11-11: Memories Retold under test

That there is a lack of video games about the First World War cannot be claimed. Where most of the titles that use this epoch as a setting concentrate on the fighting and decimation of the other side, 11-11: Memories Retold tries to shed light on the subject from a completely different, almost timeless side and thus builds its emotional story around the fact that behind every war – on both sides of the conflict – there are first and foremost the fates of individuals with their personal hopes and fears.

A fight with two sides

11-11: Memories Retold puts you in the role of two characters fighting on different sides of the war: Harry, a young photographer from Canada who joins the Allied Army to impress the woman who owns his heart, and Kurt, a mechanic from Germany who joins the fight to find his missing son at the front. In the actual game, you constantly switch back and forth between the two and thus experience both sides of the conflict from completely different perspectives – and one thing quickly becomes clear: there is no such thing as good against evil here.

11-11: Memories Retold makes it its business to show that allies and enemies are not black-and-white opposites , but grey areas determined by chance, and that on both sides of every conflict there are people with similar views and attitudes, whose biggest difference is that fate has placed them on different fronts. Both characters you play join the battle of love and both awaken from their romantic notions of invincibility and glory and face the horrible reality of death and destruction.

While you observe Harry’s world primarily through the lens of his camera and set about capturing the most significant moments of the war on film, you and Kurt listen to allies and adversaries through walls with a stethoscope or repair technical equipment in the context of smaller (and rather uninteresting) puzzles. What both sides have in common, however, is that you will spend most of your time exploring the environments and talking to your cronies to find out more about the war as a whole, your chamberades as individuals and yourself.

Eure Decisions in 11-11: Memories Retold influence the story in the later course of the game: Harry sends photos taken at home to Julia, his beloved, and thus changes their view of him, while Kurt has to decide in letters to his wife and his little daughter Lucie how to tell them exactly what about. Especially with Kurt it is important to have as many conversations as possible with your comrades-in-arms and to use interaction possibilities with the environment, because these dialogues and actions often unlock further writing topics, which provide for other story outputs. For Harry, however, the most important thing is what photo motifs you choose – for example a peaceful seagull, which Julia will almost find boring, or an impressive picture of his major, which makes Julia enthusiastic. It’s just a pity that the game gives you a little info about which dialogs and actions take you directly to the next section, so that you, especially as a completionist, will often find yourself trying to restart the current chapter in order to go on a tour of exploration before you go any further.

A game like a painting

A look at the screenshots for 11-11: Memories Retold immediately shows you that the title not only offers a unique view of the First World War for games, but also, matching it, with unique graphic style. Throughout the game you’ll feel like you’re walking in a kind of oil painting, making the environments seem abstract and dreamy at the same time. The art design should make a statement – the romanticized form of war, like in a painting, or how unreal it is to find oneself in such a place after a relatively quiet life at home. What sounds fantastic as a work of art makes only limited sense in the game : Due to the constant brush strokes that the engine creates, the environments blur and sometimes make it difficult to recognize things, even if you’re standing directly in front of them. In particular, the lettered collectibles you’ll need to find in each section to unlock additional World War I background information and short videos about the production of 11-11: Memories Retold are very difficult to spot. And even the characters themselves don’t look as artistically beautiful as from far away in close-up.

The voice output with complete dubbing of the characters in German (for one side) and English (for the other) varies from very good to mediocre. While Elijah Wood as Harry and Sebastian Koch as Kurt are doing a first-class job, the NPCs are also quite lacking in motivation, especially on the German side. As a player from Austria, I would like to take this opportunity to say, at least positively, that you have actually hired German speakers who really speak the language – which clearly benefits the atmosphere.

The Soundtrack, on the other hand, mixes in at the front again and comes with pretty melodies and sound effects, which atmospherically underline the calm before the storm as well as the firefights themselves.

FAZIT:

11-11: Memories Retold takes on a frightening theme and manages to turn it into a wonderful, emotional story that already touched me after the first chapters. Whether the chosen graphic style was a stroke of genius or a mistake, I’m not quite sure about that myself: On the one hand the confused painting style underlines the confusion and unreality of the war events and thus makes the game a true work of art, on the other hand the actual gameplay is unnecessarily complicated by it. In addition, there are minor control and camera problems (in one sequence the camera suddenly hovered far above the action and I had to continue running almost blindly – an obvious bug) as well as a cumbersome menu navigation (the points can only be selected with a stick, but not with a digi-cross), which cause further points to be deducted during handling. So in the end, my recommendation depends on whether you can overlook the difficulties of implementing it to experience an otherwise wonderfully told story with a profound and almost timeless message.

What is 11-11: Memories Retold? Emotional action adventure that illuminates a different, more human side of the First World War, on both sides of the front,
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tested: PS4 version
Developer / Publisher: Aardman Animations, Digixart / Bandai Namco
Release: November 9, 2018
Link: Official Website