Most war games portray war as an experience meant to entertain the player.
You reload your weapon, get shot, somehow survive, respawn after dying and continue fighting.
You can spend hours playing games like CS:GO or Call of Duty without ever stopping to think about what war would actually be like.
Many of these games put you in the shoes of some kind of super-soldier capable of single-handedly wiping out entire armies.
Then came Spec Ops: The Line which started to explore the psychological consequences of war and what it can do to a soldier's mind.
But there was still a perspective missing.
This War of Mine fills that gap by showing war through the eyes of civilians.
Three civilians take shelter in a ruined building and it's up to you to help them survive the war.
During the day you'll improve your shelter, craft supplies, cook food, treat injuries and decide how to spend the limited resources you have.
At night you'll send one character out to search for supplies while deciding what the others should do: one can sleep while another guards the shelter or you can let them both sleep and hope you won't wake up to find everything you've worked for stolen.
And that's just the beginning.
At first, you know very little about the people you're trying to keep alive.
You might get only a few lines about their past but as the days go by you gradually get to know them.
And the game makes sure you feel the consequences of your decisions.
Your characters react to injuries, illnesses, new survivors, losing someone, stealing from an elderly couple, helping strangers and countless other events.
Their physical and mental state can deteriorate and the things you do or refuse to do can have consequences far beyond simply gaining or losing resources.
There is no traditional tutorial.
The game throws you straight into the deep end and expects you to figure things out yourself.
And in a strange way that makes perfect sense.
If you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a war, you wouldn't receive a tutorial explaining how to survive either.
It's cruel.
Just like war itself.
This War of Mine makes you appreciate something that is incredibly easy to take for granted:
living in peace.
War isn't an adventure.
It isn't a power fantasy.
It isn't about being the strongest soldier on the battlefield.
It's about ordinary people trying to survive another day.
In war, morals die first.
Kindness may follow.
Will you survive by sacrificing the person you used to be?
Or will you risk your own life to remain the person you are?
The choice is yours.
Good luck.
