This War of Mine is not the bombastic affair of most war games. You are not a gun-toting super human. You’re not even in the military. You are a civilian, caught in a war you have no stake in.
There is no glory, with survival being the only achievement in the dilapidated world you are trapped in.
War is hell
You start the game in control of three good men – Marco, Pavle, and Bruno – who are taking refuge in a bombed out house, which is filled with rubble and has been emptied of all comforts by looters. This is to be your home, your refuge from the war. During the day, it provides protection from the conflict raging outside, while at night it serves as an operations base for foraging runs into the world.
Day one
As the first day begins, a short description explains that Pavle is injured, Bruno is sick, and all three men are tired of the war. You must ignore their exhaustion and set the survivors to work around the house, performing various tasks to make their shelter habitable. It is slow and methodical, emulating how time drags when you have to perform hateful tasks. It gives you time to think and reflect on the horror of the world around you.
The hand-drawn art style adds to this. It looks like hurried scribblings in a diary, a lost record of the war, providing a disconcertingly haunting view of the world.
Clicking around the various task icons in the 2D environment, you can set the trio to work making beds, constructing tools to speed up their work, and patching holes in the decimated building – all providing you have the required materials. Think of it as The Sim 4: Apocalypse, were such an expansion not so completely tasteless.
Night one
Night time is a wholly different experience. The slow pace remains, but the mundane trudge of the day-to-day is replaced by thrillingly tense stealth, as you scavenge different locations for supplies.
I chose to send Marco to scavenge, make the injured Pavle stand guard over the shelter, and allow the sick Bruno to sleep. Before they'd even set out, the stakes were high because, with the supplies already exhausted, it was imperative that food and first aid be found.
Each time night arrives, new districts open for you to visit and raid for supplies. Areas contain different rewards and hazards, so you must carefully weight up the trade off between what is needed and the danger involved – especially as you can only visit one area a night.
Selecting to raid the supermarket, I had high hopes for Marco's chances of finding the vital supplies – but the game has other plans. Arriving in the darkened world, it was instantly clear that Marco was not the person raiding the complex. An armed-gang patrolled the isles, forcing me to carefully limit Marco’s search to the safer areas.
Initially, I found only scraps around the periphery of the structure. Then, having found a way into the undisturbed basement, Marco stumbled across a small medical room with bandages and medication. Abandoning a few planks of wood to make space in the inventory, I gleefully (or as gleefully as was possible in This War of Mine) grabbed the desperately needed supplies.
I wanted to just dash to the exit, but then I noticed the pulsing red dots outside the room that indicated Marco could hear something.
Here the 2D viewpoint came into its own, offering a complete overview of the space but hiding the unknowns – such as people intent on murdering you. Icons above the door offered me two options, to open it or peer through the lock. Kneeling Marco down, with my own breath held, I looked into the corridor. It was a rat. Exhaling, I sprinted to the exit to carry the much needed supplies home.
One week
While day two went well, things quickly started to go downhill after that.
A few poor scavenges didn’t help, but it was the killing of Marco that really devastated the group. Caught one night searching a house for food, two other raiders found him and mercilessly beat him to the ground.
Days then passed with Bruno complaining that they had "killed him like a dog". His depression deepened, and, even though I sent Pavle out day after day to meet his needs (to the point where Pavle’s fatigue was obvious through his slow, stumbling movement), nothing seemed to help. Indeed, on one occasion Pavle's return to the house with essential supplies was met by complaints that he had stolen from other survivors – there is no pleasing some people.
Even the arrival of a new survivor to the group did little to help – especially after he was gunned down in sniper alley (in retrospect it was a bad choice to send him there).
Depression sank through the pair, with their apathy leading to their eventual demise. Pavle's lethargy left him exposed to attack while scavenging, and Bruno effectively committed suicide by cop as he mistakenly walked into a military barracks (again, that may have been my fault).
My war
Oppressive, tense, and depressing, there is every reason not to enjoy This War of Mine, but that doesn’t stop it being an engrossing and touching experience. It does exactly what it sets out to achieve, and is a somber reminder of the truth behind what games so often glamourize.
Original, creative, and (in its own way) beautiful, there is little else like this available. If you want to see another side of modern warfare then you should make this war yours.
Still early days
Notably this is a beta build.
I encountered no female characters throughout my two playthroughs. Whether this happened by chance or design remains to be seen. There certainly are videos and screenshots of the game that include female characters, so in this build their absence could be attached to mechanical issues. Still, it will be interesting to see how they are implemented in the final game.
Also, I found no way to save my game. This actually created an odd tension, knowing each game was a one-shot deal, but also meant there was no release from its grim world. This resulted in a three-hour play session that left me emotionally drained.
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