The first game in this Backlog Burner is, “This War of Mine.”
Details
- Released: November 14, 2014 (Steam)
- Purchased: July 4, 2016
- Discounted at purchase?: Yes, 75% off
- Bingo Category: “Has a Lives System”
- Time played: 1hr, 18min.
Why this game?
I imagine a “Lives System,” conjures up thoughts of Mario games, where you get 1-Ups. Instead, I took a broader angle with it. Because I don’t think I have a single game in the backlog with a true “Lives System.” I don’t really play platformers.
However, in “This War of Mine,” (TWoM from here on out) characters can die permanently, while the game continues. Unless everyone dies. So to me, that means there’s a “Lives System.” Maybe I should’ve chosen this one for the “Has Permadeath” category.
Review
Right off the bat, this game reminded me of “Frostpunk.” And whadyaknow, it’s made by the same developer! While “Frostpunk” stems from climate catastrophe, and TWoM starts with a civil war, both are 100% survival management games. Though from different heights: Frostpunk is about keeping a village or town alive, while TWoM is about a small group of people, essentially a household, surviving.
With not even an hour and a half of playtime, I didn’t get terribly far. Only to Day 6. There was no tutorial, which was a little surprising, but I wonder if that’s intentional. In a real like situation, trying to eke out a living in a city under siege, there’s no tutorial. I imagine you make it up as you go along.
I had to manage my three characters’ hunger, tiredness, health, and warmth. Didn’t have to worry about warmth, as the temperatures were still in the 60s F (15.5-20.5C). The tiredness was easy—just send people to bed—but the hunger was definitely more challenging. I realized that not everyone could eat everyday.
I scavenged a couple of locations, but even though those places were plentiful with materials, I couldn’t get much. A character can only hold a limited amount of items. But then those items would quickly be used for firewood for cooking, filters for making clean water, or making lockpicks or shovels. Meaning I’d have to go out the following night for sure. And I had to choose whether to prioritize food or other materials to take back. Yet I needed both!
I didn’t do too much combat, but I did do a bad thing…At one house I was scavenging, there was an NPC squatting there. He saw my guy, started begging him for food, and followed my character around as he was checking out the house…So I killed him with a shovel. I just wanted to know what would happen!
Nothing happened. No secret police or friend of the deceased jumping out of the shadows. I did feel a little bad afterwards, since the NPC was nonviolent, simply begging. I checked his body afterwards and he had nothing. So I killed him for no reason. Which made the character I was controlling sad, on top of being hungry and tired.
I essentially stopped it there. I kinda got bored. I know I didn’t get deep into it, but I was expecting a little more danger or something at the start. Or I don’t know, some direction. I thought this game would be more scenario-like, like Frostpunk. I need to survive X amount of days, and do at least Y and Z to achieve that goal. Instead, it’s more like a sandbox. I don’t hate sandboxes, but I feel like having some explicit direction would help, other than, “Survive.” Maybe this is why I don’t really play survival games.
Would I get back to This War of Mine? Yeah, probably. I didn’t dislike it. Just got bored. Maybe just wasn’t in the mood for it.
Either way, that’s one game on the backlog crossed off. This is my “war of mine.”