This War of Mine is bretty good

[cvv]

So a week since the release and still no thread? Not many Codexers are fans of surviving it seems.

Anyway to all interested - TWOM is a pretty good little survival game. No idea if they're planning any addons or DLCs but it's already eminently playable. Content-wise it's definitely in much better state than Don't Starve was on release.

It's also quite brutal. I've done about 7 playthroughs, won finally today, with 5 people dead and the last two just barely hanging on. I can tell you I feel like I was just liberated by the Muhrines after years of struggle with hunger, cold, bandits and disease myself.

Definitely worth my 15 euro on GOG despite some little annoyances, like the beastly RNG (dat one can fuck you up goood), wonky combat or some inscrutable game mechanics. All in all recommended. Obviously, you got a question, just fire away.

http://af.gog.com/game/this_war_of_mine?as=1649904300

 

[Silva]

Yeah, this game is awesome. But I wish we could pick our starting chars. Having a thief in the group is really useful.


P.s: I was considering opening a thread for the game since release but couldnt believe no other existed already and just forgot about it.

 

[Shaewaroz]

Really great game, tons of replay value, random level design and delightfully depressive atmosphere. I've been really impressed how people in this game actually reach very realistically to events and player actions. Pulls your heartstrings just the right way while not being preachy. Instant classic.

 

[cvv]

One thing I didn't get, even after several playthroughs, is the whole morale mechanics.

Does morale slowly go down no matter what? What exactly does it mean when a character is "sad" or "content"? When I "talk" to depressed characters does it do anything? Afaik they stay depressed and get better only after sleeping in bed. Broken doesn't seem to be currable by talk at all, only by drinking. What exactly is the effect of Zlata's guitar? And do I have to actually keep playing it all day or is it fine just to have one? And what about the addictions (coffee, cigarettes)? It would seem I'm supposed to supply the stuff but if I don't nothing seems to be happening (unless the addicts go "sad" but again - what's the big deal).

Too bad the devs didn't explain those things a bit more closely.

 

[Infinitron]

SBH review:

 

[cvv]

A very good review except the claim it's basically an action game about expanding your territory and eliminating your opponents. Like, nothing can be further from truth. Kindda puzzling the guy can say something as ridiculous as this and then go on talking quite sensibly.

Basically going all Rambo on NPCs usually equals a swift reroll, at least before you learn the game thoroughly. I'd say you need at least 10 playthroughs (or read up on game mechanics and locations all you can google) before you can even think about playing aggressively. And even then it's not only not recommended but also not necessary because you actually don't need to rob or murder anybody to win. If you don't know exactly what you're doing it's more trouble than it's worth. And even if you do know what's what it's usually quite risky. One misclick and you're dead/severely injured and it just snowballs from there.

 

[Shaewaroz]

This is close to the kind of game Dead State should have been. Fuck zombies and the end of the world, I'm so sick of those clichés.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

This game sounds mighty neat. You fellers are slowly seducing me.

Edit: Played it due to pig trickery. Killed a guy who was bringing medicine and food home to his kid, and then gave some of the medicine to other kids to give to their mother. I am now karmically balanced~
Obviously haven't played/replayed enough to judge how well the randomization works. I get the feeling that the randomization is basically just what your team is and what locations are available and when. For example "Sniper junction" sorta felt scripted enough that if I get "Sniper junction" again I wouldn't be surprised if there's a wounded dude by the statue and a delicious mouthwatering caged baby to the right every time you get it, as well as same room layouts.

Overall though, super good first impression. Although fuck only being able to take one dude on a scavenging run. I get that they didn't want to deal with the player trying to manage multiple characters during real-time combat with this clicky system, but holy hell sometimes you want more people carrying goddamn wood back to the shelter.

Edit 2: Fuck. Feeling tempted to spend twenty American dollars for this here videogame. Talking to buddybro it sounds like my theory on the areas being the same is right. Sounds like the randomization largely (Entirely?) comes from shuffling the "Location deck" and drawing your options. Also sounds like (And appears to be the case from the games I've played) you always have 2 dudes and then the third character is either third dude or a chick with the same stats for each individual each time. Not as much randomization on either side as I'd ideally like but charging in to a grandma and grandpa's house for a bit of the old ultraviolence is awfully fun.
Speaking of, the game lets you play a complete shit. Where I was feeling a bit down with how Dead State seemed to handle being a bandit/raider, this game lets you beat little old ladies to death that are on their knees and crying because you want their jewellery. And (Thus far) it seems to mostly reward being a monster over being a good person. It's possible that in later stages you might get help from others if you were nice before that point, but not that I've seen yet.

 

[cvv]

To me the randomization seems fine, considering game was made by a couple of hungry potato dudes in some Warszaw squat. Some locations are always the same, others change completely (plus content updates were already announced). Once I went to St. Mary's Church where I found a nice priest who wanted to trade with me. I found out he has the best prices in the game. So next playthrough I rushed in and not only the layout was a bit different but there was about 5 bandits milling around who shot me on sight. The same goes for Shelled School, Construction Site and couple others.

And as for the game rewarding being a huge dick...it depends. Every character has a different mindset so if you kill a civilian then Cveta, the older nice teacher, might collapse completely whereas selfish Bruno or ex-military Roman won't bat an eye. Problem is Cveta then might commit suicide which will make everybody depressed and or broken and that might be game over. (There are different "depressed" mechanics for your characters, Roman will start losing it, fighting with others and injure them, other people just lie down and become unresponsive and still others may give you a slip in the night with all your food.)

All in all whenever I attempted playing aggressively I sorely regretted it. Either I was shot, knifed to death or I killed somebody and then the morale snowballed out of control. Only when I played as a nice guy I finally won. That is not to say playing as a dick is not possible, it's just much more difficult.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

They announced they're doing content updates? Well fuck. And you giving me more info on your experiences makes it harder to resist. HNGH.

 

[Shaewaroz]

I'm currently playing a game where I started with the older woman who loves kids, the old genius, the football guy and the female violist. So you can also start with 4 people. Only getting one person to do scavenging is rather irritating though.

 

[cvv]

I'm currently playing a game where I started with the older woman who loves kids, the old genius, the football guy and the female violist. So you can also start with 4 people. Only getting one person to do scavenging is rather irritating though.

There are a lot of possible combinations. Afaik up to 10. Plus you can start in winter for even a tastier challenge. Some guy on the forums started with the two useless dead weight characters - the teacher woman and the mathematician - but received some free stuff (beds, chairs, stove etc.) so the game balances itself out. On the other hand if you start with great characters (Marko, Boris, the handyman, Katia) you get less stuff in your starting house.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Looks interesting. Might get at some point of time.

 

[Talby]

I was enjoying it until it crashed and reset all my progress to zero. This is why games need manual saves.

 

[Disgruntled]

How many hours can one sink into this? Assuming an average amount of playthroughs to finish.

 

[cvv]

How many hours can one sink into this? Assuming an average amount of playthroughs to finish.

One finished playthrough is a couple of objective hours or a couple of subjective minutes.

 

[Trash]

PTSD: The sim edition. I like it.

 

[Neku]

Man, I can't play this game properly on my Ubuntu. It crashes every one or two days and it's just a waste of time because this game doesn't have a save function. It's a shame, because I really dig the atmosphere and it seems quite engrossing :<

 

[Starwars]

I'm digging the game as well, really addictive.

Kinda wish they had at least one harder difficulty mode though. For the first playthroughs, I think the difficulty is actually really good. You take losses even though you may still survive through it all, it felt like I had to make some tough calls here and there. But once the honey-moon period is over, the game kinda feels a bit easy, though it will slightly depend on the randomization also.

There are also some things that I think needs some balancing. Stuff like chairs, guitars, comfy chair, feel pretty useless to me. Cigs and coffee also (outside of selling I mean). After my first tries, it's really rare that my characters will dip down to depressed status.
But yeah, some of it will depend on the randomization. But all in all, after I get over that initial bump, the game gets kinda easy and boring toward the later stages.

I'm still liking the game a lot but it's one that's definitely at its best the first stumbling playthroughs.

 

[supervoid]

meanwhile on piratebay...

 

[Haba]

B-but piracy iz bad!

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

holy shit

what a babe

 

[ERYFKRAD]

meanwhile on piratebay...

Holy shit, now I'm buying it full price.

 

[cvv]

Holy shit, now I'm buying it full price.

Yeah, so did I. That way you're basically voting for more content.

With triple A shit like TES or Dragon Age you know that sequels will come no matter what but with indies if everyone waited for -75% Xmas sale you'd get one patch, at best, and then game over.

 

[Starwars]

Does anyone have any idea how the combat actually works? Lost one of my dudes because I thought I could shank a guy with my knife while he was climbing a ladder. Instead, my dude waited like a gentleman until the other guy had descended, only to be shot in the face with a shotgun. I thought I had knifed people while on ladders before but I guess I was mistaken?