This War of Mine

Good atmospheric and good mechanics you are always thinking about your next raid for supples the combat is focused on being sneaky with melee and tactical with ranged as you can be killed quite easily.

Great game showing war sucks!

This looks so simple. 2D platformer. And the gameplay is formulaic. Get the bits. Build things in your shelter. Agonise over whether to save up for the big upgrade, or make the water filters and rat traps because you'll need food soon. But the snow is coming too. Cold can kill you. War is lethal in so many ways... It is a game of choices, pratical and moral. Choosing what to make. Choosing who to send out scavenging at night, who should stand guard, and who can have a good night's sleep. Choosing who to send. The fighter? The sneaker? The scavenger? Or the cheerleader, because she's the only healthy body left? Do you help the strangers knocking on your door? What if they propose something bad? Do you steal from the innocent? Do you defend? And the biggie: do you kill? You're civilians, not soldiers. Dilemmas about. Choices have consequences, sometimes only apparent in the summary, if you make it to the ceasefire. What sets this game apart, is atmosphere. The music, for one. It is uniquely different, and like all the best music, it guides feelings. Sombre, serious, and quite beautifully unique. The characters have simple backstories that they gradually share. They react to the unfolding events, both in mood and comment. I got this game when it was first released on GOG. And it's been the one game I keep coming back to for another blast, like an old friend. Simple mechanics, easy enough to play. The authors have created plenty of challenging groupings of survivors for you to try out. You can make your own, too. Using your own pictures and profiles, but still limited to the same core set of personalities and professional skills. They have added new venues and refreshed old ones over the years. It has limited replayability, but there's more than enough here to keep you entertained for many tens of hours. Particularly if you try all the combos of people, including those you might feel don't even deserve to survive. Until you realise, they are people too.

I didn’t know what to think of This War of Mine when I first bought it. I was looking for mild entertainment when I had a little time to spare. The concept intrigued me enough. However, I never imagined that I would be gripped by this seemingly straightforward and simplistic game. The story is deep and compelling, the characters rich with their own unique talents, flaws and vices that provide a great challenge to gameplay. The very simulation of what people have to go through in a war-torn country is devastating and depressing, yet proves that one can find means of survival. To choose to save yourself or those that come searching for help make the game somewhat more realistic in content and concept, as each character has their own opinions in the matter and not all too friendly, as human nature is diverse. As life is about choices, whether you choose to help someone or are pushed to steal or kill for your own survival, I think this game really nailed it. The feature I love the most about the game is the construction of tools and stations to further improve your quality of safety and survival. I have always believed that one can always construct something out of nothing, aptly illustrated in the game. I do think that, it would have been an added quality of the game that, if a character who did not possess a specific skill like another character had, that constant use of a station or creation of a resource could grant them that skill, making for more efficient and realistic gameplay. Needless to say, this game was a poor choice for something that provides little entertainment, as I have clocked numerous hours and days playing, finishing one scenario after the other. I find pure enjoyment in every hour I spend and am quite surprised to say that, This War of Mine, competes against my other favourite games.

I usually hate survival games, this is the first one I've really liked. Simple and logical interface, gameplay mechanics, the characters have uniqueness, and the whole game is much more about the experience than memorizing crafting recipes and break the game economy with math. I've especially liked that there was no tutorial at all. Just like the real civilians haven't got one before the bombing started. Every new situation introduced new uncertainties: will these people attack me? Can I kill them? Should I hurt them? And the answer is the same all the times: it depends on you. My only problem was that certain resources were way less important than I've expected them to be (like electronic components), and some of them had a surprising scarcity at the second half of the game (like basic components: you need tons of them, but the only reliable source for them is trading once you've looted the few early locations). Even so definitely an 5/5 game. My first playthrough took 13 hours and resulted in a sad ending (everyone survived, and I've helped others, but.... I've also did things. Bad things.), and I will definitely replay it a few more times. I'll also check the four DLCs.