This War of Mine

Three Paragraph Productions Presents: This War of Mine Review

In an age where rehashing the old has become the standard, anyone who tries something new in the gaming industry has my respect. When I'm drowning in a sea of old, I find myself gasping for something new. This War of Mine has taken something that’s been done countless times, war, and somehow managed to pull it off in a fashion I’ve never seen before. When you think of a war game, the first thing that comes to mind is the soldier. Where is he? What’s he doing? Who’s he fighting for? Most games tend to focus around these points.

This War of Mine flips that completely on it’s head, and becomes much more relatable because of it. Based on the siege of Sarajevo which lasted from 1992-1996, This War of Mine takes place in an unnamed city in an Eastern European setting during a siege. Giving the player control of a party of survivors you’re tasked with keeping them alive. For such a simple concept, I found myself infatuated with the game for many days.

The game follows a day and night cycle. During the day the player may control any character and have them accomplish whichever task they wish in an RTS like system. Daytime confines your party to the house, where you’ll spend most of your time, building things, feeding your characters and taking care of their well being. Supplies are scarce, and if you don’t have enough to go around you’ll find yourself choosing who gets to eat, who gets medicine, who gets to sleep in a bed (or sleep at all).

During the night is when you can go and scavenge supplies. You’ll designate a maximum of one scavenger (you can instead pass the night with everyone remaining at the shelter if you should choose) and the rest of your party will remain at the shelter and either stay up all night guarding from raiders, sleep on the floor (which offers a poor night’s sleep) or sleep in a bed (which you’ll need to build). You’ll choose a location to scavenge and then send your scavenger out into the night. They have limited pack space, so you’ll have to decide how much you want to give them before leaving (the more packed the less you can return with) and then they’ll be on their way. Once the night begins you’ll take control of the scavenger and escort them about the location you chose, dealing with whichever obstacles you encounter. Obstacles can range from locked doors, piles of rubble or hostile strangers.

This War of Mine is a game which forces a lot of decision making on the player. You’ll start with 2-4 characters, randomly generated from about 10 or so, and from here you’ll have to decide how to run their lives. You’ll rarely have enough supplies or materials to keep everyone in peak condition, with each character having a hunger, sleep and morale system. People need to be fed to survive, sleep to stay healthy and morally righteous to stave off depression. Each of them also have their own special abilities. One can run faster, one can scavenge better, one can cook better, one keeps morale up, and so on. Each character also has a different amount of backpack space when they leave the shelter. Every task takes up materials. You’ll need to build everything from beds, to a stove, to heaters, and you probably aren’t going to have enough material to make everything you want. Do you want more beds to keep everyone awake? A Better stove to lower the cost of fuel for cooking? A garden to produce a tradable resource? During the day you’ll find yourself having to make tough choices about who needs things the most, and none of them are black and white.

At night you need to choose who to send out, and where to send them. There are some locations that are rich with supplies that nobody owns, but those aren’t going to last forever. Eventually you’ll have to start putting yourself into danger, stealing from raiders, or taking the easier option and stealing from other innocent people like yourselves. Every choice you make will have an effect on your party. Stealing from the poor will put them into a state of depression, killing likewise. Locations can also become unavailable due to fighting or snow for extended periods of time.

Lastly, there’s a seasonal system. Each playthrough will have a summer season and a winter season at some point during the siege. In the summer you don’t have to worry about heat, but the winter required you to maintain fuel in order to keep the shelter warm.

I could ramble on and on about the decisions forever, but the point is that this is the core gameplay mechanic. You will have to do the best you can with what you have. And the fact that you, the player, are solely responsible for their well-being creates a sense I’ve never experienced in a game before. Usually when I play a game with a moral choice system, I find myself taking the dickhead approach every time, because there isn’t usually a sense of weight. A couple of in-game days into This War of Mine and I was compelled to be as righteous as possible. I found myself following the same moral compass I would if I was in a real siege, and then the game stripped that from me. I was forced to starve certain characters for a day or two because I didn’t have enough food to go around. Then I found myself stealing from bandits, and eventually killing them if confronted with a life or death struggle. When things got worse I was robbing from defenseless old couples with no security. When someone would get wounded I’d sell all the materials I’d stockpiled to build something in a heartbeat for bandages. And then I had to watch as, one by one, each person died.

I was unable to beat the game on the first few attempts, and I forced myself to avoid using a guide or following a “meta”. I had several failures, and each had a direct impact on me. This War of Mine really forced me to take a look at myself and ask what kind of a person I was. I felt real loss at every death a character had, but the payoff was colossal in weight. When I finally outlasted the siege, by the skin of my teeth, the utter joy on the inside was monumental. It wasn’t a perfect run, I’d lost two characters, but three had survived and I was incredibly relieved to have gotten them through the siege to safety.

This War of Mine is a game that turned the industry on it’s head. Instead of crafting a story for you, you are given the tools to forge your own. You’re put into a constant battle with numerous outside forces and you just have to do the best you can. It’s not an experience that I think should ever be replicated, because a large part of the effect is that all of these experiences are new, but anyone looking to get into game design should play this game.