Video Game / War of Rights

War of Rights is a multiplayer first-person shooter being developed and published by Danish company Campfire Games, based on The American Civil War.

Set during the Maryland campaign of 1862, which infamously culminated in the Battle of Antietam, the game puts players in the role of soldiers fighting for either the Union or Confederates in engagements of up to 300 at any given time.

The game is notable for its meticulous attention to detail when it comes to rendering uniforms, weapons, and battlefields based on how they looked during the era. It's also notorious for its heavily grounded yet competitive gameplay, further incentivizing communication, army cohesion and unit formations.

In development since 2012, War of Rights was released as a Steam Early Access title on December 3, 2018.

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This game provides examples of:

• A-Team Firing: Played With. Breech-loading rifles and rifled muskets are capable of accurately hitting the general direction where they're pointed at, but still require either careful aiming or massed volley fire to maximize the chance of hitting distant targets. On the other hand, smoothbore muskets are so inaccurate at range that they're individually unable to hit the broad side of a barn, and thus are effective only with either buck and ball ammunition or volley fire.
• All-or-Nothing Reloads: Thoroughly defied. Reloading a weapon, whether it's a musket, breech-loading rifle or revolver, is a time-consuming risk and requires you to finish the entire procedure (with muskets taking the longest) before being ready to fire. This can become harrowing when confronting an enemy line and especially when said enemies are charging right at you.
• Alternate History: Downplayed. It's possible for skirmishes and clashes to have different outcomes from real life, even though the wider campaign still more or less plays out as it does historically.
• Bayonet Ya: One of the main melee options available for muskets and breech-loaders. While useful in a pinch, however, bayonets also reduce a weapon's accuracy.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: So far, War of Rights features three pivotal battles from the Maryland campaign (Harper's Ferry, South Mountain, and Antietam). These, however, are so sweeping in scale that the game splits them up into multiple playable maps showing different phases and mini-theaters within said battles.
• Bling of War: Among the cosmetic options for infantrymen (especially officers) on both sides are various regimental uniforms and sharp-looking formalwear based on the best attire the Union and Confederacy had at the time.
• Crippling Overspecialization: While each playable class has a specific role, certain ones such as buglers, drummers, and flag bearers are geared only for what their titles suggest, as they have nothing else to defend themselves with.
• Diegetic Interface: The game features a minimal HUD that can be switched off almost entirely. Aside from a separate map display and a compass, this also extends to how you have limited stamina and aiming down your firearm's sights is required to fire at all. Moreover, the in-game voice system works such that you could only hear those who are relatively close-by, making coordination and unit cohesion all the more relevant.
• Drums of War: Drummers not only help boost morale but can significantly shorten respawn times for their units, so long as they're active.
• Easy Logistics: Downplayed. Infantrymen do have limited ammo (having 40 rounds at most). Given how death is frequent on the battlefield, and respawning replenishes said ammo stocks, the odds of running out are fairly minimal. They also don't have to worry about their guns malfunctioning, either.
• Edutainment Game: The introductions and outros for the various maps include detailed narration explaining the historical context or the significance of the people and locations involved.
• Emergency Weapon:
  • Artillery crews are armed with short swords for close-quarters defense. It may not mean much compared to enemy volleys or bayonet charges, but it's better than nothing.
  • When the situation is such that there's little time to reload or fix bayonets, infantrymen can use their firearms as makeshift clubs in a pinch as a measure of last resort.
• Falling Damage: Falling from any reasonable height, such as from bridges or the second level of a structure, is enough to kill you.
• Fog of War: None in the conventional sense, but gunfire (especially after multiple musket volleys) can leave behind so much smoke that it easily obscures vision both for your side and the enemy's. This opens up valuable leeway to either sneak up or retreat to a more advantageous position.
• Glass Cannon: Usually positioned safely behind the frontlines, artillery can deliver devastating cannonades on enemy positions and with grapeshot, can serve as large shotguns in a pinch to whittle down advancing troops. On other hand, they take time to set up and aim, while their crews have little more than short swords for defense, making them especially vulnerable to charges if timed right.
• Heroic Second Wind: Even if one side is demoralized or severely on the backfoot, it's still possible for them to rally once more to turn the tide. This could also all too easily turn into a futile if bloody Last Stand.
• Mildly Military: Among the various customizations available for both sides are ragged uniforms and dirty civilian getups that just barely look presentable due to their general colors. Justified especially in the Confederacy's case due to uniform shortages.
• Morale Mechanic: Players are encouraged to work together in cohesive units to maximize their side's morale. Losing your flag, dying too far away from unit formations, or losing too many units at once are a good way to losing that very quickly.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Much like the real Civil War, there's considerable variety in standard uniforms, depending on the state or even individual regiment a unit's from. Among the most distinctive are New York's Zouave regiments and the rugged 14th Tennessee Infantry.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Gunfire and melee attacks are usually fatal. The ones that aren't, meanwhile, tend to put you within an inch of death anyway.
• Ornamental Weapon: Infantry and artillery officers are issued Model 1850 swords. While ceremonial and intended for issuing orders, they're still useful in melee as a last resort.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • How the Battle of Antietam is portrayed in the narration. Though a Union victory that helped lead to the Emancipation Proclamation, it came at a tremendous cost, being witness to the bloodiest single day on American soil, while General Lee and the Confederates would go on to fight another day.
  • In-game, it's easy for one side to win a match by the skin of their teeth, with the battlefield strewn with blood-soaked corpses.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Officers are also equipped with revolvers, which provide considerable short-range firepower and multiple shots before having to be reloaded.
• Scenery Dissonance: Many of the playable maps take place in rather picturesque backdrops, often in broad daylight, which rapidly clash with the ensuing carnage.
• Scenery Porn: Civil War-era Maryland and Virginia are brought to life in vivid maps, though some of these can overlap with Scenery Gorn, notably the partially-ruined streets of Harper's Ferry.
• Shell-Shock Silence: Being in close proximity to an artillery barrage, standing too close to a cannon firing, or simply being on a receiving end of multiple missed volleys will severely disorient you for a few seconds, causing most audio to drown out, your vision to become heavily muted, and your aim to be significantly worse.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Downplayed. Infantrymen can use buck and ball ammunition to turn their muskets and rifles into impromptu shotguns. While still somewhat effective at longer distances, albeit not as much as standard rounds, they're especially lethal in close-quarters.
• Standard Snippet: Triumphant if somewhat melancholy renditions of either "Dixie" or "Battle Cry of Freedom" are played at the end of a match, depending on who wins.
• Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: An average match involves capping a vital section of the battlefield, and holding it for a certain amount of time, or at least long enough until you can break the enemy's morale.
• Suddenly Significant City: Lampshaded. While some of the locales involved in the Maryland campaign have had some significance prior to the Civil War (notably Harper's Ferry and John Brown's raid), the narration points out how otherwise sleepy towns like Sharpsburg and the various farmsteads around them would become hotly contested battlegrounds due to the changing circumstances of both the Union and Confederate armies.
• Super Drowning Skills: Downplayed. Wading into water isn't an automatic death sentence, allowing you to ford shallow crossings, but the penalties become progressively more severe the deeper you go. This can range from not being able to load your weapon, to having to raise your gear above the water line and eventually outright drowning.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: War of Rights is notably challenging for newcomers. Anyone trying to "lone wolf" an enemy force or otherwise cheese through a match like an average multiplayer shooter will find out the hard way that the game's attention to detail extends to replicating the Civil War experience as much as possible.
• Urban Warfare: Many of the Harper's Ferry maps take place around homesteads, ruined structures and narrow town streets, which lend themselves more to close-quarters fighting.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: It is possible for players to kill their comrades, fire artillery on friendly positions, and go "Rambo" on (and subsequently dying to) enemies. The resulting deaths, however, will deal a dramatically sharp blow to morale, potentially giving victory to the opposition much sooner than otherwise.
• War Is Hell: On top of its difficulty, the game is notoriously unrelenting in showing just how bloody and harrowing the Civil War really was.