It's been about a week or so since I bought This War of Mine and i've put 2-3 hours of actual game play into it by now. Unfortunately that's more due to having a busy work schedule this week. With having a few hours of gameplay under my belt though, I can safely say that you can never truly judge a game based on it's cover alone. It's actually pretty amazing how quickly my opinion of this game has changed simply based on how much more i've noticed in the game as I play it more. So let's talk about it.
In the simplest of terms, This War of Mine is a post-war side scroller simulation. You have access to three characters at one time. You're probably thinking to yourself "wow, that must be difficult to get used to, having to control three people at once". Actually, it's not as bad as you might think, it's actually really useful when you have people with certain skills. On my first playthrough, I wasn't entirely sure what everything meant when it came to what perks certain characters have and what to look out for, mostly because the game just throws you into the action and doesn't really explain a lot, but it doesn't really have to. A few more playthroughs and i've actually started to see the deep-ness and true art of the game itself. I had a playthrough recently where I sent one of my guys out to scavenge for food and parts while one guards the shelter and another one sleeps. The reason I had one of them sleeping is because that person was getting restless and needed sleep, otherwise their survival is at risk. Upon entering the building that I wanted to scavenge, I quickly realized how dangerous this game can be, especially when you're not properly prepared. Unfortunately, I got into a fist to gun fight, and you can probably imagine how that went down. Yeah, the guy I sent to scavenge ended up dying. Once that happens though, the game does a fantastic job at making you really feel the pain of losing someone important in your team. It makes you realize the mistake you made and helps you understand how to fix those mistakes so that they don't happen the next time you decide to send someone out unprepared. And yes, you may not realize it at the beginning, but every single person in your team is important. You quickly come to realize that if you didn't have three people in your team, you'd be dead by night. The really sad thing about losing someone in your team is how it effects the rest of your team. Both remaining characters become depressed and the only way to help them out is by having them talk to one another. I had some interesting dialogue when I did my play through and they were basically trying to knock some sense into each other without inflicting too much emotional pain. It's a weird feeling because I can actually sort of feel what the people are going through. You start to notice that they are starting to feel worthless and they begin mumbling to themselves that they wish the war never happened and everything went back to normal. It's even scarier to think that something like that could actually happen in this day and age.
There's also a number of ways that you can help yourself survive longer without actually having to rush out and scavenge every building possible. You can build a workbench and a metal workshop that allows you to build tools and furniture and radios and all sorts of things. Some things help you keep sane while others help you fight off bad guys if they decide to raid your shelter, which does happen. Speaking of the raids, when you have one person guarding your shelter without a weapon, it doesn't go too well. Fortunately every time i've had someone raid my shelter, my guard has been able to fight them off, somehow. So yeah, this game does have a bit of a crafting process to it, but what I like about it is that it's not directly focused on crafting. That's where I feel like some games lose their charm is when the game play is solid, but everything revolves around crafting. There's a good balance of having to go out and find food and medical supplies and having to craft. Also, make sure you build beds as quickly as possible. Your team will not like having to sleep on the floor every night. Hell, I wouldn't like that either.
On top of all that, this game is phenomenally written when it comes to the dialogue. The graphics are great. The pencil drawn art style is also very pleasing to the eye. And when you're playing through the game, you can hear shots of gunfire in the distance and other war related sounds that really put you on edge. There's really a lot that makes this game great, and I haven't even begun to touch the surface of what this game has to offer. This War of Mine is definitely something I wasn't expecting to like as much as I have, but i'm happy i'm enjoying it as much as I am. Hopefully I get better as time goes on, because I would love to see what happens in the later parts of the game, if I survive long enough that is.
So to wrap things up, don't let the fact that it's a simulation game ruin your experience. Honestly, it's a really well done simulation of what could potentially happen in a post-war scenario. They've managed to create a game that takes everything from the emotional aspect of post-war, and to the neediness of survival and mashed it altogether to make an experience that doesn't happen too often in video games.