This war of mine: A great new game

The Game Room
1

I just saw and tried a newly released game. I was intrigued because it’s a small game that has a Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam. Turns out, it deserves it.
You play as a small group of civilians stuck in a warzone who must survive as long as they can, improving up the bombed out building that serves as their shelter and producing necessities during the day while you venture out at night to get supplies.

The two game modes could be good stand alone games on their own and they’re well integrated. The art style is half realistic, half impressionist.

There is a lot of emphasis on the physical and psychological toll that the war takes on those people.

If I had to use analogies, it’s a mix between playing the movie The Road and a non-sci-fi version of Fallout and Stalker.
Like Kerbal Space Program or Hotline Miami, it’s a hard game but one where, when I fail, I start thinking about what I could have done better instead of getting frustrated. That’s usually the hallmark of a good game.
On learning that the game was available through file sharing, the developers said that they hoped that people who tried the game that way would then buy it. It is very much worth the price.

2

I’ve actually started looking at this game last night. It seems interesting. One thing I’m worried about is the replayability. Is it there?

3

There is some variation in the areas you’ll visit and in your people. A lot like KSP, it is virtually certain that you will fail often. I lasted 12 days at the most.

I guess the biggest replayability element is in roleplay: Will you try to spare everyone, prey on the weak, go on a rampage? Will you steal from that old couple in the quiet house?
I do have difficulty with the melee combat. I try to press the hit button several times but that seems to interrupt the attack. So far, melee combat has been haphazard.
Now that I’ve described it, I get an urge to try it again so I guess it is replayable.

4

The game is also on GOG.com which sells games DRM-free. So it shouldn’t have been much of a discovery to find out that the game was being traded around.

Thanks for the report on it. I’d seen it on GOG (but it’s not on sale so wasn’t tempted to buy) and was curious what it was all about.

5

To further answer Rand’s question: As you go further into the game, you unlock characters. For example, I got to 31 days before sickness and depression killed everyone and when I started another game, some of my starting characters were new and had abilities I hadn’t used before.

6

I’ve edited the title for you like you asked.

7

Thank you. If we’re ever stuck in a war zone, I’ll save you some rat meat.

8

I think I’m going to pick this game up. I was going to wait for a sale but the more I hear about the developers (not doing annoying DRM, giving away free copies of the game in response to piracy, etc) the more I want to support them.

9

I’m fascinated by the concept and plan to pick it up at the full asking price. Frankly, the world needs more video games that aren’t just “Call of Warfare 24: Advanced Carnage.”

10

It does a very fine job of integrating moral aspects and war into gameplay. Usually, when a game integrates moral aspects, it presents two choices to you, one with a pitchfork that will pay off now and one with a halo that usually pays off more later.

In this game, though, no so much.

For example, some of your characters seem quite fine as people but they aren’t very much use. Cveta and Anton, for example. Cveta loves children and Anton is a good mathematician. But those people don’t bring much in the current situation.

Other the other hand, Bruno only cares about himself and Roman is a punk. When they get depressed, they’re liable to beat up other characters which lowers morale and can injure them, which is potentially quite serious because wounds can worsen. But Bruno is good at using your very limited resources efficiently. Roman is a deserter who is the only character to have good odds if he fights someone. So, a lot of players (myself included) will give medicine and food to them first.

At some point, when I got to 4 people (1 more than the usual starting number), I left one to starve. Whenever I get 4 members and see my food gets near zero, I wonder which one I’ll let starve.

Also, it does a good job of setting the mood. When your characters are hungry, sick, wounded, depressed or tired, they move slower. If you make them move fast when they’re wounded or sick, they can get worse. So you take it easy on them. But that makes doing the stuff you have to do take longer. You start trying to cram as much as you can during the day because there’s usually many things you think you could do to make things easier.

So, it does a good job of making you feel the mentality you acquire when you live through those hardships.

11

So I bought the game and played a few hours of it.

It’s very well-made. I’m glad I supported this studio.

But, I really don’t think I’ll play it again. It messes with my head.

12

How so?

13

I start to get sad and think about it way too much.

14

The game is also very personal for them. Apparently it’s based on their experiences surviving the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. In fact, all of characters in the game are loosely based off the devs (at least all the character portraits are pictures of them), it’s partially just an Easter Egg, but partially drives home how personal it is.

15

I feel like this game would make me consider all the horror I may have inflicted on unseen civilians while playing Battlefield.

:frowning:

16

After watching a few playthroughs this game looks really fun. I’ll be sure to pick it up this weekend in the Steam sale (it’s currently 10% off, hopefully it’ll go down even more.)

Question: Do you ever get a chance to increase the size of the scavengers’ backpacks?

17

Not that I’ve been able to find.

18

Ok, I actually bought it and played it for a couple of hours. Mostly because I’ve taken a recent interest in survival games. One thing that it does really well (as opposed to some other games like DayZ for example) is that injuries and sicknesses can become progressive. Unlike DayZ you can’t just kill and eat a cow and come back to 100% health. So it really forces you to decide to make hard choices like if it’s worth it to even give an injured player food and medicine at all.

19

Can’t remember the game that you play it whole time with a lump in your throat. And then it brings man tears at the end. When after 6 tries, at day 43, I was forced to left my last man (Good Cook) to die of terminal illness over night, lump in the throat was the size of a watermelon. But I won. Relieve force came that night and war was over. Man tears, I tell you. Man tears.

20

This game really needs a better save system. It’s extremely frustrating to play for 30 days, only to lose three characters in a row due to buggy combat mechanics. :mad:

On the bright side, at least I’m getting good at min/maxing the start of the game, heh.

Also, I discovered something of an exploit:

[spoiler]When stealing from certain containers at a trader location, if you leave at least one item, the container will refill with more loot the next time you visit. This works best at the garage with the man who wants meds for his sick father.

It also seems that putting stolen items in a non-owned pile and taking them out again prevents the morale malus you normally get from stealing – this one’s not 100% confirmed, though.[/spoiler]

Great game so far, loving the hell out of it.