Analysis This War of Mine: Final Cut

“In modern warfare… you will die like a dog and for no reason”, with this sentence from Ernest Hemingway which begins This war of mine. And I think there’s no better way to describe what the game of 11-bit studios. A war game that introduces the player to the other side of the conflict, where survival is doubly threatened by fire from both sides. Civilians at the mercy of bullets and misery. It’s like that This war of minewhich arrives with all its contents in a final cut impervious to an Xbox.

After a very successful landing on PC, this final cut Day one on Xbox Game Pass is a golden opportunity to experience this true gem. A raw adventure that will put us in all kinds of survival situations. Risk and the toughest choices will continually put us on the ropes, are you up for the challenge?

A visual section as gray as the war itself

One of the highlights that had This Mine War when it came out on PC in 2014, it was a very attractive graphic section. In a context as raw as the 11 Bit Studios game, it was important to reflect the harshness of war, which is done with a color palette full of dark tones. In fact, some of the (yellow) indicators on the actions we can perform will be one of the few that stand out during the game. If you’ve seen “Schindler’s List” you’ll know what I mean.

His approach with side view offers a glimpse of these closest environments, forcing us to explore and enter unknown areas. And the truth is, you always want to see what or who is there. As for the design of the scenarios, they are fantastic, with a high level of detail. A dilapidated station, an abandoned pharmacy, a “ghost” house, it’s all there. They are represented with a design that mimics pencil strokes, more accentuated at the ends of the screen. An effect which, by the way, can be modulated from the options.

under this platform look, hidden as I said, a pure and simple exploration game. This is the time to go up and down the stairs, to climb and even to hide if necessary, and in this sense the animations of the protagonists do not go out of tune at any time. Plus, with next-gen power, the title runs better than ever.

This War of Mine adapts perfectly to the Xbox

We already know how successful it was This war of mine on PC but, how does it feel to play it on console? The quickest answer is “great”, but we won’t stop there. The adaptation to the control, taking into account all the elements to be manipulated during the game, is very good. It’s not one of those strategy or management games where we need precise control with large lists of items, so the interaction isn’t that demanding.

Go straight to the gameplay, and focus on its classic fashion, we will have several options to build and “write our own story”. In this way, if we prefer, the game will allow us to choose between several characters and form a group of survivors of up to 4 members. We will be able to see their main characteristics and choose them based on that, although at the moment of truth we will have to survive as they are. In my case, I chose Bruno, Anton, Arica and Marin.

After having our survivors, we will have to establish certain parameters, such as the intensity of the conflict (difficulty), the duration of the winter and the time it takes to arrive, or the points that we want to include to explore on the city ​​map . With everything ready, our survival adventure begins.

exploration and decisions

As soon as you start, the game provides you with a shelter, which will be our “base of operations”. In the first moments, it will be used to obtain our first objects and items to survive in the midst of conflict. There will be piles of rubble, lockers, and other points of interest where you can discover coins, wood, water, food, and more. Of course, it is worth highlighting special attention to our inventory, and not specifically to that of the shelter.

When we go exploring with one of our survivors, we will have limited space to carry tools and weapons, so we must choose wisely, because we do not know what we are going to find. If we go to an abandoned house, there may be a dangerous tenantor maybe there’s a locked room in the station that needs picking.

No less important will be the management of our survivors. In this way, it will be time to properly distribute the food, make beds for them to rest in and weapons with which to defend themselves (among other improvements). All of them will start to starve, they will show their fatigue and they can even get sick or take damage if they attack us. For him, When you go out exploring at night, you have to choose who you go withwho remains to rest, and who keeps watch in the shelter.

From now on, every time we go out we will have constant moral dilemmas on what to do; steal other people’s supplies? Kill to protect our own? Trade at all costs? It’s up to us how far to go, and therein lies the “magic” of gaming. The line between good and evil blurs when conditions are more extreme than ever.

Stories of this mine war

Stories of this mine war comes with it final cut to offer three independent stories with which the player can cut to the chase. This DLC is, at least for me, the most attractive content of the most complete version of the game from 11 Bit Studios. He offers us to put ourselves fully in the shoes of different characters with already scripted storiesthat will reach the player’s heart.

First, we have what is perhaps the most heartbreaking of all; “Father’s Promise“. In this harrowing journey, we will control Adam, a father who, along with his daughter, refused to leave the now besieged city. Now the little girl is sick and our mission will be to protect her and save her from the dangers of war. With a severe shortage of resources, a sick daughter, and a brother he despises, we’re told the journey will be anything but easy.

In “The last show» our protagonist will be Esma, who helps her husband Malik in his radio broadcasting work as best he can, since he is crippled. This will complicate things, although your experience as a radio announcer will come in handy in helping other people. As expected, difficult situations will arise, in which no matter what we do, someone will end up getting hurt, including ourselves. There is always a moral dilemma behind radio.

Ultimately, “ember» takes us to the house of Anja, an orphan trying to survive under the cold blanket of winter Pogoren and an unending war. Meanwhile, a stranger shows up on her doorstep with a gunshot wound in the middle of a blizzard. after helping him Anja will have to fight for them both to survive., trying to keep the only thing he has left; the memories that an artist from Vyseno left her in life after welcoming her almost like a father.

The latter, with “The Father’s Promise” may be the adventures with the best twists, though both these and “The Last Retransmission” are extremely fun and narratively deep.

the sound of war

In This war of mine nothing is random, and every detail reminds us that we are in conflict. Difficult decisions, violence or the simple act of moving through abandoned places in search of resources, are always accompanied by a sound section to match. The atmosphere that emerges is sublime at all times.

The soundtrackalthough I like it, it repeats too much after passing the first hour of play. Already in his time I lacked a greater variety, or at least some changes depending on the situations that occur, but it is something that remained intact in the console version. Better are the ambient sound effectswhich recreate bombs and gunshots in the distance, especially during the day.

The actions of the characters meanwhile, also instill almost awe in their execution. As you know, the noise we generate when raiding other places is important because it can alert enemies or other people nearby. It’s because of it when rummaging through a pile of rubble, opening doors, or stealing another resource, it should be done with extreme caution. Simply, the level of immersion reached by the video game is higher than what I can express in this analysis, it is necessary to live it.

It’s time to give it a try if you haven’t already

With the regret of not being able to expand enough on its narrative (a matter of spoilers), what I can tell you is that you will not find another game that tells you about the war in such a realistic way. that he does This war of mine. It’s a human game, and as such it humanizes (pardon the redundancy) the situation of civilians in the midst of conflict, fleeing the saturated epic of cinema and other war games.

Here we will have to survive as they are, in order to constantly find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. Taking care of ourselves and ours seems easy, but when our choices have such a negative effect on others, things get complicated. And that’s what 11 Bit Studios game is all about. Both in its classic mode and in its stories, we will live heartbreaking storiesat the same time as we dig into the little that remains of a besieged and ruined city.

Weapons, food, tools… all that we find and make is not enough to survive. How to walk this path is up to us; kill and steal if necessary? Or will we maintain our humanity at the expense of ourselves?