This War of Mine Review

This War of Mine is a strategy survival video game by 11 Bit Studios.  I first found out about this game via Paul Soares Jr. on his YouTube channel Paul Soares Jr. youtube Channel.  I have been an avid watching of Mr. Soares since his early Minecraft how to Survive videos and have found him a terrific source of new games since he branched out and began play testing new tittles.  I purchases the game on Steam and have been enjoying playing though the story.

This War of Mine at first glance is a simple point click and move your character around a side-scrolling map, but has a much deeper game play that is apparent at first glance.  The game loosely based up the siege of Sarajevo during  the Bosnian War (Wiki says 1992-1996).   You play a group of civilians that have holed up in an abandoned home and must scavenge, trade, and/or steal to survive.


The starting characters are different with each play though and have their own strengths and weaknesses.  Such as a strong character will have more equipment slots to bring home scavenged materials but may be much slower in movement.  While a quicker character may be a better negotiator or stealthier.    These traits will help shape how you play the game and who will stay home each night to guard the house from bandits or go out in search of supplies.

Like I said you start off exploring your house and discovering some meager supplies and what locations you have available.  Eventually you will open up more parts of your home and begin to equip it with the materials (wood, metal, and maybe parts of firearms) and equipment (rat traps, water purification system, or a alcohol still) to help your characters survive.  Each day is broken down to daytime and night time.  During the day you can rest and work on your home, but during the night you can select who will rest, be on guard at home, and who will venture out into the war torn city and look for equipment and supplies.


When you go out into the city you will encounter different locations and people.  Some of these will be hostile towards you, while others are in similar dire straits as your characters, and will be will to trade or need your help.  I found that my choices would not only affect the moral of my characters but how other NPC's would interact with my characters.

All in all, I am really enjoying the game.  right now the base game is available on Steam for $19.99


Pros (Things I like)

• Random starting characters, I found myself starting a new game just to see which characters I would receive
• The seasons and weather change, you may be warm one day and then the temperature plunges and you are in need of a furnace/heater in your home.

Cons (Things I don't like)

• the compressed time of day and night can be too short to get done what you would like to accomplish.
• Some of the game locations are darn difficult to get around with out a fight, I know its portraying a realistic atmosphere but man, does it get hard at times
• the game only saves after you have completed a full day, so you have to do all your day activities and then you night outing before you can save your actions.  that takes about 20 min. real time and is sometimes hard to work around with a toddler in the house.