The Great War: Western Front

The Great War: Western Front is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RTS game developed by Petroglyph Games and published by Frontier Foundry. It utilizes Petroglyph Games's own GlyphX engine.

The game was released on March 30, 2023 to good reception from users as well as critics with some concerns though regarding possible subpar performance.^[2]^[3] On June 28, 2023, the game received the 2.0.0 update with new content (units, an air mission, campaign objective events), as well as full modding and custom campaign support, bug fixes and performance tweaks.^[4]

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Epic Games Store
Green Man Gaming

Humble Store
Steam

All versions require Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.

Version differences

Victory Edition includes the base game, a digital field guide, wallpaper collection and the digital soundtrack.

Pre-purchase of the game granted users three days early access.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	DLC to upgrade the version of the game to the Victory Edition only.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
No microtransactions	None

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Victory Edition Upgrade Pack	Upgrades the game to the Victory Edition.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Data^{[Note 1]}^{[Note 2]} HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Petroglyph\TheGreatWar
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/2109370/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Petroglyph\TheGreatWar\Save
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/2109370/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents* folder in OneDrive on all computers.*
Steam Cloud

Video

Video options

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		^[6]^{[citation needed]}
4K Ultra HD		^[7]
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Exclusive Fullscreen also supported, named Fullscreen.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Controlled by the Render Passes setting which at maximum equals to around 8x anisotropic filtering.^[8]
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA with no option to disable it.^[9]
High-fidelity upscaling		FSR 1.0 ^[10]
Vertical sync (Vsync)		On/Off toggle.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Option available to enable/disable Hardware Mouse Cursor.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Controls options

Audio

Audio options

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Separate volume sliders available for Master, Music, Gameplay SFX, Ambient SFX, UI SFX and Unit response.
Surround sound		Options to adjust channels and their output levels.
Subtitles		On/Off toggles and subtitles themselves only available for Movie Subtitles and in-game Unit Response Subtitles.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		On/Off toggle named Play Audio When Not in Focus.
Royalty free audio		Enabling Streaming mode prevents all licensed music from playing in all gamemodes.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
French
German
Italian
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Turkish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play		Versus 1 vs. 1

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	XAudio, Miles Sound System	v2.9
Interface	Scaleform
Cutscenes	Bink Video	v2.7i

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10	11
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-4590 AMD FX-8350	Intel Core i7-8600K AMD Ryzen 5 2600
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	13 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 AMD Radeon R9 390 DirectX 11 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 AMD Radeon RX 580

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Minimum system requirements are for average 30 FPS, 1080p at Low settings. Recommended system requirements are for above 30 FPS average, 1080p at High settings.^[10] Additional more advanced system requirements are also available for 1080p, 1440p and 4K all at Ultra High settings at 60 FPS.

SSD is recommended

Notes

↑ All configuration files are encrypted.^[5]
↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/2109370/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (2109370) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-31
Confirmed, noted in in-game credits.
↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-31
Hold 83% review score on Steam as of writing.
↑ The Great War: Western Front review: alternately compelling and exhausting, which is probably deliberate - Rock Paper Shotgun - last accessed on 2023-03-31
"An accomplished interplay of tactical and strategic challenges with some dissatisfying but thematically appropriate compromises, and poor performance."
↑ June Update (2.0.0) | Patch Notes - The Great War: Western Front - last accessed on 2023-06-28
↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-30
Confirmed with launch version, all files in the Data are encrypted and have the .MEG extension.
↑ Enjoyed the demo but I think I need glasses... - Steam - last accessed on 2023-03-31
"Screenshot of the demo version clearly shows proper support for ultrawidescreen with the UI-position scaling accordingly."
↑ The Great War: Western Front | Official Launch Trailer - Available Now! - last accessed on 2023-03-31
"This trailer and many other trailers of the game are in native 4K."
↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-31
Setting Render Passes to Low equals with game's then default AF is equal regarding texture filtering to when setting render passes to low with AF forced to 0x though the graphics control panel. Though, when setting Render Passes to max shows clear AF, which mostly resembles forced 8x AF. Though, have to remark that the Render Passes setting adjusts a lot of aspects of the game's rendering, thus these results aren't 100% reliable.
↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-31
Artifacts in-game totally does not look like TAA softness and in the registry settings "ScreenAA" is mentioned (set to "1", thus enabled); most likely pointing to FXAA as that is often referred to as "screen anti-aliasing" in the world. Also, foliage shows lots of shimmering with all settings to Ultra and FSR 1.0 off, most likely also ruling out any MSAA and TAA.
↑ ^10.0 ^10.1 LAUNCH DETAILS AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - last accessed on 2023-03-24

[Note-6] All configuration files are encrypted.^[5]

[gamedir-7] When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[Proton_path_note-8] 3.0 ^3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/2109370/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (2109370) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-31
Confirmed, noted in in-game credits.

[2] Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-31
Hold 83% review score on Steam as of writing.

[3] The Great War: Western Front review: alternately compelling and exhausting, which is probably deliberate - Rock Paper Shotgun - last accessed on 2023-03-31
"An accomplished interplay of tactical and strategic challenges with some dissatisfying but thematically appropriate compromises, and poor performance."

[4] June Update (2.0.0) | Patch Notes - The Great War: Western Front - last accessed on 2023-06-28

[5] Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-30
Confirmed with launch version, all files in the Data are encrypted and have the .MEG extension.

[9] Enjoyed the demo but I think I need glasses... - Steam - last accessed on 2023-03-31
"Screenshot of the demo version clearly shows proper support for ultrawidescreen with the UI-position scaling accordingly."

[10] The Great War: Western Front | Official Launch Trailer - Available Now! - last accessed on 2023-03-31
"This trailer and many other trailers of the game are in native 4K."

[11] Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-31
Setting Render Passes to Low equals with game's then default AF is equal regarding texture filtering to when setting render passes to low with AF forced to 0x though the graphics control panel. Though, when setting Render Passes to max shows clear AF, which mostly resembles forced 8x AF. Though, have to remark that the Render Passes setting adjusts a lot of aspects of the game's rendering, thus these results aren't 100% reliable.

[12] Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-31
Artifacts in-game totally does not look like TAA softness and in the registry settings "ScreenAA" is mentioned (set to "1", thus enabled); most likely pointing to FXAA as that is often referred to as "screen anti-aliasing" in the world. Also, foliage shows lots of shimmering with all settings to Ultra and FSR 1.0 off, most likely also ruling out any MSAA and TAA.

[launchdetails-13] 10.0 ^10.1 LAUNCH DETAILS AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - last accessed on 2023-03-24

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[5]

Developers

	Petroglyph Games
Publishers
	Frontier Foundry
Engines
	GlyphX^[1]
Release dates
Windows	March 30, 2023
Reception
Metacritic	73
OpenCritic	74
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	RTS
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Historical, World War I