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11-11: Memories Retold

11-11: Memories Retold

DigixArt, Aardman, and Bandai Namco are remembering The Great War in a rather special way.

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On November 11 people around the world gathered to remember the ending of the First World War a century ago, a war that changed the way that conflict was perceived and left a huge impact on the planet, and Bandai Namco helped with the remembrance in their own way. It was that week that they published DigixArt and Aardman's game, 11-11: Memories Retold, a title that focused on The Great War in its own unique way, and we've been playing through the experience to see how it unfolds.

It may sound cliché since 11-11 really focuses on the human stories of war, but to call anything about the game a cliché would be doing it a massive disservice. Instead of seeing the perspectives we've already seen a thousand times - the soldiers on the frontline that are in the thick of the battle - we're given two distinctly un-soldierlike characters, ones who aren't the typical war heroes that we've heard so much about.

First we have Harry, a young photographer from Toronto who by his own admission joined the war to get the uniform and impress his love interest, Julia, back home. He accompanies British Major Barrett as his personal photographer, who promises him fame back home for his efforts. On the other side of the coin we have Kurt, a German engineer who has also joined the war effort. He's not defined by his profession but by his fatherhood though, as he joins the war in an attempt to find his missing son, Max.

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Both of these characters offer distinctly different views on war, from the naivety and ignorance of Harry to the tunnel-vision of Kurt, and without spoiling too much, their lives become intertwined in surprising and interesting ways. Both of these characters are protagonists in this plot, and there's never a case of good versus bad here. This is a story of two people with their own distinctly relatable motives, and neither side is portrayed as the enemy.

11-11: Memories Retold
11-11: Memories Retold11-11: Memories Retold11-11: Memories Retold

The game plays as a third-person cinematic experience, and you switch between Harry and Kurt at regular intervals, seeing what each is doing at any given moment. Your tasks are never that strenuous, as there's a mix between light puzzles and exploration, but you'll get the most out of this game if you really immerse yourself in each character's experience of war. By talking with your fellow man and looking around, you'll see how Aardman and DigixArt have reproduced the experience of war, which includes not just the horrors we all know about, but also the bonds between men and the fun they had together. Everything from playing cards to giving gas masks to choking allies is included here; nothing is omitted.

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Collectibles are also scattered around the various chapters for you to collect, and by assembling these you can get more documents and artifacts from the war, educating the player about everything from soldiers' kits to the tunnels underneath the trenches. The game is a work of fiction in terms of its narrative, but the context is very much steeped in reality, and everything has been done to inform as well as entertain.

11-11: Memories Retold
Here's one of the various artifacts you can collect.

It's important to note that you're never fighting in the game yourself. This isn't like Battlefield and Call of Duty where you regularly kill and get stuck into the conflict; as said, this is a war game about the experience of the people involved. As such, death is given a weight that we don't often see in these types of games, and the intensity and suffering of those involved is emphasised as a result.

Speaking of weight, choices you make in the game have a dramatic impact. One great example of this is the letters you write home as Kurt to your daughter Lucie, as you can choose what topics to highlight, which will then affect what happens later in the game. You could be brutally honest and say that you're not sure whether Max is alive or not, for example, or you could tell a white lie and promise he'll be home soon, even if you don't believe that yourself. What's more is that you unlock more options to tell Lucie by exploring the world and talking to your comrades, and the letters aren't the only significant choices you get to make.

All of this emotion and intensity is carried across well by the two main actors: Elijah Wood and Sebastian Koch. Wood really gives a youthful naivety to Harry's narration, portraying him as a young man who really doesn't understand the impact of what's going on, while Koch brings us a world-weary father who just wants to find his son.

Olivier Deriviere's score is perhaps the most effective gear in the machine when delivering the poignant moments of this game. The orchestral soundtrack works to highlight both the highs and the joys of the experience, such as when Harry sets off on new adventures overseas, but the most memorable moment for us is when it shifted to a very sinister style towards the end of the game, producing some really haunting moments.

11-11: Memories Retold
11-11: Memories Retold11-11: Memories Retold11-11: Memories Retold

It's not just the portrayal of World War One that makes this game noteworthy, but also the artistic style that the team has worked towards. Every second of the game is portrayed as a moving impressionistic painting, which means that you can see individual brushstrokes great and small everywhere you look. At the launch event at the Imperial War Museum in London producer George Rowe told us the nitty-gritty of how difficult this was from a technical perspective, but you can see just how much it pays off from the screenshots we've peppered across this review.

This isn't just impressive from a technical standpoint as it also suits the theme nicely. Because everything is a bit hazier as a result of this technique, it feels more dreamlike as a result, perhaps even a bit like a memory. Nothing has the finer details you might expect from other games in this day and age, but that works nicely here. You get a general feel for things and you can still find your way around, which is all that matters, and the style produces some stunning results, in particular, moments like looking out over fields full of poppies.

As with any sort of painting - moving or otherwise - the colours are the key ingredient, and that's as true here as it is anywhere else. The blazing reds of the poppies within the sea of green, and the oranges that pierce the black of night are incredibly beautiful, and while the art style doesn't always look amazing (the faces aren't always the nicest to behold, we must say), for the majority of the experience it's a superb choice.

11-11: Memories Retold
11-11: Memories Retold11-11: Memories Retold11-11: Memories Retold

The only minor complaints we'd really have about the game is that there are a few technical hiccups here and there. Some animations went a little bit wrong at times, for example, and there were regular instances where the subtitles disappeared during the cutscenes, but again these weren't enough to really put a dent in the enjoyment we were having.

Of course, as with any form of fiction, there's an element of the fantastical and unbelievable to the story, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this game painstakingly works to show us the war in its rawest form, both in terms of the good and the utterly horrifying. Bonds were formed and friendships made, but the countless casualties and endless suffering aren't ignored, and the relatable stories of both Harry and Kurt show just how hard these can be. 11-11 is a wonderful tribute to a nightmarish conflict, but there's a lot that makes this stand out aside from that fact.

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08 Gamereactor UK
8 / 10
+
Human and relatable stories of war, Fantastic art style, Poignant soundtrack, Voice acting is great.
-
Faces don't look great, Small technical hiccups.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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11-11: Memories RetoldScore

11-11: Memories Retold

REVIEW. Written by Sam Bishop

"11-11 is a wonderful tribute to a nightmarish conflict, but there's a lot that makes this stand out aside from that fact."



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