User Reviews

A survival game where you control civilians in a war zone? I was HIGHLY suspicious before trying it, as I sensed bad taste... and I was wrong. Considering the bleak subject matter, This War of Mine is as tasteful and subtle as possible, with sober writing and supreme restraint when dealing with mature topics. Characters are normal, flawed human beings, the horror of war (and their choices when faced with it) taking a moral and physical toll on them.

Gameplay is elegantly simple and surprisingly addictive. You start with a group of 1-4 characters chosen among a number of pre-generated ones, each with a special skill - the cook consumes less resources while preparing food, the carpenter builds stuff with less material... - and personality - optimist, pessimist, generous, egoist, afflicted by a substance addiction. At day you manage the refuge's resources, keeping it warm, safe, crafting new tools, fighting off sickness, hunger and sleep deprivation and keeping morale as high as possible; at night, you choose one survivor to venture into the outside world to scavenge goods, trade and face potential hostiles. Combat is viable but appropriately messy - you are not a Navy SEAL here, just some poor guy handling a weapon to defend himself. Stealth is also an option; some maps are better avoided altogether, unless you are ready to face huge risks.

One of the best gaming surprises in the last ten years, and also with a strong replay value thanks to a certain amount of randomization in maps/encounters/group composition. And this is from someone who usually hates replaying games and has done so maybe 2-3 times in his whole life. Recommended.

This War of Mine is a different game. It focuses on the civilian experience during the war rather than soldiers killing each other endlessly. Here you have various civilians trying to survive the siege in the city by any means possible.

Yes, by any means - be it resorting to bartering with others, stealing supplies and even killing. The game doesn't hesitate to show the brutal effect of war on the people trying to survive it, complemented by chalkboard black and white visuals and a depressing soundtrack.

The game plays in two phases. During the day your band of playable civilians are stuck inside for the fear of soldiers and snipers. You have to go ahead and make the best of situation, building stuff such as beds, chairs, rainwater harvesters and even firearms and reinforced doors. Each civilian has a unique skill; a cook will use less materials while cooking, while someone skilled in bargaining can buy more stuff at lower prices from traders etc. All the characters have various emotional and physical states, they can get tired, hungry, wounded, depressed and even suicidal. Some are substance addicts. They may even fight amongst themselves. Your job is to make sure that they survive.

During the night, one character can scavenge for resources while others can sleep or be on guard (or no one leaves). You can hunt for resources in abandoned houses or steal from other survivors, who may or may not harm you. The resources are scarce and you will have to make heavy decisions - a book can reduce depression but can also be used as a fuel for heat or food; the old man begs you to not steal his wife's medicine, but you need that to heal your characters or they will bleed and die. Every decision has a consequence and affects your characters. Yes, YOUR characters. That's how immersive the game is.

However the game is not without its flaws.

The game has a raid system where your house gets raided for resources by rival gangs. This is completely off game, meaning you have no idea when this will happen and you cannot play this. The chances of successful defense depend on which character was assigned as a guard, the availability of weapons etc. Not being able to play defense sucks; if the game developer did not hesitate to show the brutal effects of war, why was this element not playable, was it because of time constraints or lack of skill among the staff? who knows... and this would have been more heartbreaking because we know that the most of the raiders are just civilians like our characters, trying to survive.

Now why did I give the game 6/10 if the gameplay is good, the graphics and the soundtrack suit the environment? Frame rates that's why.

I was able to play the game flawlessly on my laptop the first few times. I don't know what happened, but the game started to behave abnormally later when restarted from the checkpoint (I believe it was Day 14 in-game). The frame rates decreased and the game slowed down (it was that bad). Creating a new save, resolution reduction, changing the settings so that the game runs on my graphics card and later changing it to run on integrated graphics instead, running in compatibility mode; nothing worked and ultimately I had to uninstall the game. I read online for the solutions, and read that many people have experienced this issue.

So that is my review for this game: Interesting concept and gameplay marred by serious slowdown and frame rate issues.

PS: my laptop config - Windows 8.1 64-bit, i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70 Ghz 2.40 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, x64 based processor.