This War of Mine

After reading the positive reviews about the deep immersion, hard choices and realism, I was completely disappointed by this game. It's not even remotely close to what some people say about it. All I got was a ton of frustration because of the game's limitations and shallowness which make it incredibly dull and annoying. Now, when I read any news that the 11 bit studios is developing another game, people already have high expectations because "This War of Mine was so cool, so their next game will also be cool". I literally can't understand how it's even possible to think this way and I will probably stay away of their games forever if this is one of their most famous productions. TL;DR: Totally overrated, don't waste your time.

This game takes a lot of time just trying to scavenge for materials, and if by chance you don't have enough materials, you stand around not doing much. I love the concept of the game, which is why I rated it so highly, and I also enjoy playing it (although it makes the hours pass with little to show for it). Most of my time playing around with this game (at least the Linux version) was downloading the necessary 32-bit libraries for it to work on Fedora. Don't let that hold you back, though. It's beautifully designed, although it ran slowly and the graphics were jumping around a bit until I changed it to fullscreen mode. I didn't really understand why. While the game has a 3D feel to it, it's entirely a 2D scroller. The character development is well-thought-out and the story line is solid. It's not necessarily an easy game to play. If you're looking for a fun game to play, that's going to pass the time quickly, and you have an extra $5 to spend, I'd suggest this game. It's interesting, and I'm hoping that minus a few improvements that something more comes of this.

From the start the game wants you to take it with some seriousness by presenting the conflict from the civilians perspective and grounding it in reality(based from the siege of Sarajevo), but all fall flat because the game give you zero to no background to the war and why both the rebels and the military make such hideous acts like killing civilians, bombing schools and hospitals or being hostile to the all that moves. The character are a problem too, since they lack any kind of deep and are only know by a few telephatic messages about their past and how they feel about certain events that are presented to the player has we progress, there is a lack of interactiong among the survivors, you never see them trying to comfort another survivor that is sad or depress, help when one is sick or injured or even fight because they have conflicting personalities or views on the situation; the only "interaction" that you have are remarks that are in given their "Bio" and are extradiegetic. At last is the gameplay, the survival elements are very arcade, making the tone and message of the game pretentious, events can happen during the day at your base in fixed hours, between 9:00 to 11:00 am, or during scavage which can give you one of two possible scenenarios to some places that you visit, outside of that and some messages that can be found in certain locations, there is no other interaction with the enviroment, which have no weight to the game and could be easily changed for a zombie apocalipse without affecting its "tone", the resource management its simplistic, there is a handfull of crafting materials but the rest is delegated to three of each type, charactes never need to drink water or never get food poisoned for eating raw meat, alcohol is the magic solution to any problem and firearms use the same type of ammo. TL;DR: The game want to be taken seriously but the arcade mechanics affect the way the war and the affected are presented maken it feel pretentious.

So I've completed a fathers promise and I am mindblown beyond imagination. This game is miserable, dark and unforgiving. But it is one of the best games I've played for a long time. It kind of reminds of Escape from Tarkov, but from a civilian point of view and a bit more forgiving. + Amazing story concept + Graphic Art + Music + Interface and content to interact with - A bit stressful since you don't know how many days you have to fulfill the main objective of a story (relating to a fathers promise, dunno about the others). Great game that is worth your money and the creators deserve your purchase!

A challenging experience on an emotional level. A great management game with many decisions. Playing as a civilian trying to survive in a country torn by way changed the way I think about survival priorities. The complexity of the decisions you face makes it feel very realistic. This game should be required as curriculum in schools. A real gem