This War of Mine

This War of Mine is a gripping survival sim, and a great study of survival during wartime and civil collapse.

This War of Mine is survival horror game of a very different, very literal kind.

Perhaps the problem is my own, and maybe I'm too content to morbidly tinker with my survivors to push them towards another miserable day. This War of Mine is a game whose simple message - that war is hell, and that we're all capable of being sucked into its moral depths - might be slightly compromised by its strengths as a game, but at least it's a message carried with a great deal more conviction than other, more bombastic portrayals of conflict. That, for certain, is something to be thankful for.

A stark statement about war delivered through deftly designed stealth survival and resource management. Important, but unrelentingly cruel.

Effectively delivers a strong message about the depressing reality of war, eschewing classic soldier or commander glorification that permeates many games. An emotional, impactful journey, even if the gameplay elements are somewhat simple

Though I certainly believe that video games are an art form, there are precious few games that I would hold up as works of art, which for me – in its narrative varieties at least – has something to do with extending one's capacity for empathy or adding depth to one's sense of the human condition. On both counts "This War of Mine" succeeds.

Whether This War of Mine truly succeeds in saying anything more than 'war is hell' I don't know. Equally, I'm not at all sure it needs to. We play a lot of wars, and it is surely only fair to sometimes be reminded that war is not really about a muscle-bound American man saving the day. It makes its point very well, in that it is harrowing, it is careful, and its increasingly deadly Groundhog day approach supports rather than disrupts the atmosphere of extreme strife. It's without doubt effective and impressive at what it does.

This War of Mine looks at war from a point-of-view rarely explored in video games, that of the civilians who have their lives disrupted by armed conflict.

This War of Mine: Forget Celebrations Charity DLC is a neat little upgrade that adds a nice mode to the game. It's very cheap and since all proceeds go to charity, I don't see a world in which this is a bad purchase.

This War of Mine encompasses most of the difficulties you’d expect from the survival genre and throws on a pretty grim and depressing layer of reality to boot. The tests here aren’t just of your ability to figure out what the best crafting paths or things to prioritize in gathering may be but also of your ability to manage very human problems as well. There will be many ways the game can frustrate you as you try to figure out how to survive in this bleak situation but it’s the glimmers of hope, small successes, and human stories in this horrible situation that also make it memorable.