This War of Mine

If developers decide that you can not save freely then at least give us the possebility to fast forward instead fo boringly looking onto your base production. And make sure that controls are fine and the combat works. How often I had to repeat because my scavanger just did not want hide in a hidden corner after I killed a guard. Or a guard shoot me even though I was on a different floor. This so frustrating especially since I love frostpunk very much (which is from the same developers). As as I value my time very highly this game gets one star. As it just doesn't work proberly.

This games takes the concept of basic flash survival games and blends it with a rougelike - implements it with a potato cannon. The first 10 in-game days of the game are strong with ambience and immersion. Then it turns into a senseless grinding nightmare. Click on something - wait for the person to go there - choose what to do - wait for the person to finish the task. Rinse and repeat every day. Admittedly, the scavenging missions are quite engaging - until you realise its basically a lottery. Are the hospital staff going to murder you for no reason? Is the scavenger going to pull the trigger when you click the mouse - or take a coffee break first. The map is random generated? Well, the same 20 so locations appear in slightly different order and not always. Having a really good scavenge run? - game crashes - start over. If you have plenty of time, love immersive stories about how people kill themselves after surviving an armed assault, you love chopping wood and cooking stew (again and again). If you love waving the flag of "suspension of disbelief" (again and again). Conclusion: This game is like Bilbo: butter scraped over too much bread. Although the does not have micro-transactions like farmville its basically in black and white(NB: Farmville is in colors) and the price is pretty significant compared to the flash games it imitates (NB: the are free).

This is a game about depressed people in a warzone. If you're here for the story - fantastic. If you're here to build a dope bunker to live out the seige in style with a full belly, you better find another game. The mechanics would allow for a great survival base building game; unfortunately, the game is basically constructed so that you're constantly depressed, hungry, sick, and short of resources which I just stopped finding fun after a while. I am amazed that they've chosen not to implement coop multiplayer functionality as well. I feel that managing more than 2 characters became cumbersome whereas having another person to manage one or two of them while the other person goes on scavenging missions and talks to people at the door etc, would be great. Huge missed opportunity imo.

I love this game, my only problem is that it doesn't have a real combat system, hand in hand combat is purely luck, but I mostly play as non-violent survivors anyway. That's the only way to keep my people content during the game. Somehow it keeps me engaged even after 85 hours of gametime because every starting scenario is different and depending on the characters the playthrough is different as well.

I'd advise to grab Complete Edition - difference in price is negligible and 'stories' add even more interesting gameplay. Have no clue why option to get 'standard' still exists at this point... (it's been released 10 years ago). Only adds confusion. I'd strongly advise to watch one or two online reviews, before making up your mind. It is not some obvious AAA blockbuster, but niche and unique game, that is not going to suit many. Truly unique experience and idea - shows how even with simple mechanics, game can still grab your attention for many hours and at the end, leave you asking for more. Pick wisely and don't 1 star it just because it is not your cup of tea!