Few developers understand the importance of their platform like 11 Bit Studios. Everything the developer does with This War of Mine is purposeful and designed to further its pursuit of a world where children never experience the horrors of war. A year after This War of Mine's release in 2014, 11 Bit Studios partnered with War Child to raise £400,000 ($493,420) for anti-war efforts across the world. More recently, 11 Bit studios contributed to the outpour of support for Ukraine by donating all proceeds from This War of Mine to the Ukrainian Red Cross. By the end of their fundraiser, they donated $850,000.

The driving force behind 11 Bit Studios and its work is plastered all across This War of Mine. Rather than taking control of soldiers or trained combatants, the player is cast as multiple civilians surviving a siege in the fictional city of Pogoren. With little combat experience on their side, they must scrape by until a ceasefire, avoiding starvation, inclement weather, and flying bullets until the bitter end.

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There is no central story in This War of Mine except for “there is a war in Pogoren.” What makes This War of Mine’s storytelling excel is its hands-off approach. Everything players learn about a character and the events of the war is entirely driven by their own decisions. Every person players encounter in the game is grappling with the war in their own way, and how players experience that reality is up to them. Worldbuilding comes from the radio, which provides status updates on the war over broadcast.

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Without a central story, This War of Mine relies on characters to keep the player engaged. Controllable characters all have unique backstories that players discover naturally through gameplay. Players also learn a lot about characters’ morals based on how they respond (or don’t respond) to what other characters do while scavenging during the night. They comment on the actions of other characters and lament about the squalid living situation as they go about their day.

However, most NPC's stories end after the first or second visit to a specific location. For example, a homeless man in an early game location begs the player for food when they first arrive at his squat. He never asks for help after that and simply walks around aimlessly when players return. There's huge potential for a longer storyline here, but it never gets fleshed out.

Luckily, the This War of Mine: Stories expansions remedy this issue. While sacrificing control over certain aspects of gameplay, players can experience deeper stories through these DLCs. Focusing on a specific group of characters, players navigate custom locales and pre-written scenarios with only a few different endings. Though these stories are more linear than the main game, they deliver powerful messages about the harsh realities and forgotten casualties of war. This War of Mine: Final Cut added a new scenario and character, and it added all DLC-specific maps to the base game. This gives players more to experience in their custom scenarios.

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Survival gameplay in This War of Mine is extremely unforgiving. Not only are supplies limited, but players must also manage a small inventory when scavenging. The small stack sizes of key items, like wood, require players to sacrifice other important materials. Players must also avoid attacks from hostile NPCs and navigate maze-like buildings. All of this is done on a strict timer. This is the core tension of the nighttime scavenging sequences.

That tension is what makes nighttime gameplay so engaging. The transition between safe, uninhabited areas and hostile areas is smooth. As the game progresses, players will go up against the armed military with body armor and stronger enemies that stand between them and essential items. Navigating these locations provides an appropriate challenge that thematically reinforces the difficulty an average person would have while surviving a war.

The core gameplay loop is satisfying. Seeing the shelled-out building the characters squat in become a proper home gives the player hope that characters can come out of this horrific situation unharmed. Where the gameplay falters slightly is combat. Given that not every character is the best at combat, it’s reasonable to assume that combat will be challenging. But the combat feels clunky regardless of ability, especially on console. Combat usually results in a dead character, so it's rarely worth the effort.

Although combat is mechanically unrewarding, the difficulty of pulling it off adds a sense of desperation. Choices like whether to challenge an armed soldier for food—all of which affect the ending each character gets—force players to make split-second decisions about how many morals they’ll sacrifice to stay alive. There’s an undeniable emotional impact with each decision players make.

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Visually, the game is stylistic yet surprisingly detailed. The game is presented two-dimensionally but modeled in three dimensions, giving physical depth to what would otherwise be flat backgrounds. Each location players visit is carefully crafted to showcase the horrors of war. Abandoned bombed houses, a crumbling cathedral, and even a whole airport are just a few of the interesting locales players get to explore, and all of them balance smart level design with visual appeal.

The audio design, while mostly fantastic, does occasionally have a few hiccups. Most noticeable are the oddly loud noises children make while running, playing, or existing, some of which occasionally overlap. But outside that, the audio design perfectly captures the atmosphere of a besieged city. During the day, dropping bombs sound off in the distance while a survivor plays a guitar to keep calm. At night, rapid gunfire that’s too close for comfort rings through the air as a civilian picks through a pile of debris. The attention to detail is immaculate.

The game truly shines when children are added into the mix. Children were notably missing from the base game upon release but their inclusion vastly deepens the overall experience. The interactions between adults and children are truly heartwarming; players can talk them through difficult topics, play games with them, and build bonds with them.

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In our playthrough, Roman (a rebel soldier who fled when he couldn’t bring himself to kill his brothers) became responsible for a child named Iskra after joining her and her father, Christo, in their shelter. While their first few conversations were awkward and uncomfortable, they quickly became best friends. These interactions with Iskra, though short, added a lot of depth to Roman’s troubled demeanor and selfish personality.

Despite some minor technical flaws, This War of Mine remains a poignant and, unfortunately, relevant game to this day. It is no surprise that it was the first video game in history to be added to a school curriculum. Its depiction of the harsh reality of war for civilians makes it one of the most unique games to come out of the previous decade.

This War of Mine: Final Cut is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. GameRant received a PS5 code for this review.

This War of Mine Final Cut
This War of Mine: Final Cut

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