This War of Mine

Not a First Person Shooter, not a survival tycoon, but an experience . The distinction is essential to the purpose of the game since without it, it is merely another FPS/survival game. I personally refunded a few crappy games to purchase this and I did not regret my decision one bit. If the game induces empathy and melancholy then congratulations, you played this correctly.

The story of the game is based on the 1994 Balkans Conflict, particularly during the Siege of Sarajevo which lasted at least a year before broken and relief was sent to the people although in the game, the war would last around 30-60 days depending on the character set you start with.

Regarding the characters, barring one (Roman) they are civilians with different qualities, emotions, stories and strengths and you unlock more of their background story as the game progresses. You build your shelter in the day, you scavenge for supplies in the night.

The key to enjoying this game is not winning. Its surviving and as I've mentioned above, empathizing with the soldiers, civilians, even the thieves.

I was glad. Things were going quite well for my four survivors. It was around Day 27. They had just fixed a broken guitar and a little bit before the nightfall Katia was playing the guitar and Kalina was listening to her play and sang(?). I thought it was heartwarming.

Then it was time to send Katia to scavenge. I chose St. Mary's Church and wasn't too worried, because I thought it would be relatively safe. There wasn't much to find though and then I saw a man and made Katia sneak a little bit closer, so that I could hear what the man was mumbling. I hid Katia and waited. I figured the man wasn't interesting and thought it would be better to leave, and just when Katia stepped out of her hiding spot the man found what he had been looking for, turned around and spotted Katia.

He had a gun. Katia didn't have any weapons. I think he shot Katia or then I just decided it was best to flee, as he approached Katia threateningly, and after that he started shooting. I wish I had guided Katia to a different route, but I didn't. She started to climb the ladders and was shot to death. I was shocked.

In the morning, seeing my other survivors sad, especially little Kalina, was heartbreaking. Everything had seemed to go well and now it was just a distant memory. I had lost my bargainer and it was harder to play with only two adults. I knew I had made mistakes and I cursed my timing, maybe Katia would have survived if I had waited longer, maybe I could have hidden her somewhere if I had guided her to a different route. Pavle or Bruno said something like "she was just here and now she isn't" and that's exactly how I felt. It was sad and it gives me shivers.

I didn't dare to return to St. Mary's Church, but I want to explore it when I start a new game. The other three survived.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☑ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second live for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10

I had this game in my library a while before I seriously plaid it. I started out as you do, grabbing all the supplies you can. Then I came across a garage with the promise of food, but a young dude was in the way, I did not have the medicine he wanted so I went HEY, its a game and stabbed him. Wrong Wrong Wrong! As I looted pretty good stuff i experienced his elderly father crying over his body, I did not know what I was feeling but it was at least regret for what I had done. The next day I returned to continue looting while trying to bury the deeds of the the previous day. Only to find the corpse of the elderly man in his bed. I looted their food but the character I was playing could not reconcile what he had done and kept reminding me through his self dialogue. I had to stop playing, the guilt of what I had done impacted me more than any game had, I will not continue, I have to restart.
It is worth every cent! But morally scary to play.

First of all, I feel it's important to mention that this is the first game I've bothered to take the time to review on Steam. It impressed me so much that I felt the need to praise the developers on a review forum rather than just speaking its praises to my friends (and anyone else that will listen, because I do!).

I thought of it as Fallout Shelter's community-survival gameplay mixed with oldschool Metal Gear (not MGS, just MG...) stealth combat. During the day you take control of all shelter inhabitants, directing them what to do and what to craft with your limited resources. During the night you take direct control of one inhabitant you designate for a scavenging mission. All scavenging locations are different and provide different challenges--some are empty of people but require you bypass locks or boarded-up doors via crafted items, some might be filled with other civilians just trying to survive, some were chock-full of armed thugs who shoot-first-ask-questions-later. When dealing with civilians you must choose between acting benevolent or malevolent--you could either help them and trade items which they desperately need, or rob them blind (and then trade the stolen items that they need back to them!). All of which has positive and negative effects on everyone in your group. Some survivors appreciate someone willing to get their hands dirty (with blood) for the benefit of the group, others become depressed at the fact that they needed to resort to criminal activity to survive. Sadness, injury, and sickness all require time and resources to cure (comforting from other survivors, bandages, medicine respectively), meanwhile you need to make sure the shelter is secure and everyone is fed.

The replayability with the different starting scenarios (and the option for a randomized scenario!!!!) is absolutely amazing. I bought this game (along with several others that really interested me) about a week ago as part of a huge sale, because I'm rather frugal when it comes to video games. I just managed to complete my first scenario. Upon finishing the first scenario, I actually regret not purchasing all of the DLC while it too was on sale.... but it won't stop me! This game impressed me that much, that I refrained from buying the base game until it was on sale but now but now after playing it I am willing to pay full price for DLC to extend its life.

If you’re a fan of story-driven games where your choices matter and really have an impact on the ending of the game, then I highly recommend This War Of Mine. Not only was it incredibly entertaining (especially for the non-sale price!), but it’s also one of the only war games out there that doesn’t put you in the shoes of a super soldier running killing everyone and everything that looks at you. The combat is difficult but rewarding, the survival aspects aren’t ground-breaking but certainly keep you entertained and thinking between scavenging missions, and the game as a whole is just amazing. Oh and the fact that the hatchet’s tooltip says “used for chopping up furniture….. or people” is just the icing on the cake; especially since you actually chop people up when stealth killing with the hatchet. And then your character either feels good about it (if they were violent looters/thugs) or terrible (if they were civilians).

About to start my 2nd scenario because damn…. this game’s amazing. I fully expect to begin my 3rd scenario shortly after finishing this one, wish me luck!

Full disclosure: "demo'd" this game years ago when I was extremely poor, loved it, bought it when I could afford it (as I always do) and loved it all over again.

This War of Mine is an immersive and engaging strategy experience with a hefty psychological component. I recommend this to everyone. The new expansion further raises the bar.

10 hours in review: I hate this game.

I am a completionist. I mostly play RPGs and strategy games. I like to win, so my gaming style primarily involves achieving goals, expanding my powerbase, meeting my targets, improving my strength, all of which to end in a smashing victory.

This War of Mine offers very little and frequently none of these things. The gameplay is inherently simple. You have a few survivors in a badly damaged house. During the day they can do simple tasks, like building furniture, patching a hole in the wall or something else to help you survive, cooking meals, distilling hooch, or resting from nightly activities. During the night one person can go out to scavenge for badly needed supplies, while the rest sleeps (hopefully in a bed) or stands guard, hoping you won't get raided during the night.

Rather than adding and expanding, the game constantly offers straightforward but difficult choices. Does the scavenger bring home raw materials today so somebody can patch a hole in the wall, or does he bring medication in case somebody gets sick or wounded? Do I risk life and limb to steal from armed bandits or inflict myself with moral guilt stealing from the defenseless elderly? Do I give my last piece of food to the wounded guy who has to stand guard tonight or to the sick man on the bed? Do I trade away my last bandages while nobody's wounded so we can all eat tomorrow? There's no do-overs either so I am stuck with my choices. Beyond just restarting the entire story of course.

This is what makes This War of Mine so damn good.

Every day in the game, it's one bad choice or another, all for the sake of staving off immediate disaster. For one more day. For the sake of survival. For the hope that things will be a little bit better tomorrow, if only you can get through the problems right now. Can you survive without resorting to theft? If you can't, who do you steal from, how much do you risk in the process? What about murder, when does that get justified by survival?

If as a player you do not get upset by stealing or murdering for the sake of your group of survivors, then your survivors will. They get sad and depressed, even suicidal, from committing atrocities. Morale is an important part of the game, and the horrorific actions you commit to in the name of surviving are as relevant as the ones that are inflicted upon you. Maybe even moreso.

Because war is horrible and this glimpse of what living in a warzone is like, just so. It is atrocious. It is insecure. It comes with the realization that while this game has plenty abstractions, these stories are real. There are people who have lived through this. Who are trying to live through it in the world today. Who probably will be trying to live through it in the future.

Who only want to survive. Just one more day. Maybe tomorrow will be better.


I have to stop writing now. Marko is sick, but he's the only one who is uninjured after last night when bandits tried to raid our shelter again. We have some rat meat left over so I'd best cook him a meal. Maybe he'll finally find some medicine tonight. Hopefully the trader will come by today, we have a few bottles of moonshine ready. If not, I might drink it. All of it. Who am I kidding. Tomorrow won't be better. Things will only get worse.

This War Of Mine is a very emotional game.

Day 21: We were hungry, we had no food, and we needed to get food that night or someone was going to die really soon. One of us went to a place but the people there wanted us to leave. We needed food so couldn't leave. They came looking for our intruder, found them, and shot at them. Our guy decided to kill them so killed 2 of them, and the girl upstairs was screaming and crying, so she was killed too. After the dirty deed, the whole shelter was searched, but not a single piece of food was accessible to us!

Day 22: Our intruder returned empty handed and fell into a deep depression that there was no recovery from.

Day 23: One of us died of starvation last night.

Day 26: Despite all the talking, depression drove another to take their life.

Day 28: the last of our group died trying to survive an attempt to steal food without any sleep for 48 hours.

I quit the game, and cried myself to sleep, "How could I have been so heartless?" I asked. I learned a very deep lesson that night: It's never right to kill, even if you are in a war.

9/10

"War is hell"
This game is not about a soldier who destroyes the whole army.
This game is not about a massive cool looking war.
This game is about people like you and me,surviving in hell named war.
Atmoshepre of this game is soo outstanding,that you can feel the pain that war brings upon characters
Also this game gonna make you cry like a bitch when someone from your crew dies.
This game shows you real war,without censorship
It is highly depressing,but i still recommend to buy it.
It is a highly unique experience and if you are sick of games where war is a one man murdering an army,play this,it will be worth it

Like many others probably did, I picked this game up for cheap during a sale and then forgot about it for a long time until I happened upon it again while looking for a new game to play. One thing I can say right now is that if you're interested in this game or just need something new to play for a little while, play this. Right now.

The game itself is based on a pretty simple concept(survive and thrive) split into two rotating phases - day and night. During the day you make food, build new things, have your survivors interact with each other, and deal with ailments or wounds. Nighttime is where you decide wether you want to send out one of your survivors to scavenge, guard the shelter, or sleep. Typically scavenging is the most fruitful option, as it's your main source of many of the important resources needed to create your nescessities. It's also the most gameplay-rich part of the game as you have both a time-limit and an inventory limit to consider. You will sometimes, however, have to adapt to the situation you're in and either stay put, or take a risk and scavenge in a potentially dangerous location.

For me this is the greatest strength of the game. It's quite difficult, and it's VERY punishing if you make a mistake, while also being greatly rewarding if you do something right. The first few playthroughs or attempts, you're quite likely to end up in at least a couple of bad situations, to which the solution might require some pretty big risks or sacrifices. As you play more though, you learn to avoid putting yourself in unnescessary danger as well as preparing for critical in-game events such as winter. The game does rely quite a lot on early-game decisions which can be excessively punishing when you first start out(ex. I barely survived my first playthrough without knowing how to create upgrade items), but again this is something you'll learn quite fast.

The game does lack a bit of replay value though. Every time you either succeed or fail with a new group of survivors, you'll unlock a couple of new ones, which does add a bit of variation. Locations do also have a chance of changing it up a bit in terms of inhabitants and loot, but after your first 3 or 4 runs you'll have mostly seen it all. Once you know how to deal with the different situations as well as how to accomplish your goals, there's very little challenge left in the game unless you go out of your way to assault a military establishment with nothing but a shovel. I squeezed out almost 50 hours of this game and loved every moment of it, but there are easily a lot of things that could've been done to add more content.

+
Incredible atmosphere
Amazing soundtrack
Challenging
Good writing and variation in characters

-
Lacks replayability
Little variation in in-game events

Pavle was a man.
Pavle was a father.
Pavle was a killer.
Pavle was a hero.

On day 5, Pavle robbed an elderly couple. They just stood there and watched as he searched through their house, looking for supplies to feed his friends.

On day 8, Children came to our house begging us to take their mother to the hospital. Pavle volunteered, saving her life.

On day 13, Pavle killed two hobos with his bare hands. He stole their box, they came after him with knives. He had no choice.

Pavle was never the same. He returned with supplies. His friends would live. But he couldn't live with himself. He killed two people the other night. And for what? Carrots and bandages?

He sat there, depressed.
A former football star.
Breaking down.
Crying.
He couldn't live with himself.
He hated what he had done.

"No more blood on my hands"
He swore as his friend Katia went over to console him.
He took a well-earned drink of moonshine and went to bed.
Pavle. A man. A human. Acting the way a human should act when they kill another human.

Pavle went out a few nights later, robbing various places. He robbed thugs, he robbed soldiers, he robbed defenseless civilians. He did whatever he could to keep his friends Katia, Anton, and Bruno alive.

But he wouldn't kill. Ever again.

Day 17: Pavle couldn't sleep.

Day 18: No one could sleep. Pavle's sobbing was too loud, too painful to hear.

This went on for several days.

Day 37: Armed men came to our base. Our neighbors robbed them. They offered a reward if we helped them find the culprits.

We would never rat out our neighbors.
They were nice to us.
They gave us food when we had none.
We told them we knew nothing.

"We're in this hell together" Pavle said to himself, regaining hope.

Two days later, we were attacked by viscious thugs. This wasn't a raid, they wanted to kill us.

We all survived.

Anton was wounded.
Anton was dying.
He needed bandages.

Day 39: Pavle went out to steal bandages so Anton could live.

Day 40: It hit Everyone hard. Katia was hit the hardest. She wanted revenge. Anton told her it would do nothing. She wasn't a killer. She had seen what taking another life did to Pavle, it broke him. But Anton's wounds were getting worse, she needed to go back.

Day 41: Katia returned. Anton recovered. Bruno was just standing by, watching everything unfold. Unable to change it.

Day 45: The war was over. Supply crates were sent, medics rushed in, people were rescued.

Katia.
Bruno.
Anton.
A mother and her children.

It was the actions of one brave man that they all lived.

No one had risked more than Pavle.
No one had been through more than Pavle.
No one sacrificed as much as Pavle.

Pavle the man.
Pavle the father.
Pavle the murderer.
Pavle the Hero.

10/10
R.I.P. Pavle.

First playthrough. My starting characters are a dude and his daughter.

First two nights pass in peace.
Third night, daughter gets attacked by raiders while daddy looks for supplies.

wtf.gif

She begs him not to leave again. Raiders stole our food.... So daddy leaves again.

Next eight nights pass relatively peaceful. An old dude moves in, starts guarding the place while daddy scavenges for food and stuff.

seemsgood

Day 13, we adopt a sick lawyer and start treating her.
Night 14, daddy gets shot while looting a brothel. old dude is severely wounded while protecting shelter.

ohfuck

Day 15, daughter is paralyzed with depression. Won't eat.
Night 17, no one can leave to scavenge. Food is out. Winter is coming.

O.O

Night 18, lawyer lady dies from sickness.
Day 20, deserter from the army begs to hide in shelter. Old dude in no position to say no. Daughter still not eating. She's now breaking things and pretending to kill imaginary people. Has an imaginary friend who tells her to do things.

o_o

Night 20, deserter tries to collect bandages and food. Old dude dies that night.

rip

Day 21, winter is here.
Night 24, run out of fuel. Deserter freezes to death.
Day 25, daughter starves to death.

It's sorta like the Sims, but more interesting. And depressing.
10/10 would cry again.

This game is brutal. War is hell.

I stole medical supplies from the last hospital in the city so that I could survive.

I stole all the food from a neighbors house so that I could eat.

I let one of my people die so that I wouldn't have to feed them.

I burned books for warmth.

I turned away children in need.

I killed an elderly couple for no good reason. Than committed suicide because I murdered the elderly couple.

10/10 I would suffer again.

- So I enter a house to scavenge
- Get spotted by a woman
- She tries to run off to alert someone upstairs
- I take her down with an axe
- A man comes downstairs and sees the body...doesn't even look at me...he just starts crying
- He ignores me as I loot his goods
- As Im looting, I find a note.

Apparently the man's wife died a while ago. He met this woman afterwards when she was injured and helped her recover. They became close, and the heartbreak of losing his wife was slowly being healed by this new woman.

And I just killed her...

**exits the game and tries not to cry**

Send Katia to scavenge the ‘Quite House’.
The preview says it has food and meds and isn’t dangerous.
Sounds like a good shout.
Turns out it was just an old couple living there, doing their thing.
Walk into house.
Old man begs me not to take their stuff coz his wife is sick.
Feel bad.
Take their stuff anyway.
Go home. Now Katia is depressed coz she robbed the old couple.
Try to get Emilia to comfort her.
Emilia is s*** at comforting.
Katia is suicidal.
I feel really bad.
Decide to go back and try to return their stuff.
Maybe I can give them this diamond I found.
Go back to the Quite House.
Can’t find old couple.
Go upstairs.
Old couple is dead.
Quit game.
Sit in corner contemplating what I’ve done.

If I had to sum up This War of Mine in one word, it would be "powerful". It is a touching reflection on the suffering caused by war, but through the eyes of civilians rather than soldiers. I actually showed it to a professor of mine who survived the Yugoslav Wars, including spending over three years inside besieged Sarajevo. He was caught there when the Siege started in April 1992 as he tried to help a friend flee the city and ended up being stuck there until 1996, and he has a number of... troubling... stories to tell about the Siege. He actually bought and played This War of Mine for a while and it made him so emotional that he started crying (and he is a very tough, "old school" sort of fellow). I think that pretty much sums up what this game is like, in my opinion.

As you have likely guessed, this game is not really "fun" by any standard, but you should play it anyway, I think.

This is an INCREDIBLE game. It was recommended to me by a close friend because, me being a former war refugee from the Balkans, he thought I might find the content "a bit familiar." It went a bit further than that, in fact it kind turned out to be some uncanny early-childhood simulator for me. I still remember the visceral terror of being a child in that war; I will never forget howling and begging my mother not to go outside to buy bread, out of fear that she would be shot dead by a sniper. Asking why my grandmother couldn't go instead.

This game captures moments like that with a masterful hand. It is never heavy or hamfisted. I can't explain how well the developers have encapsulated the hoplessness and the mundane brutality of the Balkan civil war, and it leads me to think that at least one key person involved in the development of this game had to have lived through it, too. The tone is just perfect, striking that difficult balance between terror and absurdity, and reminds me of all the films I love that came out of Former Yugoslavia after the war. This is not Angelina Jolie painting Balkan politics with a broad brush dipped in ignorance and a skewed western perspective insensitive of nuance--this is an authentic work of art that is sensitive to the complexities of its subject matter and the individual stories of the thousands of people whose lives were shaped and altered forever by this horrible, unnecessary war.

It's an emotional playthrough, even for people who haven't had any experience with the historical event. It is a "war game" like no other and I can't recommend it enough. Take it from someone who was there.

I will always remember the first kill I did in the game.

It was during my first hours of play, I went inside the shelled school (full of homeless) searching for some supplies. I never met a stranger in the game, so I was really affraid of meeting one.
So I was looting discreetly, trying to avoid every persons, thinking they were a danger, especially since I hearded about all these muggers and soldiers. But I made a mistake, and went in a room without checking it before, and just found myself standing up, a man in front of me.
This person was showing his back, hearded me, and started turning around. I panicked, jumped on him, and hit him with my showel. He falled back but didn't died, so I hit him again, killing it this time.
Finally meeting and killing a person after all this hours of play, all this hours of tension and pressure, just paralyzed me. I didn't move for some seconds, just watching the corpse, my showel full of blood in the hand, until some other persons breaked into the room.
I saw them like another danger and was about to react, when they started screaming things like "You killed him !!" - "Oh my god why did you do that ?!" - "Please don't kill us !!!" .
It was a mess in my brain, it kind of disfonctionned for a seconde. In this kind a situation, in a video game, it's the regular and right thing to do isn't it ? (I Am Alive players know what I'm talking about).
After this sec, I just felt extremely bad, like if I did a terrible mystake in real life, the kind of you can barely repair.
I immediately ran away and left the building, letting behind me people crying on their friend's body. Not because I was afraid of them - they seems more scared than me and non-agressive - but because I just could not faced them and the consequences of my act.

So yeah, all of this happens in 10 sec, but it was a great moment. This game his great, because it combines good gameplay with deep emotions, in an unusual way.

10/10

Emotionally crushing & successfully self-reflecting // Recommended for those seeking a personal experience

LockeProposal's Big Day Out

**SPOILERS**

I went into an apartment complex to loot some stuff, not knowing yet what that meant. It was my first playthrough, and I thought "stealing" stuff was maybe like it was in Fallout or Skyrim. If someone sees me do it, they get hostile, and I kill them. Shouldn't be a big deal.

I was skulking around when I was spotted by a guy who yelled at me to get out. He had a gun, so I thought he was a bad guy. I blew him away with my shotgun. I started to loot his corpse when when voices started shouting upstairs. I quickly hid and waited for the ambush, but what came around the corner weren't more armed guards. No, it was much worse. It was his parents.

They were wailing about their lost son and how they couldn't survive without him. I couldn't speak to them. I wanted so badly to tell them that they could come back to our place, that I had killed him accidentally, something, anything. I walked out without taking what little they had left, in fact leaving my shotgun and rounds in their refrigerator to help them, hoping that maybe I didn't doom them entirely, but what was the point of survival for them anymore? Why would they want to survive in a world without their son who laid his life on the line for their safety?

I never went back there. I was probably as affected as Marko was. He was depressed. I had to atone. I ran to the City Hospital to donate as much of our medical supplies as we could spare. I risked my life to free prisoners held by armed thugs. Night after night, in my attempt to atone, I tried to do as much good as I possibly could manage, if only to mitigate the incredible horror I had performed. We all survived, and I never went back to their apartment. I couldn't face them again. I don't know if they made it or not.

Man, I'm a terrible person.

In the beginning there were 3. Pavle, the ex-footballer. Katia, the journalist. And Bruno, the asshole professional chef. They came together during the siege purely by chance, and used their collective skills to improve their survival chances. Over the next 2 weeks they struggled to stay fed. Always low on supplies, and usually having one or more go hungry each day. Then Marko arrived, seeking shelter. The survivors knew they would struggle to support a 4th person, but welcomed him anyways. Marko then proved his worth after bringing home more food and medicine in one night than Pavle had managed in a week. Then he managed to bring home enough supplies to build some more furniture, and a radio. He helped the group not only survive, but flourish. He even at one point rescued a girl under the assault of a drunken soldier, earning him the status of "hero" amongst the people of Pogoren. Then one night he went scavenging in a dangerous area, known to be inhabited by brutal bandits. He had done this many times before, and felt safe enough to travel indoors. While searching through a cabinet, he was spotted. While he managed to kill 2 of the bandits, the remaineder proved to be too much for him. The group was devastated by his death. They never really recovered. A little over 2 weeks later, the siege had been lifted. The group had survived, and all went back to try to pick up where they left off before the war.


Except for one. Whose body silently lies in a shallow, unmarked grave.


RIP Marko. You will be missed.



dis game 11/10 i cri evry tiem

I'm not that hardcore of a gamer, but This War of Mine (TWoM) managed to make me glued to my seat in front of my laptop for hours. Everytime I played this I discover something new (how to clean out Military Outpost, how to safely pass Sniper Junction, how to kill the bandits in St. Mary's Church, etc.). And on top of that, this is the only game that managed to give me something to think about: war is hell and I should be grateful for all of my comforts in life. After playing this game I even felt guilty having leftover food on my plate. Consider that as message delivered.

Bottomline, this game is BRILLIANT and I would recommend it to everyone I know. Really really worth the money. 5 stars!

P.S. to the developers: I hope more content is added to this game in the future. Maybe more safehouses? More places to scavenge? New characters with new strengths and weakneses? New items? Marathon mode?

After 24 hours of total game time (and many attempts), I finally survived This War Of Mine. I was *elated*. The narrative was totally gripping, and I got a little teary-eyed reading the epilogue stories about my survivors. I figured once I finished the game I would be done, but I still want to play again. Easily one of my favorite games of 2014.

Update, 4/23/15: This game remains one of my favorites, and respect to 11 bit studios for their DLC pack, the proceeds from which go to the War Child charity to help children in war-torn countries. I picked that up, and you should, too!

Replayability: It's been asked if the game has any replayability. I didn't expect it to, but for me at least, it does. I find myself drawn back to this one, even after having survived the war twice.

PS - You CAN bring someone back from terminally ill! It's difficult, but I have done it. :)

For three or four days now, I have played nothing but "This War of Mine". I am a veteran of Iraq and I remember all too well the hardships it brought upon the civilians, especially in the beginning of the war. I remember being heartbroken at the sight of children crying and begging for food on the side of the road.

This "game" puts you square in the middle of the experiences of those civilians. It is a brutal, kill or be killed world - where an act of unimaginable violence may let you live another day, but it can also break your heart and soul. Some days, you are offered a chance at compassion - and if you take that chance, risking your own safety and resources for others, you may find you feel a bit better about yourself.

Then there are the times where you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. You are unarmed, scavenging for anything to save your friends, and you peep through a keyhole and see a soldier brutally beating - and possible worse - a woman. He has an AK-47, you have a lockpick and a rumbling stomach. So you sit there and watch - afraid that any noise may turn his violent attention upon you. When it is all done, you hide until he leaves and then, shamefully, pick over the bloodied body of the woman for anything she may have scavenged before the soldier got to her.

This is "This War of Mine" - a dark, beautiful, haunting, exhilerating, and horrible tale.

What's that tagline, "The first casualty of war is innocence"? It applies here - in a way you would have never imagined coming from a computer game.

Marko had spent last night scoping the place out. He clutched his pistol tightly with a pair of sweaty plams. This was it. Slowly, he edged towards the door and out of the rain, opening it with a gentle sigh from the hinges. It was dingy inside; the gloom was heavy. Taking slow steps forwards he made his way to the next door.

Knelling down and looking through the grimy keyhole, he saw no one. Good, he thought to himself. Nudging the door open with his pistol, the hooded survivor krept down the hall. Footsteps! Quickly hiding in the gloom of an alcove, he held his breath tightly as a young woman walked past.

Some part of him was screaming in anguish over the moral dilema. It's not right, the voice spoke to him. His conscience needed to be suffed, and he ignored it as the door closed. The woman was inside the kitchen. He just needed to wait, and-

"Emil!" she screamed suddenly. Marko bit his lip as she locked eyes with him, only to run upstairs. Grasping the weapon as his breathing became hard, the young man ran through the open kitchen door, slid down the ladder, and burst into the basement. Turning and looking for a place to hide, he wanted to cry. There was nowhere.

"Not here," came a strong masculine voice from above. Markos slowly turned to face the door, his eyes shaking in their sockets. Some bloke in a blue shirt ran into the room, holding a knife high. "Bandit!" Marko was up against the wall. He couldn't hold the pistol properly because his hands were shaking so hard.

Two shots burst through the gloom. One hit the man square in the chest, the other in his knee. Although wounded he charged, stabbing Marko twice as they grappled for freedom. Life and death. Markos raised his pistol to fire and...

...He missed.


He died before he could realize the folly, falling limp with a soft plod as the knife sunk into his neck. Marko had been a hero, always willing to brave danger to feed his fellow survivors, always volunteering to scavange, and never letting anyone go hungry. He'd been a hero.

Pavle realized his best friend was dead the moment he didn't come back. He was distraught. Waiting by the door all day, sitting on the floor and listening for hours. The young sports star had only eaten once, and his face was grim.

"I'm sure he's just la-" began Bruce.

Pavle sucked his breath in sharply, cutting Bruce off. "No," he said slowly. "Marko is never late. Ever since this started he was always back on time." Taking a knife from the floor besides him, Pavle looked Bruce in the eye. They knew it had to be done.

It was raining again. The journey to the house had been uneventful, and Pavle knew roughly what was up, thanks to Marko's work two nights before. Slowly but surely he crept into the dark building, illuminated only by the blinking lights and fire. Creeping into the kitchen the football player could see food. He was glad. Sliding down the ladder and turning around, however, his mood plumeted.

There lay Marko; his corpse pale in the darkness. Blood was all across the floor and up the back wall, with the body slumped slightly against it. His face was frozen in time, eyes wide in fear. Pavle was... calm. He knew what he need to do now.

Going back up the ladder and shunting the kitchen door open, with no regard for stealth, he charged up the stairs. Up and up he went, his breathing becoming savage as he reached the very top floor. Pavle heard groaning and the moving of objects, but he didn't care, bursting through the door he stared a bandaged and bloody man in the eyes.

"No... you can't!" cried a female voice behind him. Running forwards with his knife in hand, Pavle screamed as tears streamed down his angry face. The blade sunk deep into the wounded man, killing him instantly. Turning to face the woman, and watching her run out of the room, Pavle ran after her.

She was too slow, and his blade was very sharp. Her body fell limp about as fast as he used to score a goal. Checking both their bodies with no respect, the sports star cursed. They had nothing on them.

When he got back to the safehouse, Pavle was covered in blood. Alica asked him what happened, but Bruce merely handed him a drink. Placing the knife off to one side, Pavle just sat down, and wept. They had killed his best friend... and he had killed them.

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EDIT: Complaints and whatnot, decided to do a little proper review down here.

This War of Mine is powerful because of how it handles itself. There's an overtone of helplessness and regret, characters lamenting over their uselessness. Often when someone dies, they'll hope the next one isn't them.

Marko is dead.

Those three words gave off more emotion than every other war game I've played. I didn't need to twoniner my foxtrot, I wasn't "getting my ass" down to 'bravo point', there wasn't some black hawk down, and my 'LZ' wasn't 'too hot'. I didn't even have to press [F] to pay respects.

Marko is dead. I just saw these three words as my screen faded to black. Then I was back at camp, and the others knew something was up.

I can't really express how profound that was. Perhaps because of how subtle the game was, the moment it outright told me someone was dead, then moved on... maybe that's why it was so powerful.

This War of Mine allows you to build characters up. It's literally an open book and it'll allow you to draw as many conclusions as you want. Because of that, I feel, it was made much more personal. Let me explain: I'm a writer, see? I write characters, get attatched to them, and sometimes watch them die. I'm constantly close to my own creations.

I feel like this game lets everyone else do that, too. If you want to make your own characters with it, that's totally fine, and it will let you. If not? That's still fine, because the game tells you enough on its own to invest you regardless.

I'm kind of rambling here, so I'll end this edit thus: This was not the game I wanted, this was the game I needed.

Also the DLC is garbage sadly. Hopefully their new game is better.

There's a lot of reviews out there already, so I'll just say it's the only game about war everybody SHOULD play, at least once. This is what war is about, not pretty headshots and great ideas and running around like a tool shooting at everything that moves while feeling invincible. War is about actual real people dying, whether they're soldiers or not, and this game makes a good job of portraying it.

It could be longer, it could be deeper, but as it is it's a good game and well worth the price, if only to show that gamers are ready for the medium to grow a little more mature. It's sorely needed.

This is the kind of game that will make you wonder about what kind of person you are. Is it worth killing helpless innocents for a couple days' worth of food? Will you help the weak out of kindness? Or will you rob everyone blind in the sheer desire to survive? Sure, you can say "it's just a game", but it's impossible to avoid the feeling that your actions here might well mirror your true inclinations. So what's more important, survival or your humanity? Or can you preserve both? There are moments of both incredible kindness and cruelty to be found within, and they stir something in the human soul that I've rarely seen in games. From running a gauntlet of sniper fire to help a wounded father reunite with his infant son to murdering an elderly couple for their meager goods, it's impossible to play this game without thinking, "Could that be me? Would I do that? Could I rise that high, sink that low?" And that is the brilliance, the poetry, of this game.

Where to begin really, I was impressed enough by the trailer and the interesting idea to buy the game without looking much into it, so really I didn't know what to expect other than the fact it would have survival elements and was based around a group of civilians in a war zone.

My first impression would have to have been the amazing artwork - the level of detail that has gone into every single part of the game's visuals is stunning, with many rooms having stories of their own to tell (for example, at one point you might walk into a shelled out room with some children's drawings on the wall). This factored heavily into my enjoyment of the game itself, as, along with excellent audios it drew me further into the game and made me connect far more with the characters.

This connection with the characters is what really made this game shine. From intially not knowing the various people you control very well, you get fed tidbits about their past, and some of their personalities are apparent from how they react to things you might make one of the characters, or indeed, themselves, do. The immersion was so great that when two characters died (actually my third and fourth to die, my first two had died pretty early on and thus I hadn't grown attached to them yet), which prompted a third to leave and never come back, I actually cheered as I wouldn't have to watch him suffer the slow deaths that his friend had. Of course, this enthusiasm was short lived as it suddenly dawned on me, he had left me with only one character, who was also dying of her wounds. The first playthrough ended therefore after five hours of me bumbling about blindly, failing miserably, and being utterly captivated as events unfolded; fighting desperately against the odds to save the lives of my characters.

Another plus was the fact that not every single NPC is a raving lunatic planning to murder and/or eat you as is so commonly done in other games set in survival based settings. There are some people with... issues, sure; there are a refreshing number of people who don't just shoot you or stab you in the back.

Altogether, I found the game to be one of the best of its kind that I have ever played; I even enjoyed the more mundane moments such as chosing where to place my new furniture (Yeah, trading all my medical supplies to buy materials to make a few armchairs didn't back fire on me at all, honest!). The scavenging is intuitive - the NPCs don't mind too much if you just pick up a few bits of rubble which is strewn about the place, but start picking up stuff they've put in their cuboards? They might object just a little to that one.

As for the combat... Well, I sucked at it so can't really go into much detail. Turns out trying to punch someone in the face when they have a shotgun and a buddy armed with an AK standing next to them is a bad idea. I did manage to escape from several combat situations, though in one case 'escaping' meant a slow, lingering death as the wound gradually worsened over the course of several days as I had no bandages to treat him with. So yeah, combat exists, but with the risks of infections and so on, it can be risky to attempt.

Altogether - I found the game excellent in virtually every way and far surpassing what I had even begun to expect. I look forward to spending the next few weeks playing it, as it has massively increased replayability by having randomness added not only to the daily events which can occur, but also to the various key events, even including the length of the wars (Sadly enough, I failed miserably despite having an apparently relatively short war to survive through, so I dread to think how badly I will fail at long ones).