14 DAY TRIAL // 
The first time I played This War of Mine, my first survivor died five days in, because I send him unprepared somewhere dangerous and failed to run at the first sign of trouble.
This caused depression for my other two characters and I was all out of cigarettes and unable to produce any alcohol in order to make them forget about the traumatic event.
To make the situation even worse, I got raided the next day, which resulted in one injured character who was forced to use bandages and rest all day, while my dedicated scavenger, Pavle, was too tired to do anything useful and moved around as slowly as molasses.
After another 24 hours, I managed to get Pavle moving after he spent one night in a bed, but my impending lack of food forced me to make a dumb move which resulted in another death and I decided to abandon this game and try again from Day 1.
This War of Mine is unflinchingly cruel at times and the developers at 11 bit Studios never shy away from portraying the grim realities of survival, but the game also has some solid core mechanics that make it a challenging and thought-provoking experience, even though the bleak outlook can become too much at times.
Story
This War of Mine is a game about a group of survivors who are trapped inside a city which is itself under siege, and the player can control a trio of characters at the start of the game, each with a small biography and a unique skill.
Information about the surrounding world and the events that created the current situation is very sparse, but over time, access to a radio can offer some more details and the biographies get fleshed out as more decisions and choices are made.
The development of the This War of Mine team has stayed purposely vague because the focus of the experience is not on the individual characters or the city they live in but on the way extreme circumstances force humans to adapt and often act in ways that are both uplifting and incredibly uncomfortable.
11 bit Studios has worked with real world civilian survivors of urban combat in order to make This War of Mine as engaging and as true to the actual effects of a siege as possible.
The effect is that it’s often hard to be happy while playing the game, although small things like getting access to some moonshine or some books can be as cathartic for gamers as it is for characters, but it forces players to think about the effects of war, the impact of ethics and the unsavory actions needed to stay alive.
One weird aspect is that, while characters do obsess over their actions, they do not actually interact with each other in any meaningful way, which could be seen as a comment on the alienation created by doing terrible things to survive, but it also means that it’s hard to understand why they choose to stay together and share resources.
Gameplay
This War of Mine combines stealth mechanics, a lot of crafting, trading and role playing in order to approximate the experience that a civilian has in a war-torn city, and the entire game asks players to make choices about what can be abandoned in order to ensure survival.
During the day cycle, gamers need to choose what to create with their limited resources, initially focusing on creating absolute necessities like beds and stoves, and gradually, if things go well, evolving to create firearms and moonshine stills.
The characters can also move around, clear rubble or simply read a book as they attempt to forget about the stressful situation they are in.
Once night rolls around, the city is no longer dominated by snipers and gamers need to choose how their party, which can gain new members as This War of Mine evolves, will assign roles.
At least one character needs to scavenge, which means he can go out and explore other locations in the city, looking for resources he can safely get home or for other survivors with whom to trade.
The rest can either stand guard, because raids can often take away necessary resources, or sleep either in a bed or on the floor to regain some energy.
Scavenging is a very tense affair which varies in terms of gameplay depending on the chosen location.
Initially, This War of Mine seems almost conflict-free and players need to simply direct their characters, taking into account the flow of time, to gather up what’s necessary for survival, with an emphasis on food and medicine.
As the days go by, it’s important to venture to more complex locations, like an apartment building occupied by militia or a hospital that still treats people, and the danger level increases.
I will not spoil the exact events that take place in This War of Mine, but I’ll say that players are forced to make some very hard choices and they can easily lose characters if they are unable to carefully manage resources or they simply hit a patch of bad luck.
The title from 11 bit Studios is made to be replayed, looking for new events to experience and making different decisions, and after a while, the gameplay can become a little repetitive.
Fortunately, the exploration of humanity This War of Mine puts front and center never becomes boring.
Graphics and audio
This War of Mine uses a hand-drawn style and deals mostly in dark colors, designed to emphasize both the grave tone of the story that’s being told and the overall world view of the characters that players can control.
The bodies of the protagonists are all 3D, scanned by the development team in order to make sure that the characters are as human as possible and easy to relate to, while the environments are carefully created to resemble as many urban settings as possible, with all the included locations bearing the clear marks of the conflict which is ragging during the day.
This War of Mine uses color very effectively to point the gamer to the important elements of a scene, and the developers at 11 bit Studios have also created a very simple and useful interface for everything from crafting to trading.
The video game also places a lot of importance on its sound design, and during gameplay, the noises of the world and those associated with each location are important because they offer hints about how to proceed in each situation.
The overall presentation of This War of Mine is bleak, which certainly suits the theme and the tone of the experience, but I also found that the game tends to be best enjoyed in 3-hour sessions in order to avoid potential long-term depression.
The Good
- Portrayal of civil war situations
- Stealth and exploration mechanics
- Moral choices
The Bad
- No interactions between characters
- Very bleak at times
Conclusion
11 bit Studios makes the game both engaging and uncomfortable at times, and after close to 10 hours of playtime, I quit my campaign not because I was done with it but because I wanted to read more about the way war affects civilians both in the short and the long term.
In an industry where conflict tends to be approached mostly in heroic terms, with only limited attention paid to its effects on individuals who are not wielding power, This War of Mine is a solid surprise, and given its small price, as many gamers as possible should try it out and see what it has to offer.
