The Caribou Trail Review

The Caribou Trail tells the tale of a small corner of World War I that doesn’t get as much attention in games and film as the trenches of France. It is set during the Gallipoli campaign, the disastrous Allied attempt to invade the Ottoman Empire, and focuses on the experience of a squad in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. You play as Fisher, who navigates the terror and drudgery of trench life with his friends Gordon and Lonnie. None of these young men have ever traveled beyond the fishing village where they were born, but now find themselves facing death every day on other side of the world.

For a game about soldiers set during a war, there is almost no fighting in the game. It’s more of a “slice of trench life” game that focuses more on the story of the soldiers taking part in the campaign than on the campaign itself. Far more of a walking simulator than a war sim, The Caribou Trail is a game that you play entirely for the story because there’s not a lot of actual gameplay to be found.

You’ll spend a significant amount of time walking through the maze of trenches the Allies dug shortly after landing on Gallipoli. This is primarily because the game has you running a number of errands or reporting to officers, but also because it’s pretty easy to get lost. The game gives you access to a rudimentary map and a compass, but it’s just as difficult to figure out where you are at the moment as it is to find where you are going.

The game gives you a look into the lives of the soldiers in the trenches and what life was like for them back home. Interactive objects give you access to letters from home, care packages, and the things soldiers gave some importance to. You’ll also learn a lot of this through the game’s extensive conversations, most of which are among the three friends. There’s a lot of talk about life back home, philosophy, and musings on the nature of war, but very little on tactics or fighting. Some of these conversations can be quite extensive, so the game gives you some mundane tasks to keep your hands busy while you’re listening. There is a lot of stirring of soup and mashing of hardtack.

I enjoyed the game’s story and the way it really developed the personalities of the three soldiers. I also liked learning about some of the aspects of Gallipoli from the perspective of the soldiers, such as the way they cleverly executed a secret retreat under the nose of the Ottoman army. However, after I reached the end, I felt more like I had finished a book than completed a game. The game is also pretty short, and while you can tell that a lot of care went into crafting the story, you can easily get through it in a couple of evenings. If you’re interested in military history, and don’t mind playing a game in which you will spend most of your time eavesdropping on conversations, it’s easy enough to recommend The Caribou Trail. If you want more actual play in your gameplay, you may find yourself getting bored in spite of the game’s short length.