{"id":19414,"date":"2016-03-08T20:57:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T10:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19414"},"modified":"2016-03-08T20:57:30","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T10:57:30","slug":"this-war-of-mine-the-little-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19414","title":{"rendered":"This War of Mine: The Little Ones"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thiswarofmine\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Platform: \u00a0<\/strong>Playstation 4
\nDeveloper: \u00a0<\/strong>11-bit Studios
\nPublisher: \u00a0<\/strong>Deep Silver<\/p>\n

Historically speaking, the video game industry does not have a great track record when it comes to social commentary about warfare.\u00a0 The vast majority of titles are couched in a simple, patriotic presentation style with explicitly defined heroes and villains.\u00a0 Holding a gun mean that you \u2013 the good guy \u2013 shoot a bad guy to complete a mission and \u2018win\u2019 the war.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, there has been attempts made to portray the victims of military conflicts but often the results have been spectacularly crass.\u00a0 At their lowest ebb, Activision gave us Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2<\/em> and its notorious No Russian stage in which players took on the role of terrorists massacring innocents in an airport shootout.\u00a0 Devoid of any context or sensitivity, the mission was basically presented as a morbid, senseless shooting gallery.<\/p>\n

In recent years, this has begun to change.\u00a0 Valiant Hearts: The Great War<\/em> and Spec Ops: The Line<\/em> are two examples of games that viewed warfare with an uncommonly measured and weary gaze.<\/p>\n

Which brings us now to 11 bit studios and their civilian-focused survival game This War of Mine: The Little Ones<\/em>.\u00a0 The game includes the original title released on PC in 2014 as well as some additional content \u2013 namely the inclusion of child characters.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the Siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War of the mid Nineties, This War of Mine<\/em> portrays everyday men and women who are caught in a crossfire in the fictional city of Graznavia.\u00a0 The player controls a handful of individuals who take refuge in a shell-shocked house that has been abandoned by its original inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Resources are scarce and the survivors will have plenty to contend with if they are to stay alive.\u00a0 Food, water and shelter are all vital.\u00a0 But there are a myriad of other challenges.\u00a0 Looters and bandits remain a constant threat.\u00a0 The climate is not always hospitable.\u00a0 And scavenging for supplies, guarding the house and fending off attackers takes its toll.\u00a0 The survivors will battle exhaustion and their own feelings of desperation and hopelessness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all doom and gloom however.\u00a0 This War of Mine<\/em> pits the survivors in a harsh and unforgiving environment but occasionally, they will enjoy fleeting moments of happiness.\u00a0 They may enjoy the simple pleasures of reading a book, listening to the radio or playing a guitar.\u00a0 A stressed out chef might find solace in smoking a cigarette or maybe a news journalist finds the strength to hold out a little longer when she sips a cup of coffee.\u00a0 These tiny slivers of life\u2019s simple pleasures feel like well observed details of how terrified, stressed and depressed men and women survive being trapped in a city under fire.<\/p>\n

At its core, This War of Mine<\/em> is a resource management game.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible to survive a few days, maybe a week, by sneaking out at night and raiding nearby schools, hospitals and supermarkets.\u00a0 But eventually these places will be picked dry and the risk of encountering hostiles will increase.\u00a0 For longer term survival, its becomes critical to develop a self-sustaining method of producing food and water as well as some sort of commodity such as alcohol or cigarettes for trading.<\/p>\n

As it should be, This War of Mine<\/em> is a difficult game.\u00a0 I suspect that for most players, early attempts to run and gun through a resource-rich territory will be met with instant failure.\u00a0 The playable characters in the game are ordinary people, not super heroes, and a single bullet can be enough to bring them down. \u00a0Even in my most successful run-through the game, the characters were always on the precipice of disaster.\u00a0 They were either starving, exhausted, deeply depressed or in most instances, some combination of all of the above.\u00a0 But I found that because the game was so difficult and the motivations of the characters were so well realized, I became particularly invested in their fate.\u00a0 I badly wanted my trio of Pavle, Bruno and Katia to survive the winter and make it to peacetime.\u00a0 The stakes only felt higher when Kalina, a war orphan, joined the group.<\/p>\n

11 bit studios are to be commended for what they have achieved with this unique and absorbing game.\u00a0 This War of Mine<\/em> has sky-high ambitions for the emotional register and atmosphere they\u2019re trying to build and on the modest budget of an independent game it could have easily fallen flat.\u00a0 But the narrative passages, the distinctive charcoal art aesthetic and the well-designed game mechanics successfully bring that ambition to life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"thiswarscreenshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Key to its success, the game manages to create distinctive, believable personalities out of each survivor.\u00a0 Occasionally, This War of Mine<\/em> is overt in communicating its game mechanics \u2013 Bruno is a \u2018good cook\u2019 so he requires less ingredients to produce a meal \u2013 but there are also some other subtle traits that they have.\u00a0 Bruno is a smoker and thus more susceptible to illness.\u00a0 Oh, and he\u2019s lousy with kids.\u00a0 Learning these traits as you play really adds to the experience of the game.<\/p>\n

This War of Mine<\/em> is an open ended experience with plenty of scope for player choices but there are also some broad chapter markers that shape the story.\u00a0 There is a harsh winter to endure.\u00a0 A fortnight where crime is rampant and bandits constantly raid your home.\u00a0 And a home stretch where an end to the conflict is on the horizon but your survivors are running desperately low on resources.<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to the good guy with the gun scenario.\u00a0 In my playthrough, Pavle was a talented scavenger and a favourite of Kalina, the orphan.\u00a0 As we ticked over the 40th<\/sup> day of the siege, our supplies had run dry and Kalina was starving.\u00a0 In an act of desperation, I took Pavle scavenging to another house where an elderly couple and their son resided.\u00a0 They had canned goods in their fridge.\u00a0 The elderly couple weren\u2019t physically capable of putting up a fight but the son was.\u00a0 This was not a \u2018scripted\u2019 moment in the game.\u00a0 Organically, I had reached a point where it was him or me.\u00a0 Food for the elders or food for the child.\u00a0 Pavle had a gun.\u00a0 The man in the house didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019ve played plenty of video games that put a gun in my hand but none of them ever forced me to make a choice like this.<\/p>\n

Challenging, creative and engrossing, This War of Mine<\/em> is one of the most unique games available on the Playstation 4.\u00a0 There are plenty of games about war but there\u2019s nothing quite like this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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