I feel I should start off this piece by saying something no
one is going to agree with. It might raise a few eyebrows. It could be way too
much for you to handle. Hell, I may not even be allowed to write anything again
if Simon feels it’s a tad too much. That being said, it’s best to get it out of
the way now. Here goes. Having a baby is quite alright.
If you are still reading, then it means that my writing
hasn’t been censored by the Chief of the cyber police. If you can make out the
words, I assume no detailed depiction of male genitalia obstructs the words.
Please, let me explain myself. I do not enjoy the constant nappy changes, which
I can now do with my eyes closed. I hate that due to lack of bodily functions,
my son has more changes of outfit than the entire cast of Cats. I won’t even go
into detail of my sleep patterns, which could be considered a form of torture
if not for the fact that I am still alive(somehow), and still sane(ish).
Despite all of these lovely additions to my day(alongside working 8 – 12 hour
shifts) I still manage to get game time. In fact, in some weird twist of fate,
I manage to get just as much game time in now as I did before he came along.
You see, where I am
granted some sort of immunity from all of this is the evenings. Baby goes down
around 7, and because of the feeding through the night, the wife goes up an
hour later. Whether or not I am getting enough sleep is not the issue, I need
to wind down. I need a controller in my hand and a list of games to take me
into wonderful worlds where babies aren’t around. As much as I love the little
shi…tzu sized cherub, I need somewhere to go for a short while to stop me from
jumping out of a window head first. Which takes me neatly into the game I have
been playing the hell out of this week; This War of Mine: The Little Ones will
make you want to jump out of a window head first.
Some of you may know of this game already, as it has been
out on PC since 2014. Although it was only known as “This war of mine” then,
the subtitle has been added now it comes to PS4 and Xbox one with additional
content. Developed by 11 bit studios, who are known for their real time
strategy game, Anomaly: Warzone Earth. This War of Mine depicts a country
ravaged by – you guessed it – war. Instead of playing as a solider whose sole
purpose is killing the enemy, you play a handful of civilians just trying to
survive. Their one goal is to make it out the other side of this horrific
situation alive, and maybe find their human sides again. The latter may only
apply if you play like a dick, or in other words, like me.
In case you haven’t seen this game before, it is a survival
sim in the same vain as the rather chilly looking The Long Dark, or the
pixelated wonder that is Sheltered. You need to scavenge what you can from the
surrounding world in order to stay alive as long as possible. Things like wood
and components come in abundance, and with these objects you can craft and
upgrade workbenches, metalwork tables and stoves, to name but a few. You can
even make moonshine. The important bits, however, are not so easy to gather.
Food, weapons and medicine are expensive, heavily-guarded, scarce, and
dangerous to get if you are desperate. This is where the game becomes even
bleaker than it already is. Imagine listening to the whole Radiohead
discography whilst watching The Road and you have the feel of this game in the
palm of your hands. You can make moonshine though. Have I already said that?
You start off with a number of survivors, who have just
settled in a derelict, run down shell of a house. From there you begin
searching your new abode, gathering a bit here and there to start you off. Once
it hits night time is when the real test of your survival ability kicks in.
Each of your characters has a choice to sleep, go on guard, or scavenge. Once
you make this choice, there is another: where do you go to scavenge. Do you
wander down to the local supermarket, where other survivors are looting, and
are more than happy to share? Will you wander into the town centre and dabble in
trade for specific items you require? Or, will you bum rush an elderly couple
in their house, steal all their valuables and leave them there to die? The
choice is yours, but your characters may not agree with your decisions.
While you can gather plenty of the good stuff from the
darker decision, stealing from others can have a harrowing effect on all of
your survivors. They will become sad, which then leads to depression. This can
lead to a number of outcomes if left untreated. I have come back from a night’s
worth of ransacking apartments only to come back home and find one of us has
left during the night, never to be seen again. This only adds to the emotional
baggage of the others. So, do you still think stealing is the best option?
Because I do.
Although you could probably play without taking things
forcefully, the trading side of things becomes very expensive. During some
periods of the game, certain items can suddenly increase in value over night
due to their availability. One play through could see coffee more expensive
than cigarettes. Another and vegetables (which are already pricey) can be the
commodity everyone is after. In case I haven’t mentioned it already, you can
make moonshine, which can be a nice little trade set up if you get enough of
the resources. If trading is not your thing, you can try going into areas with
heavily armed opposition and gunning your way through. It is another option,
albeit, a risky one.
Unfortunately, it’s the combat that shows the clunky
controls off. Too many times I would wind up in a situation where my character
pushed the wrong person. A knife, or gun would come out and I would panic. Not
because I was unsure if my aim would be off, or if the other guy was too tough
for me to take on. I panicked because I wasn’t sure what the hell I was
supposed to do. This game is definitely optimised for mouse and keyboard play
because getting into cover is so clumsy with a controller. By the time you have
highlighted the correct prompt to hide, you’re either too wounded to escape, or
too dead to fight back. Close quarters combat stinks as well, due to the
horrific animation loop that you can get stuck in from the enemy pistol
whipping you again and again and again. And there is nothing you can do about
it, except collapse into an inanimate meaty object. Suffice it to say, I found
myself trying to keep away from the fighting whenever I could.
Apart from that, I am hooked on this game. The art style is
dark, grainy and looks like an old, bleak oil painting come to life, but frozen
in time. Each play through is completely different, making you feel like you
are writing your own war story. When, and how, each of your characters die, or
disappear, or even make it out the other side is never the same. And to an
extent some of this stuff is out of your hands, which means you can be kept on
edge about situations for a while. I like this though; each game is unique to
you, and I’m sure no two people will ever have the same story to tell.
