‘Battalion 1944,’ Or How WW2 Shooters Got Their Groove Back

Back in the early days of the FPS, brown ruled all. We were shooting seven shades of shit out of brown soldierly opponents with brown guns in brown environments. It was like being trapped in one of my ol' grandpa's World War One anecdotes, being scrote-deep in the mud and such.

Which is weird, because we were actually talking about a different conflict entirely. The Second World War used to have some kind of monopoly over the genre, being the setting for just about every shooter you cared to mention. Those were the Medal of Honor days, right there.

Here in the spangly new world of 2016, tastes have changed. With Halo, Titanfall and the like, FPS titles have been favoring all things futuristic and space-y. But you know what nostalgia's like. It's been a while now, and Kickstarter wants us to party like it's 1944 once again.

Battalion 1944 is a multiplayer-oriented shooter set during the conflict, and is looking to be a throwback for genre fans in more ways than one. 'The team…wants to move away from the current trend in shooters that sees players unlock new abilities and powers, instead placing the emphasis back on individual player skill. This decision puts Battalion very much in the sights of Red Orchestra 2,' Kotaku reports, which is a darn good thing.

Lots of gamers seem to agree, as the Kickstarter campaign has already reached its funding goal. Almost doubled it, at the time of writing. There's a ways to go before the game hits, but you can take an ogle at some early footage here: