Idalium Oderbruch – Berlin · 1945
A flooded meadow under a heavy overcast sky, reeds standing in still water that mirrors the clouds; smoke on the far horizon. A timber-revetted trench with sandbags on the parapet and duckboards sunk in the mud, dead trees on the skyline. An empty floodplain of dry grass under a low gray sky, a column of black smoke in the distance. The flooded meadow again in light rain, rings spreading on the water.

Idalium

Spring 1945. The Oder, the Seelow Heights, Berlin.
Seen from the chest of one soldier, then another.

A camera on your chest, and nothing drawn on top of it.

Wind moves the grass and the smoke. That is how you read it.

It rains on both sides of the river.

In April 1945 the Red Army crossed the Oder for the last time. Idalium puts you in the mud on both sides of that crossing, through a camera strapped to your chest. Nothing on the screen will help you.

What the screen
does not show you

  1. Crosshair
  2. Ammunition
  3. Health
A folded paper field map of a firing range, contour lines and wooded areas printed in brown and green, lying on a dark table.

Every round has weight
and time of flight

Muzzle velocity, gravity and drag, simulated for every shot. The wind changes over the course of a fight, and you read it from flags, smoke and grass. Rounds go through wood and thin walls and skip off stone and steel at shallow angles. Scopes give you no help with range. One or two rifle hits will kill you.

Close-up of a Karabiner 98k bolt handle, rear sight and walnut stock in soft studio light.

One from each side

Side profile of a Karabiner 98k bolt-action rifle on a dark background.
Karabiner 98kGermany · 7.92×57 mm · 760 m/s · 5-round clip
Side profile of a Mosin–Nagant 91/30 bolt-action rifle on a dark background.
Mosin–Nagant 91/30Soviet Union · 7.62×54 mmR · 865 m/s · 5-round clip
Also carried
GermanCartridgem/s
Gewehr 437.92×57 mm746
Kar 98k with ZF 397.92×57 mm760
MP 409×19 mm400
StG 447.92×33 mm685
MG 427.92×57 mm740
Soviet weapons
SovietCartridgem/s
SVT-407.62×54 mmR840
Mosin with PU scope7.62×54 mmR865
PPSh-417.62×25 mm490
DP-287.62×54 mmR840
Close-up of a Mosin–Nagant receiver and bolt knob in soft studio light.
A single dead tree on the bare slope of the heights, more dead trees beyond under a white sky.

Two soldiers,
the same ten weeks

Two campaigns of ten missions, ten to fifteen minutes each. One follows a German infantryman and the other a Soviet rifleman. They are in the same battles, on opposite sides of the same streets. You can play either alone, or with friends and bots in the empty places.

  1. MarchKüstrin
  2. 16–19 AprilSeelow Heights
  3. 24 April – 1 MayHalbe
  4. April – 2 MayBerlin
A burnt-out church tower above a square, dark smoke drifting across the sky.
An avenue of bare trees past gutted brick houses, smoke rising beyond the roofs.
A machine-gun position dug into a trench line, sandbagged, looking out over open ground.

They know only
what they see and hear

The bots fight under the same rules you do: the same ballistics and the same sway, with no wallhacks and no perfect aim. What they do have is patience. They flank, they suppress, they hold cover, and they coordinate as a squad. They react about as fast as a person does. They are meant to be hard.

How it is played

Connection

One player hosts and everyone else connects directly, with a relay when that fails. Voice is proximity-based, so the other side can hear you too.

A dugout entrance in a trench wall, its door shut, smoke rising behind the ridge.

Not for sale.

Idalium is made by a few friends for a few friends. It has no store page and won't get one. To play, ask someone who already does for an invite code.

Windows x64 · also runs under Proton Build not yet available