This War of Mine

[Nippelspanner]

I'm surprised no one mentioned it yet!
Finally something new and so far I love it, so I thought I'd advertise it a little.

This War of Mine Homepage (http://www.11bitstudios.com/games/16/this-war-of-mine)

The bone chilling launch trailer (http://youtu.be/gotK5DLdVvI):timeout:

What is it about?
This War Of Mine provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle. For the very first time you do not play as an elite soldier, rather a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city. During the day snipers outside stop you from leaving your refuge, so you need to focus on maintaining your hideout. At night you get a chance to scavenge nearby locations for items that will help you stay alive.
Make life-and-death decisions driven by your conscience. Try to protect everybody from your shelter or sacrifice some of them to endure the hardships. During war, there are no good or bad decisions; there is only survival. The sooner you realize that, the better.So far, this game fascinated me.
The art style is great, the characters and AI of NPCs seems very authentic. The difficulty appears "just right" and there is nothing at all like a tutorial, you are being thrown right in and have to see how you get by.
While I do like this, at one point it made me rage quit.

Just a hint: You may want to look for a combat tutorial on YouTube before playing it...

Much more can not be said at this point from me, though I am sure I am not the only survivor here.
Oh and don't worry guys... this time: NO Zombies! (friggin finally!)

[CCIP]

Great game! It really does have its soul in the right place - I like that your characters are ordinary civilians by and large, and while you can get them to do certain things, they're not robots that you can shape into your own little personal army. They get disgusted and depressed if you go too far.

As a survival game, it's also balanced very well because you're never quite secure in it, and there's no guarantees - no matter how good I thought I was, I could never say for certain that my group would last more than another 2-3 days.

My best experience in it was towards the end of my first playthrough. I'd exhausted all the known places with supplies, and I could get nothing else. My survivors were starting to starve. I managed to obtain a gun and some ammunitions, and next night, I was mentally preparing to take my one guy with combat training to go and shoot up those stupid thugs that previously shot me on sight, just so I could go and take their food. I was mentally prepared to go shoot them to death, but held off without food just for one more night to see if I could find some supplies elsewhere. I didn't.

That day, the war ended. Phew :doh:
Really made me think though. Good game!

[CaptainHaplo]

Thanks guys. Not my style of game I don't think, but it is on my son's Xmas list.

[TorpX]

Sounds pretty grim.

[Nippelspanner]

Oh it is...
I just took some supplies from a hospital... without realizing what I am actually doing cause I was focusing on the survival of the group™ when the guy who did it was totally depressed when coming home.
Fortunately, the group accepted the situation and didn't send him to hell or despise him, though there was criticism.

In another building, I found a brutally mutilated body, those responsible still around. Next night, I send my most able man with a knife and killed all but one of them
because he begged me not to kill him... after he saw me stabbing his buddies head multiple times. I am not sure if I might not return for him later though...

Grim? Yeah... that term suits the game.

[Betonov]

Grim? Yeah... that term suits the game.

What war games should be

[stoppro]

Looks interesting.Is steam required? If not I'll try it out.

[Nippelspanner]

Looks interesting.Is steam required? If not I'll try it out.
Nope: http://www.gog.com/game/this_war_of_mine

[CCIP]

I should point out, by the way, that so far in my 2 playthroughs I've not done anything worse than steal medicine and food from an old couple, and took away my neighbours' supplies. Even mechanically - and perhaps this is really a point that this game is making - it's better to have a crew with a clean conscience and an empty stomach, than vice versa.

I also found cold to be a more insidious danger than hunger. Mostly because it's unpredictable and not always noticable, and can creep up on you before you can do much, and start disabling your group very quickly. While you can usually steal or trade some food pretty quickly if you know your situation is desperate, gathering supplies to upgrade your heater takes a long time, and you have to get something to burn in it while you're at it.

[Nippelspanner]

When wood and fuel starts to vanish, be sure to have an axe handy. You can also take an axe a nightly scavenge-trip and destroy furniture in safe locations, it drops a lot of fuel and wood usually.
I kinda overlooked the axe and its functionality for a while.
Currently I'm in my second game, didn't finish the first one, wanted to start over after the patch arrived...

http://i.gyazo.com/8149800bd84b46d3b04c441e77cc41c6.png

So far the group of 5(!) is doing ok, though you'll never know. Murdered a girl that was looking for me with a shotgun with a knife with Pavle (fast runner). He felt like crap for 2 days but I'd call it self defence.
Left the old couple alone for now and will only go there if crap hits the fan, my heart is still broken from the last time I took their stuff and basically left them to die.

Now, about the game itself. I wish they would work on it further and release patches or mini addons that add locations and characters so everything can become more random,
like a different starting location (I don't like the tenement much), different circumstances, difficulty settings, some more materials etc...
So much potential for a sandbox game right there, I hope they might do something. It reminds me very much of Zafehouse: Diaries (http://store.steampowered.com/app/249360/),
just in 2D/3D and with actual control over your group rather than complete gambling like it is in Zafehouse - which is just frustratingly hard mostly.

PS: I have a crush on Katia :rotfl2:

[Nippelspanner]

So far the group of 5(!) is doing ok
Yeah, well I take that back... :shifty:

http://i.gyazo.com/2d199001d3a9109bec6a80251a81dfb7.png

That means now Katia has to be my scavenger, for she can carry the largest amount of stuff (12).
Also I consider taking revenge.
I do have a combat vest, an assault rifle, ammo, knifes, lockpicks...
Even well equipped - I am still just a civilian.

But Pavle died for the group. He deserves this. We do.
Vengeance!

Edit:
I had my revenge. Katia killed them all with remarkable skill and brutality.She later saved a girl from being raped, which was the last time she had to kill.
Cveta died while looking for supplies in the school - which was taken over by reel forces.

Peace Keeping Forces arrived on day 40, the war was over.This game makes me think about the current Ukraine situation a lot...

[U-Dog]

I just recently bought this through steam. Wish I'd known it was available elsewhere. I've only played a short while and as yet have no idea what I'm doing. Though perhaps that is the point.

I really support the idea of this as thought provoking. I am a bit afraid of it though. I once met a really sweet girl and her family had lived through the siege of Sarajevo, so, I don't like to think about that too much. If you know what I mean?

But maybe if more media and games about wars were made from the civilian perspective we would have fewer of them?