It Takes a War

The last half was extremely stimulating, creative, and moving. A couple of setpieces I have not experienced yet and I'm glad I got to feel the developer's vision at play here.

If you're into games as an art form and you're part of the online FPS zeitgeist, this is worth your time.

@dev you scared the shit out of me with the headphone experience at one point hahaha

If you enjoyed THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE and IMMORTALITY, and you wondered what it would be like if someone took similar metanarrative ideas and threw them head-first into CSGO, this game is for you. What IT TAKES A WAR manages to achieve in under an hour is sincerely impressive, and I'll be thinking about it for much longer than that. A hyper-specific and meticulously detailed experience that wears its heart on its sleeve, for better or for worse...but then again, isn't that the point? Made me laugh, made me tear up, made me physically gasp, and at one point made me nearly jump out of my seat in terror. Really looking forward to seeing what the dev does next!

Thoughtful game that uses some digital trickery to centre you within events that you're not a part of.

I wish it was a little longer, so that two of the characters had a bit more time to be humanised and the dynamic between the four didn't feel so clear cut.

It's a clever game that approaches a topic that I would not have expected, but also feels very apropos to the medium.

The game for those who spent too much time up late at night playing CS with friends. Look nothing else up, buy and play as blind as possible.

I came into the game without expecting much; I had no idea what it was about and just wanted to play Despelote. But I don't regret this 'Experience' at all. It really surprised me, and I absolutely loved this game.
Also, I would love for the game to be in Spanish, at least the text. I would be happy to help with that if possible.

I'm glad I bought it in the sale... not because of the price tag, but because I'd have missed out on this experience! (Leave some love for colch in the comments) 😔

Fun concept, could use polishing

Did i actually enjoy it, and would i actually recommend it?

4/10

A great example of how a video game can cross the boundaries of traditional art forms.
If you're considering playing it, stop reading reviews and just try it for yourself.

It's an experience worth going through.

Really cool short game, I always enjoy meta games like this, and this one was honestly better than I thought it would be. Some really creepy moments (That realistic door knocking sound after the game crashes actually made me rip my headphones off) and a thoughtful message behind it all. I recommend, and I look forward to seeing whatever else you make!

Lovely narrative. I've been a CS player on and off for over 10 years now, and I remember having a lot of similar questions about the people in my own 'friend' circle. It was like no one told me the rules by which everyone else plays social games, and I couldn't understand why I felt so despised. My point is this story was very touching, and hit home in a lot of ways. Do yourself a service, do not watch someone play this game; Purchase it and play it. It is worth the 5 dollars.

One of the most interesting uses of interactive gameplay to tell a story Ive seen in a while, kudos to the dev!!

I don't want to spoil anything but you can tell there's going to be some sort of meta story when you play this and it absolutely is worth experiencing. The game hit me hard, because I've been Colin.

Very creative! A fun short experience. Took me 45 minutes. Worth the $6.

Very cool, I quite like the idea behind this and while I do think it could have been executed a bit better, this is still a good execution of it. The game actually "got me" at a good few points.

It also has something to say and overall I think it's a good short game! Had fun!

I did not actually like this game very much, but I'm gonna recommend you check it out and make up your own damn mind. Do it for their sake and also your own. It's an earnest piece of art and is worth engaging with if it seems interesting to you. Straight up don't read my criticisms below and just hop in blind. Support the little guys.

That being said, devs if you are reading this, here are my criticisms:
By far the biggest issue I had with the game was that the writing felt very syrupy and on the nose. I appreciate that the game is exploring a very specific social interaction through the lens of online spaces (one that I can very much relate to), and I appreciate the overall themes its trying to explore. That being said, it feels like the game is paradoxically deeply uninterested in capturing those kinds of interactions and spaces as they truly are. There is a distinct lack of vividness in the dialogue/performances/gamefeel in that none of them seem to truly capture how people actually talk or how these types of games actually feel to play. The game also does a lot of telling and not showing. It spells out verbally what each and every metaphor, piece of visual symbolism, etc is meant to represent in a way that, to me, felt pretty groan worthy. At the end of the day it felt like the story was more interested in being about the concepts it presents "on paper" rather than actually developing its characters into believable people and immersing you properly into the situation. For a story like this, that sort of direction really falls flat for me. The climactic speech that is given by the solo-queuing player to colin towards the end felt especially didactic and cheesy in a way that rang pretty hollow to me.
I hope this doesn't come across as too mean, I wanted to share this criticism because I respect the effort that went into it, and there were a lot of creative and unique choices put into the game as well. I was honestly really impressed to see text to speech integrated into the game as it was, and I think that novelty was a really smart way to extract a sound byte out of the player to use for later. The sudden freeze frame with a sticky note that says "Got you." was pretty great as well. The basic conceit of the game, of course, was the thing that got me interested in it in the first place, so I gotta give props to that as well.

very cool little experience! i liked the story, actual gameplay could've played a bit better/been more convincing (i played a lot of online unity FPSes so i can see the AK and pistol pack from a mile away haha), but it's definitely worth the small price. lots of good trickery going on.

The pacing feels a bit rushed and most of the ideas it deals with could use some more breathing space but ultimately none of that diminishes that it's a very original and interesting narrative game trying to do something fresh. So it gets a thumbs up from me even despite its problems.

beatiful game i had a hard time taking seriously at some parts because it decided to use the sound clip of me saying "i love sucking titties" as my line. 10/10 relatable, emotional and makes a great point

If you like to play video games for story, new concepts and subverting expectations, just play this. (..am I a pretentious twat?)