The Gallipoli campaign of the First World War is the subject matter for this unique new indie game, which tries to shed light on the involvement of some forgotten combatants.
Playing a video game is different from watching a film or TV show, in that you’re an active participant. That gives you some agency within its events, whether simply where to aim your gun and when to pull the trigger, or making other decisions that have far-reaching consequences. In some cunningly designed games that sense of free will can be used to manipulate your emotions. Few players emerge from Shadow Of The Colossus with their consciences unscathed, let alone from the visceral horrors of The Last Of Us Part 2.
Guilt isn’t the only way games can elicit a deeper sense of involvement and The Caribou Trail is a good example of using the medium to enlighten, by making you a small part of a lesser known piece of history. It focuses on the experience of troops from Newfoundland – then not part of Canada, but a dominion of the British Empire – in the tragic Gallipoli campaign of the First World War. Given the region’s tiny population, the number of troops it sent to fight in Europe had a significant effect on its culture and economy.
As you soon find out, the men are almost all fisherman, used to setting out in trawlers to catch Atlantic salmon. Arriving in war time Turkey, they’re baffled by much of what they see, which is useful because their bemusement generally matches your own. They have no real idea of what they’re doing there, just that they have to obey orders issued by officers who regularly seem just as uninformed.
Starting with a night-time amphibious beach landing, you soon get an impression of what’s in store for you. Artillery rounds soar overhead, creating distant explosions, officers bark orders, and the men talk amongst themselves. As you help row the boat towards the shore, you get the first of many vignettes of your fellow Newfoundland men-at-arms.
Their relative poverty means not all elements of their uniforms are matching. They also haven’t received the same level of training as the British Tommies, but their patriotism and pride in what they do makes them determined not to let those disadvantages show. Their reputation as soldiers appears to have made them famous for being incredibly dedicated and hard-working, if a little wayward and hard to manage.
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Another surprise is that they talk with a beautiful Irish lilt, sounding emphatically neither British nor Canadian, and The Caribou Trail’s joys are in exactly that sort of detail. Slowly stirring the soldiers’ thin gruel, mashing up hard tack biscuits with the bottom of your ladle, you listen to the conversation of your comrades, showing you what they ate while revealing their views of the war and wider society. If you’re at all curious about this offbeat slice of history, it’s a thought-provoking process.
These conversations form the heart of the game. Most actions you undertake are scripted, although you will need to find your way around your camp, trenches, and no-man’s-land using an authentically basic paper map and compass. It’s irritatingly fiddly, and although no doubt true to life, means that most of the time we found it easier to just wander around using random chance to guide us to objectives.
It’s a recurring issue in The Caribou Trail, with interactions regularly feeling limited, on rails, or unnecessarily clumsy. You have wire cutters to snip strands of barbed wire, but you can only use them on the exact sections of fencing you’re supposed to. Try and use them elsewhere and the prompt doesn’t appear.
Its simple art style manages to convey the harrowing events, but hokey production values mean scenarios where you’re running to avoid an artillery bombardment or conducting missions designed to put you under pressure fail to evoke the intended panic. It’s a pity the game’s good intentions are so regularly thwarted by a meagre budget.
Worse than that, nearly three hours into the game it lost our save data, forcing a restart from the very beginning. It’s not the sort of problem you should have to deal with in a released game, although as it turned out there wasn’t actually much content left before the credits rolled. Still, having to go back through the litany of perfunctory mechanics, unskippable cut scenes, and almost complete lack of player choice, grated considerably more the second time around.
Using games to draw you into unsung elements of history is a wonderful idea, and The Caribou Trail succeeds in communicating details that wouldn’t be obvious reading about Gallipoli in a book. It’s a shame its rough edges and underinvestment in playable elements let it down. If you’re a First World War buff or have a specific interest in Newfoundland’s involvement, there will be some interesting titbits, but if you’re looking for a traditional video game prepare to be disappointed.
The Caribou Trail PS5 review summary
In Short: Newfoundland soldiers’ deployment in the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War is fascinating subject matter but the paltry interactive elements undermine the game’s good intentions.
Pros: Interesting insight into a lesser known aspect of the First World War, that weaves plenty of historical detail into its partially fictionalised narrative. Competently voice acted.
Cons: Action scenes lack tension or drama. Very little traditional gameplay and what there is tends to be dull and repetitious. Full of bugs and predictably short.
Score: 4/10
Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed) and PC
Price: £9.79
Publisher: Manavoid
Developer: Unreliable Narrators
Release Date: 7th July 2026
Age Rating: 16
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