This Canadian war game tells an incredible story about soldiers from Newfoundland

When it comes to Canada’s incredibly talented and diverse lineup of developers, there aren’t many quite like Unreliable Narrators.

In 2024, the Montreal-based indie studio released Two waterfalls (our dance)a narrative adventure game set in the 17th century Canadian wilderness. Games that take place in Canada are few and far between to begin with, and Two waterfalls was made all the more striking by its indigenous story of a French woman and Innu hunter, developed in close collaboration with First Nations members.

Now Unreliable Narrators is working on a new title about a different, but also often overlooked, part of Canada’s history. Enter The Caribou Routean adventure game that follows a young man named Fisher of the Newfoundland Regiment in 1915 when it participated in the Gallipoli campaignthe Anglo-French operation that aimed to gain control of the Dardanelles Strait, conquer Constantinople and drive the Ottoman Empire out of the First World War.

More than 1,000 Newfoundlanders landed in Suvla Bay on September 30 and eventually captured what became known as Caribou Hill in an effort to deal with heavy sniper fire. Over the course of four months, approximately 30 Newfoundlanders died in action, and another 10 died due to disease.

While there have been many games about war, few, if any, explore this specific side of it The Caribou Route particularly interesting. In an interview with Mobile SyrupAccording to Unreliable Narrators, the idea came from the studio’s co-founder, who had a relative who was part of the Newfoundland Regiment. From there, the development team saw a rich storytelling opportunity.

“What’s interesting about that story and why we chose to do it is that at the time of the Great War, Newfoundland had no army at all. It was just a bunch of fishermen, lumberjacks and the like who just rose to the occasion,” explains Francis Rufiange, the lead designer of Unreliable Narrators.

“And that was the feeling of these people who shouldn’t have been there. They are not experienced soldiers. There was no army in Newfoundland. Yet they formed a regiment […] that in itself is worth telling, about all the sacrifices they made. They have achieved a lot, but it was not expected of them.”

While noting that World War I is arguably a more ‘commercial’ historical setting, especially compared to something like World War I Two waterfallsit is still radically different with its focus on Newfoundland.

“It’s this regiment from a remote place in Canada, just regular people experiencing some of the most hellish landscapes and conflicts that existed at the time, and some of them lived to tell the tale,” he says.

Something else that should prove interesting when it comes down to it The Caribou Route‘s view of Canadian history is that Newfoundland was not actually part of the country at that time. It was not until 1949 that the Dominion of Newfoundland became the 10th and final province to join the Canadian Federation. This too made the regiment a particularly fascinating subject for unreliable narrators to explore.

“They were a small fishing community isolated from their European central power. And they had a strong desire to prove themselves. When news of the war came across the Atlantic and all that, there was a big push to show that Newfoundlanders were capable and could contribute to their country,” says Louis Nantel, creator of Unreliable Narrators.

Fisher and some of his fellow soldiers. (Image credit: Unreliable Narrators)

Of course, there are many games about war, and most of them feature some sort of shooting gameplay. And indeed, Rufiange admits that there were discussions about this more commercial route during early pre-production, but ultimately the decision was made to do something different.

“With the team that we have, it didn’t feel right to make an FPS game or a game with a lot of action. It’s always been for us to tell emotional stories first. But the follow-up to this is, ‘Okay, how do we tell that story that’s a lot about fighting and fighting and horror and doing things with other people that are unimaginable?'” he explains.

“In that sense, killing in a first-person shooter is very gamified. You get points and killstreaks and all that. There’s an audience for that. Obviously on our end, for the audience that we’re targeting, people who like narrative games, people who like historical games, how do we incorporate those themes without it feeling unnecessary or gamified?”

And while you don’t routinely mow down soldiers with a rifle, The Caribul Route will have the ability to die, something that was absent in it Two waterfalls. Still, this isn’t meant to make the game mechanically challenging, Nantel says, but rather to emphasize that this is “just the reality of something that can happen” on the front lines.

“The challenge is more how the story challenges you and what your character and the characters around you are going through,” Rufiange explains. “Like a war film, for example, which contains a number of difficult themes that you have to come to terms with.”

The Caribou Route aims to be a more psychological portrayal of war rather than another bombastic first-person shooter. (Image credit: Unreliable Narrators)

Instead, Unreliable Narrators wants the difficulty to come from learning more about the harrowing circumstances these inexperienced Newfoundlanders found themselves in.

“We didn’t want to tell a traditional story that you find in an FPS, about making these huge advances and conquering this part, or moving the line to capture or retake this village, or whatever. It was more about the human side and the human toll of the war, and Gallipoli happens pretty much at the beginning of the war, and is such a disaster,” says Rufiange. “It’s such a disaster, both in terms of lives lost, yes, but also just the complete mess they’ve been put in and the living conditions.”

It’s this story of survival and “making the best of a terrible situation” that he says Unreliable Narrators wanted to focus on. “They trained for months, and here they are, sent to this place – then the Ottoman Empire, which is now Turkiye – thinking they’re going to achieve something great. But then reality hits them in the face. So it was almost like a coming-of-age; they all grew up immediately when they got there. It’s no longer a summer camp – it’s a disaster.”

“I think a lot of World War I stories are about learning what modern war actually is, and I think this certainly fits into that framework as well,” Nantel adds. “There were a lot of mistakes on the part of the officers, a lot of strategic mistakes and overall a great waste of life. And I think that’s part of the story that’s very interesting to talk about.”

The Caribou Route features story-driven exploration. (Image credit: Unreliable Narrators)

There were also a few areas where Unreliable Narrators could build on the work it had done Two waterfalls. First, Nantel notes that the team “made so many mistakes” in the first game, which has now made it “much smarter” in the way it handles technical systems and planning.

But there is something else that has improved it The Caribou Route is the team’s research process. As Nantel explains, it was “very difficult” to study Two waterfalls‘ portrayal of Innu traditions and 17th century early settler Canada, beyond the records preserved by the indigenous communities themselves. Of The Caribou RouteHowever, there is much more information available about the Newfoundland Regiment and the Gallipoli campaign.

To create the game, Rufiange says part of the team went to some “major museums” in Newfoundland, including The roomswith a section entirely dedicated to the province’s regiment in WWI. They also spoke to historians across Canada.

But while the developers carefully studied the time period itself, they say they didn’t want to base characters on specific people in history.

“We decided that this is going to be a completely fictional story, but within the confines of the experience of the Newfoundland regiment and where they lived. We didn’t want to make any real-world associations; it’s a very sensitive subject with people losing their lives and all that,” says Rufiange. “So we just wanted to create our own story and respect the whole experience that the Newfoundland Regiment had at Gallipoli and then in France and other places.”

Enter the front lines The Caribou Route. (Image credit: Unreliable Narrators)

Ultimately, Unreliable Narrators hopes that gaming’s unique status as an interactive art form will help engage more people with important and underrepresented historical stories such as Two waterfalls And The Caribou Route.

“It’s identification and just the idea of ​​being immersed in a world and having to make decisions – having to interact with it yourself, having to actively engage with the medium as a character in the story,” Nantel says of the educational potential of games.

“That’s why all our games have a first-person perspective, because we want to put you in the body of the character itself. That’s what it’s about. And this allows us to show you that historical period so you can really experience it much better than we could through a documentary or film or something like that. […] It’s really about embodying someone who lived through this period in this historical setting so you can better understand what their challenges were.”

The Caribou Route is launched on PC (Steam and EGS) and PS5 later this year. A free demo is now available at Steam.

Image credit: Unreliable Narrators