Though on opposite sides, Kurt and Harry prepare to go over-the-top at Passchendaele. The Allies intend to gas the Germans out, but they have prepared gas masks as a defence. I continue my attempt to play all games in my Steam library with a fourth part of this Let’s Play.

Passchendaele

We start with Kurt in the trenches of Passchendaele, who is wearing a gas mask. As we move around we can hear his breathing through the mask.

It is raining this day, and we have to wade through deep pools to traverse the trenches. We get asked for help finding a gas mask that was dropped in one of these pools.

We get a letter from Katrin who tells us that Lucie has not worsened, though she hasn’t gotten better either.

We switch to Harry, who is also wearing a gas mask. As usual, he has his bird with him and he needs to find Barret.

On finding Barret he is ordered to go over-the-top and to start taking pictures. As we climb the ladder a tank drives past and we are thrust into the battlefield.

The camera flies over the battlefield and back to Kurt. He has lost his cat and wants to find it so he can bring it to Lucie.

We don’t find the cat, but we do find a broken communicator. We repair it so our soldiers can better communicate.

In the battlefield Harry moves toward the main objective: a church that lies between them and the Germans. We move through taking photos as we go.

We come across a soldier who has a suggestion for how we can push forward.

At this point we are able to switch characters manually again. So we switch to Kurt and cut off the communications.

We continue looking for the cat, and learn that it is in the church. We go over-the-top to look for her.

We come across a sniper on the roof. We are given a choice to distract or not to distract the sniper here. We choose not to.

We find the cat on the second floor of the ruined church.

We are taken back to Harry, who once again is looking for Barret.

We move toward the cemetery. On our way we come across a gas canister that we cut off.

We also find a soldier named Daniel trapped in the wreckage of a zeppelin. We pull him out, saving his life.

He points us in the direction of Barret and we keep moving toward the church. There is a sniper on the roof we need to rush past as we enter the ruins. Perhaps we should have had Kurt distract him after all…

We find Barret standing over the ruins, backlit by the setting sun. He orders Harry to take a picture of him.

Shortly after the picture is take, a shell hits and throws them apart.

Kurt finds Harry and pulls him to safety. Their reunion is short-lived, however, as German soldiers rush into the church.

Now we have to avoid being seen as Harry, while Kurt distracts the guards. This is an interesting section of the game. A slight twist on a typical stealth game, where one character can be seen, and actually needs to be seen so the other can escape.

Unfortunately, we don’t play this section well, and Harry is caught by the German soldiers.

Prison Camp

We jump ahead to four months later. Harry is in a prison camp and is to be transferred the next day. Another prisoner, Julian, has a plan to help Harry get his camera back.

We take some time to explore the camp and find some secrets. We are warned against entering certain areas by the guard. Harry can’t understand what they are saying, but the message is still clear.

We also learn that Harry hasn’t had any letters the entire time he’s been here.

Julian’s plan turns out to be simple. He’s cleaning the guard block today, so all he needs is a distraction so he can grab Harry’s effects.

We send Harry’s pigeon in to annoy one of the guards. The distraction allows Julian to grab what he needs.

He sneaks out and hands the camera, notebook, and letters from Julia to Harry. Now he needs to sneak past the guard and hide them in his bunk.

After he hides them, Harry realises he has Kurt’s address, and that gives him an idea.

We briefly switch to Kurt. He is asking for leave to come home, but he has not been granted it. Instead, he writes a letter to his wife and daughter.

Harry’s plan is to change the address on his movement orders so he can be closer to Kurt. To do so he’s going to need a bigger distraction than an annoying bird.

The football has landed on a nearby roof. We send Harry’s his pigeon to knock it back to the ground.

We are asked to join the game and Harry shoots for the goal. He misses, but he still strikes his true target.

We rush into the officers quarters and are now in another stealth section. Sneaking past the guards, we eventually find Harry’s movement orders and make the adjustments.

This is followed by a cutscene. While being transferred, Harry is reading through Julia’s letters from the past few months. She wonders why he hasn’t responded and eventually says, “I love you…“

Kurt meanwhile has been given his leave, and has returned home to his wife and daughter.

Countryside

We choose to start with Kurt, and we find out that he has only ten days at home. Lucie is downstairs calling for breakfast.

We walk past Max’s room, but Kurt can’t bring himself to go inside.

Lucie asks for some bread and we start to look through the drawers and cabinets. The way you have to search through so many drawers here makes it feel like you don’t know where things are kept. I don’t know if this was intentional, but it gives that feeling of someone who has been away from home for too long, and doesn’t know where anything is anymore. It’s a small detail, but something I picked up on.

As we search, Lucie asks Kurt several questions that he does not answer. We also find out that Lucie wants to call the cat “Lottie”.

After we find the bread and feed Lucie, Katrin comes in and asks Kurt to get some firewood for the oven, and some water.

We go outside and find firewood easily enough. We fetch water from the well and bring it inside afterwards.

We switch over to Harry who is now onboard a German train. He is being kicked out of the passenger cabin, where he’s not supposed to be.

We go into the next cabin which is full of starving German soldiers. Harry decides to get a few pictures to show people after the war.

He remembers a hungry girl in the passenger cabin and decides to find food for her. At the very back of the train we find some chocolate.

On our way back to give the chocolate to the girl, we also give some to the German soldiers.

We get back to the passengers cabin. There is no guard to kick us off here this time so we give the rest of the chocolate to the girl.

Harry muses on how helping this girl reminds him of helping a German soldier with a cat. Then we switch over to playing the cat now known as Lottie.

Lucie is calling for her. We play around in the garden a bit before going back to Lucie.

She takes the cat to Max’s room, and we jump around on the furniture. After jumping on a model of a blimp and causing it to fall, Lucie collapses.

We switch to Kurt, who hears Lucie fall, followed by Katrin calling for him.

He goes upstairs and uses the stethoscope to listen to her heartbeat. But there is little he can do for her.

It’s at this point Kurt hears a knocking at his door. We are able to switch characters at this point. We do so, and confirm that it is indeed Harry knocking on the door.

Kurt answers the door and is surprised to see his strange friend.

Still, he and his family take him in. After settling in, he takes Harry to the nearby village of Alpirsbach to get supplies.

While Kurt looks for medicine for Lucie, Harry searches for food. Kurt has trusted Harry with his ration ticket. As Harry I wander around and take pictures of Lottie and Kurt.

We can switch characters at this point so we switch to Lottie. As the cat, we find we can knock secrets off the rooftops.

We switch to Kurt to collect these secrets and talk to the locals. Many are in mourning, though thankful Kurt informed them of their sons’ fate.

We switch to Harry. He tries to use the ration ticket, but people scorn him, calling him a murderer. I find this ironic, since Harry hasn’t actually killed anyone in this war.

He comes across a “Granny Gang” playing cards. It turns out one of them speaks English and offer him the chance to gamble with his ration ticket.

We don’t take them up on the offer. Instead, we find a young German girl who exchanges the ticket for a loaf of bread.

We switch back to Kurt. He visits Dr. Siegfried in his garden. He is mourning the loss of his son, Jonas. He thanks Kurt for giving him the devastating news, then gives him the medicine.

Kurt tells Harry his plan. He wants to build him a balloon and they need to gather supplies. As Harry we gather up fabric, knocking some from a washing line using his pigeon.

We also need a barrel, but the bar won’t let Harry inside. Kurt goes in instead, and distracts the bartender.

Meanwhile, Harry sneaks in the back and drags an empty barrel out.

As they return these items to the farm, we are treated to another shot of the bird flying over the landscape. It joins other pigeons as it makes its way back to the farm.

During the voiceover in this section, Kurt ominously mentions that he should never have trusted Harry.

Back at the farm Kurt and Harry are moving supplies into the barn. Harry opens the barn door, and they push the barrel in together.

As they enter the barn, Lucie screams for her father. Kurt rushes to find out what’s going on.

He finds Katrin and Lucie in Max’s room, presumably where Harry is staying, looking at on of his photos. A photo of Barret holding a gun to a German POW.

We switch to Harry, and we hear Kurt’s angrily screaming his name. We rush to see what is happening.

I need to take a moment here. Because as I was rushing to the room I realised. I realised who it was in the picture. And I couldn’t keep playing. I had to take a break because I knew what was coming. And I didn’t want it to happen. It’s rare that I get this connected to a video game character.

I finally get over my hesitation and we take Harry up the stairs. Kurt screams at Harry, holding the picture of his son’s execution to his face.

At this moment we are given a choice: we can punch Kurt, or we can walk away. We choose to walk away.

We enter into another cutscene. Kurt decides to leave early. He is still searching, not for his son anymore, but for his son’s killer.

Harry has nothing else left to do. He resolves to build the balloon himself, and attempt a daring escape.

Separation

We join Kurt as the Germans are trying to cross a bridge before the Allies blow it up.

We get shot, then awaken next to a radio. Kurt fixes it, and we learn that Barret is near.

Katrin has let Harry stay despite what happened between him and Kurt. They have a routine now, and

Harry goes down to feed Lucie after he wakes. She asks for a big slice of bread, and Harry obliges.

After this, there is a knock at the door. Harry answers and is given a letter from Barret. In it, he apologises to Harry, and orders him to go home to Julia.

Harry goes back to work on the balloon.

We rejoin Kurt during a German retreat after a failed offensive. It is late in the war now and the Germans are fighting a losing battle.

He is walking in the opposite direction of the other soldiers: towards the enemy. He has been told there is a Canadian captive there.

We are warned of snipers and during the next part we have to avoid them. This is the first time we have to use crouching to avoid detection.

We make it past the soldiers and find the Canadian captive. He shows him the photograph and learns Barret’s name.

Meanwhile, Harry dreams of escape. I notice in this part that Max’s room has changed. It has no door and no toys inside. It has become Harry’s room.

Harry continues to work on the balloon, and Katrin updates him on Kurt as much as she can.

We return to Kurt, who has captured a translator. Since they can speak German, Kurt interrogates him.

We are given choices between shaking him and threatening him. Eventually we resort to threats and the prisoner reveals that Barret is station at Nieuwpoort.

This is an intense scene. We see a side of Kurt we haven’t seen before. The lighting helps to sell how dark things have gotten for Kurt at this time.

Another cutscene, this time with Katrin showing Harry the letter. She begs him to help stop Kurt from throwing his life away.

Kurt is a deserter now, but he doesn’t care. He never joined to fight a war.

Harry plans to use the balloon to find Kurt. He leaves Katrin and Lucie to go on his search.

Next Time

We seem to be close to the end now. By next week I will have finished the game and be able to give more thoughts on it. It’s been an emotional ride so far, and I don’t doubt there’s more to come in Kurt and Harry’s story.