11-11 Memories Retold

Overall: 6.5/10
Story:
11-11: Memories Retold is a casual narrative adventure game that offers a deeply emotional story that weaves together personal tales set against the backdrop of World War I. The game follows two protagonists—Harry, a Canadian photographer, and Kurt, a German engineer—who, despite being on opposing sides, share a journey that highlights the tragic and humanizing aspects of war. One of the most striking aspects of the narrative is how it avoids glorifying conflict, instead focusing on the characters’ personal struggles, motivations, and relationships. Harry is initially drawn to the war in pursuit of adventure and a sense of purpose, but soon faces the harsh realities of what he witnesses and documents. Meanwhile, Kurt joins the war effort to find his missing son, driven by a father’s love rather than any sense of patriotism. As the story progresses, both characters face moral dilemmas that challenge their initial views on the war. The narrative’s structure, with its alternating perspectives, allows you to experience the complexities of the war from both sides, offering a nuanced portrayal of how everyday people are swept up in the greater forces of history. The watercolor-like art style enhances the dreamlike, reflective tone of the story, making each scene feel like a memory being... retold (I know, I'm hilarious) which is fitting for a game that emphasizes the lasting impacts of war on individuals.
What truly makes the story resonate is its focus on humanity, forgiveness, and the futility of conflict, themes that are further strengthened by the game's quiet, contemplative moments between the grander events of the war. The narrative avoids simple heroics and instead dives into the emotional toll of loss and the yearning for redemption, which aims to leave you with a lasting, melancholic reflection on the true cost of war.
However, despite how much I enjoyed the narrative, it is absolutely worth noting that for better or for worse, this is a rather short game, which brings the price into question. You can finish 11-11 in anywhere from 4.5-6 hours for one playthrough, and while there are multiple endings, you don't really have to replay the entire game to see them due to the chapter select feature . As cool as I think this game is, I really can't say it's worth the regular $30 simply due to its length alone.
Gameplay:
In regard to the previously mention "better or for worse," this was foreshadowing the gameplay. The gameplay is one of the most underwhelming aspects, falling short of what one might expect from a game with such a compelling narrative and art direction. The mechanics are simplistic, often revolving around basic exploration and object interaction, which leaves you feeling more like an observer than an active participant in the story. Puzzles are disappointingly straightforward, offering little in terms of challenge or intellectual engagement. This lack of difficulty results in gameplay that feels stagnant, as the actions rarely lead to a sense of accomplishment beyond advancing the plot.
In addition, the alternating perspectives between the two protagonists is an interesting narrative tool, but it fails to significantly impact the gameplay itself as both characters largely play the same way other than Harry's camera, which is a missed opportunity to differentiate their experiences mechanically. The slow pacing of the game, combined with repetitive tasks, contributes to a feeling of monotony, which can make the overall experience feel more like an interactive movie than a fully-fledged game. As a player who values a rich narrative, 11-11 still holds lots of appeal, but if you're seeking more engaging or dynamic gameplay, then this is absolutely not up your alley and will probably fall into the 'walking sim' genre due to its lack of depth and interactivity.
World:
The world and level design create an emotionally resonant, visually stunning experience that feels like walking through a living painting. The hand-painted/watercolor art style captures the harshness of war and the beauty of untouched landscapes, creating a powerful contrast between the desolate battlefronts and peaceful civilian areas. Each setting—whether the grim, narrow trenches or serene forests—feels carefully crafted to evoke both the brutality of war and moments of human tenderness. While the game’s linear paths can feel restrictive, each level design each is unique and open enough to encourage minor exploration and feel genuine without losing scope. Environments are rich with symbolism, mirroring the internal struggles of the characters and enhancing the narrative’s emotional depth. The attention to detail in objects like photographs and personal items adds a human layer to the design, making the world not just a backdrop but a key part of the storytelling.
Visuals:
The visuals of 11-11 are honestly hit or miss. Either you're going to love them or absolutely hate them, but there's no doubt it's one of the most defining and memorable features, taking a bold artistic approach with a painterly, impressionistic style that sets it apart from traditional war games. The graphics feel like a moving painting, with brushstroke textures and soft, fluid edges that give the world an almost ethereal quality. This style perfectly complements the emotional narrative, with warm, golden tones used for reflective, peaceful moments and cooler, darker colors for the grim realities of World War I. The environments, from desolate battlefields to serene countryside scenes, are meticulously crafted, with stunning attention to detail in lighting and shadow, adding depth and immersion. While the impressionistic style can sometimes obscure finer details during fast-paced scenes, it adds a universal, timeless feel to the characters and world which overall makes it not just a backdrop, but an integral part of the storytelling.
Music/Sound Design:
The music and sound design are among the most powerful aspects, creating an immersive and emotionally resonant experience. The orchestral score is hauntingly beautiful, using strings and piano to subtly underscore the game's themes of war, loss, and hope. The music never overpowers the narrative but instead complements it, swelling at key moments to heighten the emotional weight of the characters' struggles. The sound design is equally impressive, with ambient noises like distant gunfire, footsteps in the snow, and the hum of wartime environments creating a deeply authentic sense of place. This meticulous attention to detail immerses you deeply in the world, making both quiet, reflective scenes and tense, dramatic moments more impactful. Together, the music and sound design form a crucial part of the game's emotional narrative, enhancing your connection to the characters and their story, and leaving a lasting impression long after the game is over.
TL;DR:
11-11: Memories Retold offers a deeply emotional and visually stunning experience, with a story that focuses on the human side of World War I through its two protagonists—Harry and Kurt. The game's narrative excels at highlighting the personal cost of war, complemented by its unique watercolor art style, which makes each scene feel especially unique. However, while the narrative is engaging, the gameplay falls short, offering basic exploration and repetitive tasks that make it feel more like an interactive movie than a fully-fledged game. The visuals are bold and impressionistic, though this style might not appeal to everyone, and the hand-painted aesthetic can obscure details during fast-paced moments. The sound design and music are standout features, adding emotional depth to both quiet and intense scenes. All-in-all, given its short 4.5-6 hour length and slightly limited replay value, I recommend 11-11, but it is best experienced on sale rather than at full price.

This is an all-round beautiful and artistically sophisticated game in the setting of World War I. 11-11: Memories Retold consists of a variety of well-composed, deeply emotional scenes, underpinned by gorgeous painterly graphics. The art style is the star of the show here. Just looking at a random screenshot taken from the game feels like entering a different world through a piece of art. You can stop at any given moment in the game and I guarantee that wherever you are, the scene will look like an oil painting. The usage of thick strokes, color and light is phenomenal and creates a very unique vibe that looks unlike any other game I've played.
11-11 is not only a beautiful game to look at but also knows how to grab the player with its writing. In the course of the game, you will perceive the events of World War I through the eyes of 2 people who are affected by the war in different ways. What I appreciated here was the fact that not only one specific view of the events of the war is given; it's not your typical "good vs. bad" depiction of this conflict that would betray a very shallow understanding of the socio-political situation that led to this disastrous tragedy. Instead, the horrors and the trauma that this war brought are conveyed through human perspectives on both sides of the frontline.
If you enjoy games like Ubisoft's Valiant Hearts and you want to learn more about the final stage of the first world war while immersing yourself in stunningly beautiful environments, you should give this game a try. Be warned that some of the events and characters depicted here are truly tragic and may break you emotionally more than once. Unfortunately, this is the nature of war. This makes the game all the more important though as 11-11: Memories Retold is a true lesson in humanity.

This game is a little harder to rate, because some things are extremely well made, while others are just boring and badly implemented. I was really looking forward to try out all the different ways and endings when I started, but was happy when the first run was over after 5-6 hours and I will not play it again.
What kept me playing was the story, which is good most of the time. I also liked the art style, music and voiceacting.
But there are a lot of things I didn't enjoyed. First of all, the story is in some parts really great as I said, but others parts feel, like pupils were forced to write a story about WW2. The characters and there choices/reactions are often really strange and not coherent. This wouldn't be such a big problem, if the gameplay was good.
But most of the time, you have to fulfill boring tasks were you walk from a to b in rather uninteresting and sometimes confusing enviorments and you will be animated to search for not really interesting bonus items and additional tasks, while you never know, if your next action will trigger the next level or will lead to a collectable or something else. In between you have to sneak, which is also pretty badly integrated and don't feel like it should be in the game.
Lastly, you should only play with a controller, because the MK control are extremly weird.
This review maybe sounds harsh, but this could just have been easily a much better, which is a shame.
For example a save function, would have made the game much more enjoyable, because I was interested in some of the choices outcomes, but there is absolutly no chance, that I drag myself again through all the uninteresting parts of the game.
Right now, it's on sale and the price of ~4€ is okay, if you're still interested, but the regular price of 24€ is way to high.
I will give it a thumbs up in the end, because I enjoyed some parts of the game and there is a good amount of content for the price, but one playthrough was enough for me.
6/10

Truly beautiful, emotional and delicate story. Characters portrayed very nicely and the setting of war reminds me of Remarque books.
Small little gem this game! 🔥

This game is masterpiece. Art style might not suit everyone but even if you don't like it the story is absolutely incredible. I love the art style, music, voice acting and atmosphere. Gameplay is good as well. Runs perfectly on steam deck and is incredible game if you are traveling somewhere for few hours. Even if you are not and want a game you can finish in 1 day or a weekend this game is must have. To developer's I must have to say biggest thank you. Bravo. I will replay it again. This game deserves more recognition. 10/10 must play.

This is the first of a number of reviews I'll be doing a few months after finishing the game in question. Tell you the truth, work caught up with me for a bit. I spend my days carefully focusing on precise wording, and when that's at its fullest, spending time trying to put my thoughts on games into words sounds exhausting. The games got played, though – that wasn't challenging – and so I've got a few I want to write about now.
11-11 is plainly a game put together with a tremendous degree of care. Visually, it's incredibly stylised, inheriting both the use of colour and the visible brush strokes from impressionism. The fact that this is retained through the animation process is seriously impressive – and it made sense to discover upon researching for this review world-renowned Bristolian animators Aardman were responsible. The music matches this style perfectly while also evoking the first World War period in which the game is set.
And yet, while I enjoyed 11-11 enough that I don't regret playing it, it didn't grab me as I'd hoped. The aim is clearly to paint (pun intended) a story of the incredible human cost of war; the substantial commonality between the people who, by order of their leaders, would kill each other; and the cowardice of those sending children to die. By all means, it communicates all those things very well – and in particular, the narrative device of dual protagonists on either side of the battle is perfect.
However, it doesn't do enough to make me care about its particular story. Both World Wars have been done to death in essentially every form of media at this point. If you're British, you've also probably had the 'trenches suck' message hammered in repeatedly through formal education too. It takes something really substantial to stand out, and unfortunately, 11-11 doesn't manage that.
Largely this is due to its bland characters. Kurt is a German family man who signed up to find his son after his unit goes missing. Okay – not groundbreaking, but it's good to have an instantly comprehensible motive and one which emotionally resonates with the player. Moreover, this is narratively committed to – every action you take as Kurt is rationally connected to the goal of finding your son.
Harry is a Canadian photographer who ends up on the front line, with Brits fighting as part of the Entente. What's his deal? Well, you see, he clearly shouldn't really be there, he has a sweetheart at home and... uh... he has a camera? The one thing to be said for Harry is that, like Kurt, he is very easy to empathise with. There are plainly very few people who aren't like fish out of water when presented with such unrelenting brutality as that faced on the front lines.
I haven't been overly critical of either of the two designs as they stand alone here. Truth be told, the overall blandness stems from their simplicity. They are canvasses to be painted (pun still intended) on, and at no point do we encounter more than the most basic of motivations, like rats chasing cheese through a maze. It is assumed but not examined that they lack patriotic motivations to engage in conflict (which is bizarre, given how fervent war euphoria was at the outset, and given the strength of propaganda on all sides – again, topics which are not examined). Their respective motivations are reflections of those they love – but their loved ones are not themselves remotely developed as characters (Kurt's family are to a minor degree, but not nearly as much as I'd like given the comparative gluttons for exposition they are).
The one part of their characters which does work extremely well stems from their interaction. Both Harry and Kurt are monolingual (probably – I don't know whether a Canadian called Harry Lambert – and thus presumably from British rather than French Canada – would likely have learned some French at the time). Thus, when they meet, communication is difficult. Meaning often gets lost. And this – cross-cultural nonverbal communication – is a theme which, while it has received some examination, even in the context of WW1 specifically (At Night All Blood Is Black has sat on my bookshelf for some time), is something which is capable of fitting the gaming medium superbly well (Chants of Sennaar, Journey etc).
Sadly, this device is solely narrative and not really explored through gameplay. In fact, gameplay-wise there isn't much to 11-11. I wouldn't expect there to be – it's there to provide a world to be explored, to experience the audiovisual aspects ahead of traditional gameplay challenges. The closest one comes to gameplay is in trivially easy interactive elements (one example comes to mind which is essentially playing snap, except your opponents have the reaction speed of Muhammad Ali after his cognitive decline (and perhaps after his death – I didn't wait around to find out quite how long I would be given to react).
Indeed, while in one's exploration, there are a number of collectibles to be found, my experience of these was often frustration – it was often fairly unclear which route to follow to progress, and collectibles were often placed in dead ends at the end of substantial diversions, such that finding a collectible would feel like a missed opportunity to get to the next bit.
Given how the game plays, more light is shone on the themes, characters and plot.
I have made my thoughts on the themes and characters clear already, but by contrast, the plot is quite good. It's paced well, and has a reasonable number of twists which are unexpected but don't fall to feel conceited. The finale in particular is done excellently, and might have garnered a slightly more favourable review had it been more prominent in my memory when I wrote this review.
While trying to avoid spoilers, you will betray while feeling entirely justified, and be betrayed while wondering if you would've done the same thing. You'll sacrifice while wondering if you're making a mistake, and fail to make sacrifices you feel you will regret. There is a light amount of choice involved but as I understand it, it has minimal significance prior to a small number of alternative endings, all of which I believe to be broadly similar.
However, there's also missed opportunities. I've talked already about the lack of theme and character development; but there's an extraordinary number of missed opportunities to add narrative depth to the world the game exists in. In every episode, there's a large number of characters standing around, all of whom are interactable. They generally have one line to say on repeat, and none of it tells you much about them or your surroundings. Likewise, there's room for depth in narrative exposition in what you find around the world – and again, this goes unexploited. It's sad to see, as it's clear that the level of care in audiovisual design I mentioned at the outset isn't replicated in the game's writing.
Truth be told, there's still nothing fundamentally wrong with 11-11. Its issue is that everything which is immediately apparent is done to an incredibly high standard, and that creates expectations which aren't met elsewhere. However, if you're after an emotional war story in video game format, it'll scratch that itch raw; and there's enough to enjoy that if you can avoid thinking about what could have been, you'll have a good time.
6.5/10 (I wish I could post a review without giving a thumbs up or down)

rating : 10/10
I can't expect more from this game.
this game is a masterpiece.
beside of that paint graphics, story is great and worth to try out