This War of Mine

This War of Mine
Retail cover art
Developer(s)	11 bit studios
Publisher(s)	11 bit studios Deep Silver (PS4, XONE)
Distributor(s)	Deep Silver (PC retail)
Director(s)	Michał Drozdowski
Artist(s)	Przemysław Marszał Bartek Rydel Jakub Piotrowski
Writer(s)	Maciej Skóra Kacper Kwiatkowski Wojtek Setlak
Composer(s)	Piotr Musiał Grzegorz Mazur
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android PlayStation 4 Xbox One
Release date(s)	November 14, 2014[1] PlayStation 4, Xbox One January 29, 2016[2]
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

This War of Mine is a 2014 war survival video game developed by 11 bit studios.^[3] The game, which was 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. This War of Mine was released for the Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux operating systems in November 2014. Android and iOS versions were released in July 14, 2015.^[4] A PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release titled This War of Mine: The Little Ones has been announced for a January 29, 2016 release. This version features new missions and characters.^[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 a besieged, war-torn city. 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]

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, pirated 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 well received by critics, earning a score of 83 out of 100 from Metacritic on the basis of 55 professional reviews.^[12] The game reportedly made back its development costs in its first two days on sale.^[16]

References

External links

• Official website