Trench Tales

I went in expecting a budget early access curio and came out genuinely unsettled by what Talking Drums has built here, mostly alone. The setting is one of the more distinctive things I've seen in indie action this year: the fantasy kingdom of Verden, caught in a perpetual WWI nightmare, where Gothic castle ruins press up against flooded trenches and rusted industrial machinery. Swamps, bunkers, shattered town squares, all rendered with moody lighting that players in the community have singled out as punching well above the game's weight class. When the atmosphere clicks, it really clicks. The genre mix is genuinely ambitious. On paper it reads as a third-person shooter with souls-adjacent structure, and that's basically right. You build a loadout from a wide arsenal, ranging from pistols and sniper rifles through to flamethrowers and grenades, with a weapon customisation layer covering barrels, stocks, scopes, and silencers. Layered on top are supernatural abilities: slowing time, a wall-piercing vision mode that doubles as a scouting tool, burst energy, and rapid self-healing. Enemies drop ashes on death, which feed into a boon-and-cosmetics progression loop that adds some light risk-reward texture to clearing rooms. Death has consequences tied to that currency, so careless play costs you. The bones of something memorable are definitely present. Here is where honesty matters. With a mixed Steam rating sitting at roughly 69 percent across several hundred reviews, and a noticeably softer 60 percent in the most recent window, the community signal is clear: this is unfinished in ways that go beyond the expected early access caveats. Sound design draws consistent complaints, with placeholder audio and desynchronised footsteps undermining the atmosphere the visuals work hard to build. The AI can be passive to a fault. Controls and the UI feel loose, and the map has a reputation for disorienting players without enough guidance to compensate. Save data bugs have been reported. These are not minor quality-of-life niggles; a few of them are the kind of friction that will push impatient players to a refund before the world has a chance to earn their trust. What keeps this worth watching, and arguably worth buying for the right person right now, is the developer's active presence. Talking Drums has been shipping updates, responding to feedback directly, and the community around the game feels collaborative rather than abandoned. Recent update notes reference AI improvements and level artwork passes, which tracks with the pattern of gradual iteration. The concept, a Resident Evil-paced, souls-flavoured shooter set in a supernatural WWI hellscape built by one person, is singular enough that I want to see where it goes. If you can accept a genuinely rough early access experience in exchange for early access to something with real craft behind it, there is something here worth your time. If you need a polished product today, come back in six months.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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