Verdun adds Americans and Belgians in free Horrors of War update

The First World War multiplayer FPS Verdun has grown significantly with the release of the free Horrors of War expansion that brings night-time combat to the game in the Champagne region of France. There’s also a new Squad Defense co-op mode that pits groups of four players against attacking waves of AI enemies, more than 40 new weapons, new squad types including the Belgians and Americans, and even “gore settings.”

Gore settings promises to let players “experience the real horrors of WW1,” which I rather strongly suspect is neither an accurate statement nor something that any sane person would ever want to live through in the name of entertainment. But to the credit of developers M2H and Blackmill Games, they do seem to be approaching the subject matter a little more sensitively than, say, Sniper Elite 4.

“In order to get a more realistic war-torn feel to the game the developers have added bloody injuries such as soldiers losing limbs. This has been done in a respectful way as the developers understand that this is not an easy topic to cover,” they wrote. “For those that find it too realistic or even shocking, the developers have made sure that the new gore setting can be set to different levels of intensity, even allowing the players to disable it completely if they choose.”

The update also adds a Belgian sentry squad, a Doughboys rifle squad, and a US Marines engineer squad to the game, along with two new German units, the Schutzen sentry squad and the Pioniere engineer squad. New weapons include the M1918 BAR, the Stielhandgranate, the Ross rifle (which you’ll probably want to throw away the moment you lay eyes on a Lee-Enfield) and the C96 Mauser.

The Horrors of War update is live now. Details are on Steam.