Casterman -No pasarán le Jeu/ The Game (Volume 1)

Casterman -No pasarán le Jeu/ The Game (Volume 1)

Authors: Christian Lehmann , Anthony Carrion

Collection: Universe of authors
Series: No pasarán
Volume: 1
Pages: 64
Dimensions: cm 21.8x32x1.3
Price: € 14.95
ISBN: 2203032936
EAN: 9782203032934

Release Date: 25/04/2012

In a rather unusual video game shop in London (or “Londres” as the French call it), three French teenagers on a school trip discover “The Most Prestigious Of The Universe”.  The old and quirky shop owner tells them that they will never have experienced anything similar.  Their sold!

Back in France, the students play the game and are amazed at the level of realism, precision and sophistication in this game of war, death and conquest.  They are hooked on the game.

The game modes offer melee, strategy and so in wars from history such as Viet Name, the Napoleonic Wars and medieval conflicts.  The games arouse such an empathic connection in the teenagers that their daily lives become disrupted. One of the trio has to be rushed to hospital suffering from shock.  And the most violent of the three, driven by an extremely rough family environment, abandons himself with unhealthy glee to the horrors he commits in the game space.
All will soon realize that the line between the game and reality becomes increasingly blurred and there are some very dire consequences –and a neat little twist at the end.

There is almost a Manga influence in the art.  I was left wondering just who the old man was but his final panel in the story gives you –or me- a little chill.

So if you go into a video game store and an old guy offers you a game do NOT ask “What is it?” because he may well reply: “It’s a game, young man. A game you’ve never played….”

RUN!