This War of Mine failed in telling an anti war message

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

Make no offense, I enjoyed This War of Mine. Seeing on sale during the summer sale, I picked it up in the shopping cart filled with typical shut your brain off goodness. Hearing talk about the Little Ones DLC. I decided to make a playthrough with the Vanilla game before exploring the full potential with DLC.

These are my feelings about the game.

Spoiler

Despite the initial impressions of an anti war game. It failed to truly grasp the feeling of a hopeless war. The Little Ones DLC spared the children from the true horrors of war, none of them can die or be killed and even if they left the shelter they eventually get found by someone if they were Orphans. Rather then the cruel fate of being killed or sold as slaves in human trafficking rings.

Also, despite how the game talks about how none of them are soldiers (Save Roman). Being a maelstrom of justice/destruction is not beyond the player. It felt hypocritical to talk about how horrible war is and yet reward the player with good Karma for going out of their way to rid the city of a couple of rotten bandits when the civilians are more concerned about not getting caught and thus subject to daytime reprisal raids.

So disappointingly, TWOM had great potential in making an excellent anti war game but was marred by not making the player feel helplessness and despair in surviving a war

 

[Frission]

I have to disagree, since what you're proposing is slightly more heavy handed than what "This War of Mine" already is.
It's a game where there is despair and helplessness, yes, but also survival even at the cost of doing some unethical things.

Some people think the game is too heavy handed and grim, while others such as yourself think the opposite. It's a matter of personal tastes, I think.

 

[Kingjackl]

I disagree to a point, I think it does a fine job of creating an atmosphere of survivor's desperation. That and it's a side of the story we so rarely see portrayed in games, especially these days.

I think the rogue-lite elements both help and hurt the game though. On the one hand, the losses and mistakes you're guaranteed to make during those many playthroughs contribute to the atmosphere of oppression. On the other hand, you'll eventually get to a point where you know what you're doing and you'll pull through and maybe even start doing well for yourself. And at that point, the message is kind of lost.

The point where I gave up on This War of Mine (though I would still call it a fine experience overall) was when I caught myself thinking "hey, I should go do the rape scenario, that's a free gun and supplies for the next few nights". At that point, I realised the atmosphere and story-telling had been completely worn away by the cold mechanics of game progression and I stopped playing.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

You have to play quite a bit to get good enough to be a murder machine. So you've probably gone through the hard suffering barely or not surviving experience which the game wants you to. But yeah, the right character with a knife can fuck shit up and leave you loaded. Its those initial experiences of helplessly watching your peeps starve to death because you suck at the game which brings home the anti war message IMO.

Spoiler

Ahhh the joys of figuring out the cook didnt feel bad beating people to death with his frying pan.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

I have to disagree, since what you're proposing is slightly more heavy handed than what "This War of Mine" already is.
It's a game where there is despair and helplessness, yes, but also survival even at the cost of doing some unethical things.

Some people think the game is too heavy handed and grim, while others such as yourself think the opposite. It's a matter of personal tastes, I think.

I definitely agree on that statement. I didnt felt the game captured the horrors of war. When I think war I think of an unstoppable army of looters and soldiers taking whatever thry damned pleased from civilians and there is nothing you can do against a much more motivated and trained army and bloodthirsty raiders.

When I heard about TWOM I thought it was Diary of Anne Frank Simulator, instead I got Cheeki Breeki Shelter Simulator.