So with all that in mind, the fact I want to be able to play more is a good sign of Isonzo having something fun in its core gameplay but in the end, I currently can not score or recommend Isonzo at this time. This is purely due to the lack of active players. Should Isonzo come to services like PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass, and bring in players to populate its servers, then we will be sure to revisit this review and provide updated thoughts. Sadly, a game like this lives and dies by its community, and currently, at least in the EU, that community just isn’t enough to support what should be a thrilling online experience.
Developer - BlackMill Games
Publisher - Focus Entertainment
Released - September 13th, 2022.
Available On - Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
Rated - (M) - Blood and Gore, Violence, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X.
Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
I’m Jordan I have a background in game design and am deeply passionate about accessibility in gaming. My favourite games/franchises include Shenmue, Red Dead Redemption 2, Plague Tale: Requiem, Metal Gear Solid 3, Yakuza, Splinter Cell, and Assassin’s Creed.