Should You Buy Gallipoli – Ottoman Fronts? Full Review & Parents' Age Guide
A red flare... You disembark from the cursed boat, soaking yourself to the knees, and think it might have been better to wait a few more meters. Distracted by that first mistake, you don't realize that your buddy from the boat has just taken a bullet to the forehead. You're pulled out of the shock by the superior British commander whose military shorts you're wearing, who threatens to break all your biscuits and spill your tea or whatever.
You don't hear half of it because bullets from some kind of Maxim gun are flying around you. The world turns to grey as you throw yourself into a conveniently placed crater. Maybe they planned to build some kind of skate park there but gave up after digging; who knows, although it's strange they planned so many of them... You try to aim the rifle you polished countless times late into the night, but damn it — your hands are shaking.
You realize you're wounded, and that the wound needs to be dressed, but where is that damned bandage now? Finally, relief comes in the form of artillery fire from distantly anchored ships onto the enemy position. You come to your senses and see the commander, whose mustache hides a smile, load another signal flare into his little pistol.
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Gallipoli Is Not Normandy, But the Invasion of V Beach
It's not Normandy, but the invasion of V Beach. You're in one of the most significant battles on the southeastern front of the First World War, which you can experience in a slightly less dramatic version in the fourth installment of the WW1 shooter series, Gallipoli – Ottoman Fronts.
This is an exclusively multiplayer first-person game, focused on a somewhat more realistic portrayal of the older brother of the Second World War. After the solidly received trench warfare of the Western Front in the first installment named Verdun, the disappointing sequel set on the Eastern Front called Tannenberg, and the most recent installment so far, Isonzo, with its battles through the Dolomites, which showed concrete progress and steered the series in the right direction, I'd say Gallipoli continued the positive trend of this series, but unfortunately also once again proved that these are games that always lack that certain something for a better impression.
That certain something is, above all, content. It wouldn't hurt to have at least a short single-player campaign, especially when the game uses bots to fill out the number of combatants on the field. But fine, we can paint the decision to make it an exclusively multiplayer experience as tactful. Still, even there we only get one game mode, this time called Expeditions, with just five maps, though quite spacious ones. If you've played Verdun / Tannenberg / Isonzo, all I can do to explain what's new in Gallipoli is praise the "feeling of warfare" they've really worked hard on.
A Short Documentary — "Who's Fighting Whom?"
What follows is a short documentary, "Who's Fighting Whom?" The Battle of Gallipoli was a conflict between British forces (Australian and New Zealand troops, also present here, were still counted as British at the time) and the Ottoman Empire. This southeastern theater of war took place from the beginning of 1915 to the beginning of 1916 and was conceived as a "quick" intervention and an attempt at checkmate against the Western powers.
This would remove the Ottoman Empire from the overall conflict by controlling the passage from the Aegean into the Black Sea, making it possible to bombard the capital. The fierce efforts of British troops, supported by the French and with light nudges from the Russian navy, ultimately proved insufficient, and the Turks, with mild help from the Germans, won. Projector off.
Gallipoli: The Expeditions Mode
The Expeditions mode in Gallipoli lets you conjure the horrors of that battlefield and measure your strength against other players in 25 vs 25 clashes across five battles, where, depending on the historical context, you play as a British or Ottoman soldier. Only two flags are present, unlike in previous games, even though the French also participated, along with a bit of the Germans and Russians, as I wrote earlier. This took away a bit of the charm of the earlier games, where ethnically different units also served as distinct classes.
Gallipoli clearly has a strong role model in the Battlefield series, so it's hard not to compare it to, for example, Battlefield 1 (2016). While Operations mode threw players into longer matches focused on sequentially resolving objectives, Expeditions mode makes the attacker's task to capture a vital point to advance. They call this Headquarters, although it doesn't necessarily have to be an enemy base. Using the example of the landing at V Beach, the first such objective would be to capture a nearby fortress. Once that task is completed, the defenders must retreat to the next line of defense with their "headquarters," which this time might even be a local doghouse, so "headquarters" sometimes sounds like an overstatement.
There are usually three to four such zones that attackers must capture, and the method of capturing varies quite nicely. Besides the attackers first having to overcome the defense and be numerically superior for long enough for that territory to temporarily pass into their hands, once that's done they must complete an additional task to push the defenders to the next point. Sometimes it's about building fortifications and constructing their own headquarters to put the kettle on; sometimes it's about destroying whatever makes that point special, like a cannon or something similar, and planting a (dynamite) bomb in proper Counter-Strike fashion.
Classes and Roles in Gallipoli
Of course, defending players get a chance to pinch the fuse, blow on the kettle/tea being brewed, etc., or above all try to make sure the number of attackers drops to zero as soon as possible. Besides the main locations whose capture is necessary to continue the attack, there's usually an additional point of interest that provides a good position for bombarding attackers with mortars or dug-in machine gun nests. However, capturing those positions is optional for attackers — desirable, but not necessary.
In fact, there are many classes to choose from, and their usefulness depends heavily on your role. Certain classes, like the sniper or especially the light / heavy machine gunner, strongly gravitate toward the defensive role, while, for example, the officer was very useful to me on the attack. If you take the light machine gunner, i.e., the type who operates a machine gun light enough to carry around, you can forget about any kind of "hip fire," i.e., shooting from the hip. Lie down, buddy, get set up, and then let loose... Not exactly suited to an attacking role.
On the other hand, that heavy machine gunner, for those who haven't come to loathe that word yet, is the best example of how much this game is also heavily focused on building. Every class has the option to build something on the field, whether it's some cobbled-together ammo or a first-aid depot, or constructing a Maxim machine gun on the spot, all with the same digging-like animation; who cares. I personally enjoyed playing the officer class the most, because the earlier Isonzo already introduced much-needed changes to that class, and it's similar here. You're slightly limited with a revolver of relatively weak range, but the ability to use signal flares to call in bombardment on a certain area or request an aircraft flyover, plus the ability to construct a point where other players can "hatch," significantly boosts the attackers' chances.
However, there's only one officer, two snipers, etc.; only the engineer and regular soldiers can be selected in unlimited numbers. Since every class has some advantage, standard soldiers have less weapon sway. The weapon always sways, let's be clear, and a designated key must be held to stabilize it. So it's not limited to snipers, as is usually the case. The Battlefield influence is also visible in medics who can revive wounded players.
A New Wound-Patching Mechanic
The novelty is that you now have to patch yourself up if you're grazed, which can be tedious since it happens often and takes a while. Ignore it too long, and you'll bleed out, shockingly. Suppressive fire plays a huge role in this. Even when bullets miss you, they still take a toll on your nerves, as the panic is represented through a gradually darkening screen, significantly increased weapon sway, and visibly shaking hands. All of this really contributes to the tension of the situation, dramatically exaggerated in the intro of this text, and it's great. I'm writing this with a maniacal grin.
In general, the gameplay is much faster than, say, Verdun, although it's still a game dominated by slower, repeating-fire weapons. Movement, thankfully, still strives to be realistic, so don't expect to get up quickly from a prone position, and with most weapons even the aiming itself isn't exactly instant, there's a bit of sluggishness to it. Too bad there's no leaning mechanic. It's still a game where you move exclusively on foot; planes and ships are used only for bombardments, dead horses are here purely as a motif of war, and this battlefield takes place right before the first appearance of tanks.
Visuals and Sound
I mentioned earlier that Isonzo already brought significant improvements in numerous areas, including visuals, and this installment builds on that momentum. At times it's a genuinely beautiful game, which generally hasn't been a hallmark of this series, but the shortcomings unfortunately show here too, in the form of somewhat clumsy movement from the computer-controlled characters. So, the visual presentation is significantly better, but the animations still lag behind. It also wouldn't hurt to have a bit more variety in the characters' faces, because I get the feeling I see the face of a fallen comrade in every third character... or is that just my trauma?
The sound is excellent for rifles, shelling, and especially the background music, which intensifies during critical moments of the match, especially when listening with our C6-100 series headset!. It's a shame they reduced the frequency of the depressing groans of wounded soldiers, which used to characterize the whole series quite a bit. The visual improvements also require slightly stronger hardware, but I'm glad to report that the technical side is further blessed by a lack of glitches or crashes, and a match is found easily and quickly.
In Conclusion
Gallipoli is a worthy addition to a series that above all struggles to give the First World War the same kind of attention in gaming that the Second World War gets. The obvious improvement in visual presentation, along with the standardly high level of authenticity in the battlefields, weapons, and uniforms, is enough to grab your attention, and the numerous classes open up different approaches to overcoming your opponent. On top of that, some novelties have been introduced, like the need for a medic class and frequent self-patching, which won't sit well with some players, but the main flaw remains the content.
We probably won't get a single-player campaign because the development team has consciously decided against it, so I won't count that as a major minus. But having only one mode with five maps doesn't deserve to be overlooked either. At 30 euros, the price is affordable, but because of this game's similarity to Battlefield, we have to ask whether it's better to go back to that game or buy this one. I think the final decision will be influenced a lot by the number of cheaters involved.
Rating
7.2/10 — Gallipoli – Ottoman Fronts earns a solid but unspectacular score because it delivers genuine atmospheric and visual improvements plus a tense new wound-patching mechanic, but is held back by thin content: a single game mode, only five maps, and no single-player campaign.
Recommended Age
16+. This is a realistic, multiplayer-only WW1 shooter with graphic depictions of gunfire, wounding, bleeding out, and battlefield death dressed in a tense, high-stress presentation (screen darkening, shaking hands, suppressive fire panic effects). There's no cartoonish buffer here — the tone leans grim and historical — so it's best suited to older teens and adults rather than younger kids.
Gemini AI Summary
Gallipoli – Ottoman Fronts is the fourth entry in the Verdun/Tannenberg/Isonzo series of realistic WW1 multiplayer shooters, this time recreating the 1915–16 Gallipoli campaign between the British Empire and Ottoman forces. It's exclusively multiplayer, offering one "Expeditions" game mode across five large maps, where 25v25 teams attack or defend objective points using a variety of classes (officer, sniper, machine gunner, medic, engineer, regular soldier). New to this installment is a self-patching wound mechanic and intensified suppression effects (screen darkening, shaking hands) that heighten tension. The game shows clear visual improvement over prior entries, though enemy AI animation and lack of a single-player campaign remain weak points. Reviewer score: 7.2/10 recommended for fans of the series and realistic WW1 shooters, but with reservations about thin content for the €30 price.