MUST KNOW
What is it? A Battlefield-style FPS with the bones of a milsim
Expect to pay $30/£20
Developer BlackMill games
Publisher M2H
Judged by RTX 3060, Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8Ghz, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer? 48 players
Clutch Official site (opens in new tab)
I continue to be happy with how many cool military sim games there are these days. If I want to participate in an almost authentic land war in 2022, the choices are overwhelming: last I counted there are two major modern milsims, three in WW2 (if you count the MMO from above) foxhole), and four in WW1. Don’t look, but I think we’re in a milsim tree.
Developer Blackmill Games took an early interest in gaming in the Great War with Verdun in 2013. The latest, Isonzo, is the third in the series, and by far the best. Not only is it one of the best-looking shooters out there, but it’s also the easiest to just jump into a match and play. Isonzo walks a fine line between simulation and the convenience of video games. It’s not nearly as punishing or complex as another WWI favorite of mine, Beyond The Wire, but it’s much harder than anything labeled Battlefield on the box.
The vague middle ground where Isonzo lives made me wonder who exactly it is for. At first I hated Isonzo for being too simple, but as the hours went on I realized I played it in much longer sittings than I can normally tolerate a milsim. It’s fun, it’s hard, but it’s also very accessible. I’m starting to think Blackmill made the first milsim that I’ll really keep installed for more than a few weeks.
battlefield
Seriously, don’t jump into Isonzo expecting tanks and dogfights, but this is the? most Battlefield-esque that a milsim has felt in ages. I was immediately impressed by the rollout screen: a clean, aesthetically pleasing bird’s-eye view of the live map that also clearly displays the current situation. How far have the other squads moved forward? Where will the next air strike land? Should I risk spawning them? The look and usability of the card are clearly inspired by DICE, but I think Isonzo does it even better.
It helps that Isonzo’s only 48-player game mode is a push-type depletion format in which attackers, like Battlefield, go after targets in stages. Often the two goals are split between a flag to be captured undisputedly and some sort of bunker or train to be blown up with a timed explosive.
I really enjoy this asymmetry. While both objective types are variations of “rush to a place and try to hold it for a while,” I appreciate that when I got tired of feeding the mincer on one side of the map, I could on the other. respawn and move to a slightly different target. Speaking of which, I especially love that each attack phase also has a side objective to build and maintain extra spawn points closer to the objectives. Not only does it ease the hassle of running for 30 seconds to get back into the fight, but it also gives the defenders a chance to do some attacking themselves. A proactive defense should send at least one or two squads to demolish the forward spawn. DICE should take notes on that.
The rush format suits Isonzo so well. It’s a much smoother, more consistent experience than Beyond The Wire or Hell Let Loose, and I think a major reason is Isonzo’s limited scope. Isonzo’s maps are quite large compared to most multiplayer shooters, but they are noticeably smaller and boxier than comparable milsims.
This is the most Battlefield-esque thing a milsim has felt in ages.
All maps share a runway-like linearity that typically splits the map into two or three viable paths for attackers to get down. I thought this was going to be boring, but it’s actually quite the opposite: the narrow battlefield keeps firefights focused and minimizes the number of lone wolf riflemen who are in a bush for the entire match. The focused layouts have also allowed Blackmill to get very detailed with card design. Foxholes, trenches and blown-out vehicles are both realistically and tactically placed to provide cover for underserved attackers.
Isonzo’s Italian setting is refreshing and feels great to fight in. Second only to Battlefield 1, this is the most beautiful, colorful representation of WW1 I’ve ever seen in a game. You can tell Blackmill’s had plenty of maps capturing the WW1 we see in our heads—flat, muddy hillsides where nothing happy can exist—and decided to let go with postcard-worthy Italian landscapes, quaint villages, and strikingly beautiful mountains. The mountains in particular are effective, both very beautiful to look at and creating the most distinctive areas in Isonzo. One map starts at the base of a mountain with attackers pushing themselves at a great disadvantage. Once they’ve caught that, it’s the defenders’ turn to retreat to the other side with their tails between their legs.
gun show
Unfortunately, Isonzo’s classes are not as elegant as the cards. Again, it’s nice that rolls are easy enough to get in and be effective right away — my favorite is the Mountaineer, an exploration class with binoculars and a passive speed boost — but there’s just not enough variety here. Aside from the Officer, a special class limited to just two people per team, every role starts with shotguns that are exactly the same or to feel same as the last. A few classes can eventually unlock an SMG, pistol, or machine gun, but you have to play quite a few 35-50 minute matches to get there. That’s especially difficult when the most unique reels with only three to six slots are gobbled up straight away.
As much as I tried to become the only soldier on the team allowed to have a rifle scope on his rifle, I failed every time. It’s another example of Isonzo borrowing good ideas from elsewhere in the genre (in this case Tripwire’s Red Orchestra/Rising Storm), but mostly I ended up being a regular shooter, handing out ammunition and generally feeling unobtrusive.
It’s easier to stay alive when everyone’s a doctor, but it’s also very boring.
I wish Blackmill had been more adventurous with his kits. Some concessions I’m on, like having unlimited bandages to stop my own bleeding. Others are puzzling, like how my favorite class in every other milsim, the Medic, doesn’t exist in Isonzo. Instead, each teammate can heal each other by using a bandage on it (you just can’t heal yourself). It’s easier to stay alive when everyone’s a doctor, but it’s also very boring. Some of the biggest thrills I’ve had in Squad, Beyond the Wire, and Hell Loot Loose, was recklessly risking (or crawling) a teammate to revive a teammate and pay back their respawn ticket.
If I’m not craving anything other than the same rifle, Isonzo’s gunfight is pretty good. Bullets are extremely deadly – in my experience, one shot anywhere other than a limb is instant death. Vulnerability seriously raises the stakes when I close eyes with a bad guy and we race to widen our sights, but it can also be frustrating as hell. Forget the realism, I really hate dying and having absolutely no idea where the shot came from. If the camera zoomed in on my killer’s general location or even marked them after death, it would go a long way for me to learn the maps and know where I went wrong. This is a bit of immersion that I don’t mind breaking, especially considering that Isonzo already has less-than-real quality-of-life feedback such as hit marks and a kill feed.
There’s a lot I’d change about Isonzo’s progression, but my complaints never overshadowed the fun and intensity of the game’s scenic conflicts. It’s definitely a meat grinder – the kind where you often die from inevitable mortar attacks and everyone but the top five players have negative K/D ratios – but sometimes that feeling of exhaustion and brutality is exactly what I want from a war game.
It’s nice to have an FPS with the bones of a milsim and the comforts of Battlefield. Isonzo has one foot in two competing genres. That might be off-putting for milsim veterans, but Iszonso can be an effective bridge for traditional FPS fans to give the genre a shot.
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