We remember a time when most FPS games were war games. World War II was especially interesting to devs and gamers alike for a while. Nowadays, we don’t see many games that cover events from WWI or WWII, and those we do come across seem weirdly unique, with much less focus on shooting.
The Caribou Trail is a game that takes you back to World War I. There is no winning here; surviving the mud is all you can strive for. We spent an afternoon in the trenches of Gallipoli, and it is a miserable experience that is also eerily fascinating.
Zero Kill Count: The focus is entirely on endurance.
Trench Chores: The first-person gameplay revolves around non-violent tasks.
Campfire Rituals: Between missions we cook, share folklore, and talk with our squadmates.
Digging Trenches and Bad Stew
In The Caribou Trail, you play as Fisher. As a fisherman, he signed up for an adventure with two of his buddies. We play in first-person, but there is no real combat here. As we’ve said, you are stuck in a war, but you aren’t trying to kill 100 of enemies in a minute.
Instead, you just do chores. You’ll be cutting barbed wire in no man’s land, digging trenches, or collecting dog tags off dead soldiers. These are disturbing missions, and they honestly made us feel a bit sick. Between these unsettling tasks, we sat at the camp. Cooking stew in battered pots was about all we could—or wanted—to do.
And then, darkness falls.
The Caribou Trail leans heavily into ghost stories, showing how the soldiers are slowly losing their minds. We had to make choices about whether to shoot into the dark or just hide in the mud. The most important thing here is to just keep your friends sane. It is a very slow burn. We loved every moment of it, but we can see how not everyone will have the same patience.
A Slow Weekend?
If you want a fast shooter set in WWI, then this definitely isn’t for you. If, however, you want an interactive history lesson based on actual veteran testimonies, then this hits hard. You will not forget this experience easily. The characters are well-written, and the total lack of a kill count forces you to care about the people. The Caribou Trail is a good game with a truly great story.
ID Card
- Developer: Unreliable Narrators / ManaVoid Entertainment
- Publisher: Unreliable Narrators / Indie Asylum
- Platforms: PC (Steam, Epic Games), PS5
- Release Date: May 14, 2026 (PC) / July 7, 2026 (PS5)
- Genre: First-Person Narrative Adventure
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