One of the games that a lot of gamers probably missed out on at this past year’s GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, is Bandai Namco’s 11-11: Memories Retold. It’s a World War I-based game featuring Hollywood actor Elijah Wood, and it’s coming out for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

The 17 minute demo from GamesCom covers actual in-game play, starting in 1916 Canada, with a hazy purple fog. The demo features a flashback sequence narrated by Elijah Wood, where he dons the role of Harry. The demo starts with a photography session of Harry’s love interest, Julia.

The game uses a painterly filter so that it looks like a moving water painting, which is both somewhat jarring but also very visually distinctive. While the filter ensures that the game has an almost inimitable quality to its aesthetic, I do think they need to up the resolution on the filter so that the brush strokes aren’t quite as pronounced. It doesn’t need to be as refined as Valkyria Chronicles, but if they don’t increase the overall resolution they need to reduce the post-processing so it’s just slightly less jagged, which in turn will help reduce the blurriness.

You can check out the gameplay demonstration below to get an idea of what the gameplay is about.

After the segment with Harry grabbing a job as a war photographer, we then see a German worker by the name of Kurt, who is putting in time and effort into building a Zeppelin.

In this way we learn that 11-11: Memories Retold will be like a 3D version of Ubisoft’s Valiant Hearts, which was another adventure-style World War I game.

While a large part of the game seems to be walking around and performing some mundane tasks, there are also some platforming segments as well, which we see where Kurt makes his way up the scaffolding.

During the talking segments we see that the game isn’t another one of those titles where it portrays all the Germans as evil. Instead, it portrays the Germans as people just trying to survive, many of whom were worried about their sons being sent off to war.

Also, opposite of Battlefield V, you won’t see a bunch of bionic British women and black samurai on the frontlines.

While I noted that the post-processing is kind of overbearing, I do think it works a lot better when we finally see Harry on the battlefield.

The war front looks a lot more dynamic.

It’s also interesting to see that players take on roles of characters on two opposing sides.

Instead of playing as soldiers, though, you’re basically just playing as two guys trying to survive; one a photographer who wanted to impress a girl he was infatuated with, and the other a father trying to find his son.

In a twist, the end of the demo features players taking on the role of a cat, which is kind of funny. It’s also reminiscent of playing as the war dog in Valiant Hearts.

The demo ends after players either choose to shoot or drop the gun when Kurt encounters Harry.

I do wonder if the rest of the game will maintain the level of intensity showcased in the GamesCom demo?

The game is currently in development by DigixArt, the same minds behind Lost In Harmony, which was made by Yoan Fanise, who was – surprise, surprise – the same mind behind Valiant Hearts.

You can look for 11-11: Memories Retold to launch for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.