This War of Mine

This War of Mine
German retail cover art
Developer(s)	11 bit studios War Child (Android & iOS)
Publisher(s)	11 bit studios
Distributor(s)	Deep Silver 11 bit studios
Director(s)	Michał Drozdowski
Designer(s)	Rafał Włosek Grzegorz Mazur
Programmer(s)	Aleksander Kauch
Artist(s)	Przemysław Marszał Bartek Rydel Jakub Piotrowski
Writer(s)	Maciej Skóra Kacper Kwiatkowski Wojtek Setlak
Composer(s)	Piotr Musiał
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release date(s)	WW: November 14, 2014[1] PlayStation 4, Xbox One WW: January 29, 2016[2]
Genre(s)	Survival
Mode(s)	Single-player

This War of Mine is a war survival video game developed and published by 11 bit studios.^[3] The game, inspired by the 1992–96 Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, differs from most war-themed video games by focusing on the civilian experience of war rather than frontline combat. Much like Telltale's games, characters will have to make various "life-or-death" decisions, in order to survive everyday's dangers. Also there are various endings for each characters whether he/she has survived, died, or left the refuge. This War of Mine was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux in November 2014. Android and iOS ports were released in July 14, 2015.^[4] PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were released on January 29, 2016, under the title This War of Mine: The Little Ones.^[2]

Gameplay

This War of Mine is a survival-themed strategy game where the player controls a group of civilian survivors in a makeshift shelter in the besieged, war-torn fictional city of Pogoren, Graznavia. The main goal of the game is to survive the war with the tools and materials the player can gather with the characters they control. Most of the characters under the player's control have no military background or any kind of survival experience, and will require constant intervention by the player in order to stay alive. It is the player's responsibility to maintain their characters' health, hunger and mood levels until the declaration of a ceasefire, which occurs after a randomized duration.

During the daytime, hostile snipers will prevent the survivors from venturing outside, thereby offering the player time to craft tools from gathered materials, trade, upgrade the shelter, cook food and heal the survivors. At night, the player is given the opportunity to venture out and scavenge nearby areas for valuable resources for their everyday survival. During their excursions, the player-controlled survivors can encounter other NPC survivors of the war, who they can choose to help with gifts of food or medicine, or rob and kill. The player can also build a radio inside their shelter, which will provide useful information such as weather warnings, updates on the city's economy and news of the ongoing war effort to help the player plan appropriate shelter upgrades and scavenging missions.^[5]

The player starts off with two, three or even four survivors whose actions the player can affect. The actions the player makes will change the type of endings each survivor has. The game starts the player with Bruno, Pavle, and Marko or Katia on their first time through. Each character has one or two traits that helps/hinders the player. Some traits are useful during certain days while others are useful all the time. For example, Bruno has a trait called "Good Cook" which helps the player use less fuel and water when cooking meals. There are a total of 12 playable characters.^[6] The Little Ones DLC includes the possibility of adding an extra, child survivor, that can not defend him/herself or perform any of the tasks needed to maintain the shelter at first. In addition, the child survivor must be given constant attention to prevent it from being depressed, but can be taught by the other survivors to perform small chores like cooking, filtering water or growing crops, and once bonding with an adult, it can sleep with them in the same bed at night, dispensing the need of a separate bed for both.

A scenario editor was added into the game through update 1.3, which will allow players to create and select survivors. The editor also allows environmental conditions and the length of conflicts to be changed.^[7]

Player-created content was released freely via the Steam Workshop, as of update 2.0^[8]

Development

The game was inspired by the poor living conditions and wartime atrocities that Bosnian civilians endured during the 1992–96 Siege of Sarajevo, the longest city siege since World War II.^[9] In November 2014, unlicensed copies of the game were made available online. The developer's response was to post a number of working serial numbers in comments, encouraging downloaders to share them with friends, and buy the game if their financial situation allowed.^[10]

Reception

This War of Mine was released to critical acclaim by critics, earning a score of 83 out of 100 from Metacritic on the basis of 55 reviews.^[11] The game reportedly made back its development costs in its first two days on sale.^[15]

References