This War of Mine (2014)

Article: This War of Mine Review - Despondent Days, Nihilistic Nights

Score Report: 8 / 10

"If you can take all the messages and empathy out of This War of Mine, then it boils down to a rather simplistic survival experience that takes around 40 to 50 in-game days to complete. I wasn’t expecting to embrace the empathy aspects or some profound message on war, but after a few games, I was drained of any desire to switch to another title and rack up a kill count. It’s a fairly depressing experience, but I absolutely respect the title’s ability to impact me in ways that games generally don’t. I’d recommend this game to anyone looking for an experience that’s far outside the norm of what we expect when we pick up and play a new title. You may not enjoy playing This War of Mine in the traditional sense, but I think that’s kind of the point."

• Daniel Tack

Played during free trial of xbox game pass. I had 2 different runs and did not do very well. Both times I pissed off npcs while out scavenging and got a character killed, and that is pretty much game over. I am more likely to give people the benefit of a doubt and assume they are decent unless they are out right hostile, while I am also more likely to go where I want and take what I want unless it is obvious beforehand that someone would be against that. So I got the characters killed for "stealing" and "trespassing" even though no warning was given first that an item was owned or an area was off limits. There was only one time where I got an actual stealing morale penalty though, and that was a place where I needed a special crafted tool (saw I think) to get at loot in a place where other people lived. I was exploring and you will be damn well sure that if I expended resources (uses of the tool) to open that area then I am going to try and recoup that loss. I did not do badly with the base management though it was certainly not optimal.

The premise of the game is quite interesting but some of the gameplay mechanics are not good; I especially did not like that only 1 person could go out scavenging at a time and how you have a hard limit on visiting one place each day. I did not like the permadeath/inability to keep backup saves; makes it tedious to learn the game and get invested in a particular run. This is the kind of rule modifier that should be optional. I would likely play the game again if it was free, maybe even dirt cheap.