By Joseph Luster

Dialing things back a moment from WWII, let’s enter the trenches of WWI with the help of a recently-launched contender known as Over the Top: WWI. As the title implies, action and destruction are at the forefront of Over the Top, which boasts 200-player battles and fully-destructible battlefields, among other notable features.

With options to jump into the roles of German, British, or French soldiers, the 100-versus-100 player action comes hot on the heels of a beta test and a handful of community playtests. 12 maps are available at launch, each aiming to recreate aspects of WWI’s Western Front. More have been promised as post-launch additions, and the team at Flying Squirrel Entertainment put a lot of work into carrying the same level of care and detail over to the game’s vehicles, uniforms, and artillery.

Some of this attention to detail can be attributed to the fact that the devs are self-professed historical reenactors. As a result, they take a great deal of pride in faithfully recreating the WWI experience, from the classes available to players to the aforementioned battlefield destruction. Players can dig trenches and blow holes in the landscape, and details like the time of day, season, and the effects of dynamic weather all have roles to play in how the battle takes shape.

At the time of this writing, which is just ahead of launch, there’s no means of trying Over the Top: WWI out for ourselves outside of an invite-only playtest. Hopefully the game’s full release lives up to its potential, because there’s always room for a more fast-paced and suitably “over the top” spin on battlefield actions.

Publisher: GG Publishing
Genre: Strategy
System: PC
Available: NOW

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