Gallipoli Review

There has been a bit of a lull in the shooter genre lately, and then, all of a sudden, several games arrive at once. After a slight delay from the development team at Blackmill Games, Gallipoli has finally arrived on Xbox Series X/S. I’m also delighted to report that it has Xbox Play Anywhere support, meaning you can purchase once in the Xbox ecosystem and play on PC or handheld devices also. Shooters set across the World War 1 and 2 eras tend to gel well with me, simply because of the simplistic weaponry. After being a little undwhelmed with Hell Let Loose Vietnam and its current state, I was keen to get hands-on with this one, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is.

Tactical Tension In Every Trench

Gallipoli has been developed in a similar nature to all their previous titles. Pitting 25 vs 25 across the handful of maps on offer, it’s all about methodical and tactical play. Gunplay is intentionally weighty, and I don’t think it would play well if you could just sprint across maps at the same speed as, say, Battlefield. Players can crouch, go prone, and it’s possible to get stuck into the frontline or simply try and remain in cover from afar.

Trenches, smoke, dust, bunkers and more await you for moments of cover. There is nothing more satisfying than being in a spot where you can pick off clusters of enemies charging towards your defences. With ten different classes to choose from, there is always a class that is useful to aid your team. Some are limited, though, such as snipers. If you find yourself wounded, you can heal, and being downed provides an opportunity to be revived by nearby players. This uses a similar system to Battlefield, where you can just give up and die if no one is coming to your aid or you want to get back into the mix quickly.

This Is My Rifle, There Are Many Like It, But This One’s Mine

What I love about Gallipoli and any experience that Blackmill Games have pushed out is how it goes back to basics. You don’t need to constantly tinker with your loadouts and mess around with loads of attachments. Glance through those iron sights, take your shots and try to land them with precision. If you hadn’t guessed already, then Gallipoli is a boots on the ground first-person shooter than thrusts you into the World War 1 era.

At launch, there is just the one game mode known as Expeditions. Very similar in style to the popular mode in Battlefield known as Breakthrough. One team will be attacking in an attempt to push the enemy team back, whilst they try to defend. If the attacking team manage to push the defence all the way back, they are victorious. Defenders can claim victory by standing their ground and depleting the attackers’ tickets.

Full Crossplay Across All Platforms

First I’d like to give a big salute to Blackmill Games, not only for full crossplay functionality, but also the ability to switch it off for consoles only. Obviously you’re going to find many more servers if you leave crossplay on, but if you don’t fancy the competition against PC players, you can just play amongst the console crowd. Whilst there were less servers, I didn’t struggle to find any with almost a full amount of human players in. AI bots will fill in the gaps on each team if the server isn’t quite full, and they are actually quite intelligent and competitive. Not like on Call Of Duty, where they stand still shooting at you.

Showcasing The Brutality Of WW1

Whilst Gallipoli doesn’t have the visual flex of a triple-A shooter such as Call of Duty or Battlefield, it isn’t far off the mark. With five maps on offer showcasing historic battlefields from World War 1. They are all the perfect playground and pacing for the 25v25 warfare, with no areas ever feeling claustrophobic. Visually, the game leans into atmosphere and the chaos, and it really does pay off.

Bombardments from the air, the snap and crackle of rounds whizzing past your ears, the haze of the sun shining through smoke plumes. Attention to detail is fantastic, and they have really poured effort into the wartime physics and the brutality of that era. Watching your teammate be shot through the head or blown to pieces brings the gore to the frontline, and I’m all for that kind of realism.

Final Thoughts

Gallipoli is a fantastic multiplayer shooter that isn’t your traditional run-and-gun affair. The development team have done amazing work to capture the atmosphere of the Gallipoli campaign with accurate environments and WW1 bolt-action gunplay. What I love about all of the titles that Blackmill Games have pushed out is how they nail the pacing and teamwork aspect. If you’re looking for a fast-paced shooter, then this might not be your bag, but the trade-off is satisfying, realistic warfare.

If you fancy picking up a copy for yourself, which is discounted for a limited time on Xbox Series X/S, then you can do so HERE. Don’t forget that the game has Xbox Play Anywhere functionality, meaning you buy once and can play across Xbox Series X/S, PC and any handheld device compatible with your Xbox library.

Huge thanks to Peter Logan at Game-Drive for the review code for Xbox Series X