More_Badass
Member
Come on, there's no hype for this here? Haven't played an experience this tense or affecting since The Last of Us
I actually just finished TLOUR two nights ago. It was my first play of that game. Should I pick this up?Come on, there's no hype for this here? Haven't played an experience this tense or affecting since The Last of Us
Well gameplay wise, they'll totally different. TLOU has a big focus on combat and the story revolves heavily around Joel and Ellie's relationship. In TWOM, combat and violence in general is a last resort. The game is slow and tedious, but in a good way, that really establishes the "we just need to survive another day" atmosphere. You grow attached to your group. And when you start doing bad things to keep them safe and healthy, you feel bad. Because the game is really good at environmental storytelling. You don't want to kill people or steal from them. But you'll have to.I actually just finished TLOUR two nights ago. It was my first play of that game. Should I pick this up?
I'm definitely not expecting something mechanically the same! But your description of the tone and gameplay interests me.Well gameplay wise, they'll totally different. TLOU has a big focus on combat and the story revolves heavily around Joel and Ellie's relationship. In TWOM, combat and violence in general is a last resort. The game is slow and tedious, but in a good way, that really establishes the "we just need to survive another day" atmosphere. You grow attached to your group. And when you start doing bad things to keep them safe and healthy, you feel bad. Because the game is really good at environment storytelling. You don't want to kill people or steal from them. But you'll have to.
Like TLOU, the game just has this grim bleak tone. It's not happy and it's not "fun", but it is engrossing and compelling and atmospheric. Scavenging is very tense, and also like TLOU, guns and ammo are a rarity.
It's more of an emergent story dictated by your actions than an actual storyline. Basically, you trying to keep your group safe, keep them from getting demoralized, and just endure day by day and survive the war. The game is split into two phases: day (can't go out because of snipers, use the time to maintain your home, build, etc.), and night (when you select locations to scavenge)I'm definitely not expecting something mechanically the same! But your description of the tone and gameplay interests me.
Is there an actual storyline or timeline you play through?
A popular franchise once stated "War. War never changes". Maybe so, but for the people caught in the midst of the conflict, everything changes. This War of Mine explores the horrors of war from a perspective not explored in the medium till now and delivers one of the most tense, gripping, and bleak experiences I've played this year.
Games like Call of Duty and the like tend to use war for the spectacle, creating big action set pieces from the chaos. You'll never see the war ravaging the country where This War of Mine is set, but its effects are ever present. A gutted war-torn city, all pencil-sketched shadows and ruined structures, reeking of desperation and hopelessness, as explosions thunder and flash ceaselessly outside.
This War of Mine is not fun. It's grueling. Unrelenting. Oppressive. You start each playthrough with three survivors. Sometimes one or more might already be sick or wounded. Sometimes it might be winter at the start, meaning fuel and heat will be utmost priorities. The game is divided into two phases: Day, where you're confined to your base because of snipers outside, and Night, where you can venture out and scavenge for supplies, The daytime hours are when you can maintain your survivors and home, crafting new tools and workshops, building defenses against looters, or simply keeping your group alive by making sure they rest, recover, eat. You're always on the back foot, always just barely eking out a miserable day-by-day existence; even when your group finally is healthy and has a good amount of food stored, there's always the sense that it can't last long.
Once night falls, you're free to travel to other locations with one survivor, while instructing the others to rest or guard against raiders. These places range from homes and apartment buildings to schools and hospitals, and each scavenging run is a slow intense affair. Similar to 2012's Mark of the Ninja, environments are cloaked in shadows, only areas in your line of sight being visible. New unexplored areas are foreboding, never knowing who resides within or if they're friendly or not.
Even when you're equipped with a knife or gun, combat and violence in general feels like a last resort. Not simply because guns and ammo are a rarity or because you're untrained, but because you don't want to kill people or steal from them. A lot of games have moral choices or meters telling you if you're good or bad, but honestly, they've always felt artificial to me. In This War of Mine, there are only murky grey choices. Your actions matter, not just at that moment when you're desperate enough to kill and steal from people who are just trying to survive, people trying to keep their group alive just like you are, but also in the long term, as doing morally questionable things weighs on your characters. Building a radio or finding books and cigarettes can only distract and keep them occupied for so long. Survivors grow depressed, listless, broken, perhaps even suicidal.
If anything, that's War of Mine's greatest achievement: the way it makes you feel bad for crossing that moral line or makes intruding onto another group's home feel weird and wrong. You don't want to turn away children asking for help, or steal medicine from that elderly couple, or kill those people for their food. But your group is sick, and starving, and you desperately need fuel to stave off the winter cold, so you must.
The days go by. Winter comes and goes. As the war worsens, places that were once safe havens might be overtaken by bandits. Barter, scavenge, do what you must to endure. This War of Mine is the kind of game you might only be able to play in short sessions, due to the overwhelming bleakness and depressing nature. It can be slow and tedious and monotonous, but that only works in the game's favor, establishing a grim "We just need to last another day" tone. This War of Mine is not a fun game, but it is one hell of an engrossing, compelling, and atmospheric experience.
I hated playing This War of Mine. Its unfair, brutally difficult, and depended on randomness more than my own skill. It felt impossible to win. And that makes it brilliant.
I didn't realize thatI This War of Mine is a really nicely designed game. It is kind of like Faster Than Light where once you beat it you get new characters/scenarios.
Yes. I started a new playthrough, and I had 2 new characters. Some of the locations are entirely new. For instance, in the first game I played there the central square was filled with snipers. In this one, it has traders. I don't know if it's totally, partially, or not random at all, but it appears things do change each time you beat the game.Can anyone confirm this?
I didn't realize that
I think it's worth full price. One complete playthrough will take 8 - 12 hours, and its pseudo rogue-like nature opens the door for replayability. I can't see myself putting in 40 - 50 hours like I did with FTL, and I don't think you'll see people investing 1000s of hours into this like they do with Binding of Isaac, but 20 - 30 hours might not be uncommon. It's fun.Watching Giant Bomb's quicklook of this recently + the recommendations in the indie GOTY thread have made me want to try this out. I'll keep an eye out during the holiday sale for sure.
1) Time your sprints when he stops shooting and hide behind cover (car, statue, etc.)It does overly depend on randomness. And I don't quite understand the 'combat' system. Pull a knife on a guy, and my guy won't swing for whatever reason. Then, another playthrough. Same exact scenario, except this time the enemy has a shotgun and my knife wielding guy takes him out no problem.
Is there literally any way to loot the sniper zones without dying? Haven't quite figured it out. I tried blitzing with Pavle and he died.
Also I believe waiting for the icon to fill means more damage or more likely to hit. I think that's just with guns thoughCombat feels like it does have some randomness but these are not soldiers. I think it is just clicking on time; my bigger issue is the npc actions usually don't make much sense.
You can do the old; stand a top a ladder thing too.
For sniper alley you run between cover after each shot.
Posted it early on the page, but the teaser trailer perfectly encapulates that.Started playing this game a day ago. This game is... wow. This is exactly what people mean when they talk about the unique potential of games.
There's all sorts of deep moral and ethical questions that come to light through play, it's a complete flipping of the script versus the normally vague 'hoorah' gungho notion of military intervention we see in so many other games.
This game is really fucking special. I recommend it to everyone to give this game a try if you want to understand precisely what gaming has to offer the world.
This post in generalStarted playing this game a day ago. This game is... wow. This is exactly what people mean when they talk about the unique potential of games.
There's all sorts of deep moral and ethical questions that come to light through play, it's a complete flipping of the script versus the normally vague 'hoorah' gungho notion of military intervention we see in so many other games.
This game is really fucking special. I recommend it to everyone to give this game a try if you want to understand precisely what gaming has to offer the world.
The construction is linear, but your actions are not.How linear vs sandbox is the game?
It's linear in the sense that you always progress day by day, you always have the same home base, and the game has the same structure throughout (maintain and manage during the day, scavenge at night)How linear vs sandbox is the game?
The construction is linear, but your actions are not.
I suspect they can kill themselves but I've never gotten that bad.
Usually trying to support the individual leads to everything else falling apart and more often than not the person breaking down is someone I relied on.
YeahI'm guessing that aren't any backpacks to create or find, right? Haven't seen any
So the only way to carry more stuff is to have a character who can carry more?
Trust me on thisGod I want this game now. Anyone know if they're planning to release on XB1/PS4? I could get it on Steam (and will if I have to), but I prefer to play on consoles.
Ha, yeah. UI is designed for mouse and probably touchscreen, going by the big icons for everythingYeah
But they may be rolling out patches with new stuff
Trust me on this
You do NOT want to play this on console
Trust me on this
You do NOT want to play this on console
The combat system in this game would like to take you behind a dumpster and shoot you for not getting into cover fast enough and shooting backWhat would be the issue on gamepad? There's nothing particularly nuanced as far as reaction time or visual cues go. Huge chunks of the game aren't time sensitive. All the actions are contextual. Slap direct control of the camera on the right stick, make the game's cursor gravitate towards icons and maybe give left/right movement over to some buttons.
The combat system in this game would like to take you behind a dumpster and shoot you for not getting into cover fast enough and shooting back
Can anyone confirm this?
I didn't realize that
I do feel there's something about having to click on the person you want to hurt, when you finally cross that line, that wouldn't exactly translate to analog stick + buttonEven under the worst circumstances I'm not seeing a scenario in which this is actually an issue mutually exclusive with using an analog stick. All the real time actions in this game are so squishy, melee combat may as well be a dice rolling mini game once you engage with someone. Again, unless you're purely thinking under the paradigm that the only way in which this game could be controlled is with a cursor, there are a million different ways to set up likewise control schemes to accomplish any of this. Hell, I see more issue with the existing combat system regardless of the input device as is.
Features and tweaks:
- A new radio station, featuring the music by Cool Kids of Death.
- Unlocked two additional dweller setups on higher playthroughs.
- Graphical improvements on various locations.
- Minor changes in French, German and English localizations.
- Minor animation improvements.
Fixes and balancing:
- Fixed "Input Not Supported" bug on Windows.
- Changed fullscreen mode handling on Windows.
- Improved game stability based on crashdumps sent by players.
- "Aggro bug" fix. NPCs should no longer attack or flee without reason.
- Fixed broken trade. NPCs should no longer trade their entire stock for one item (Marketplace, Garage).
- Price changes now have an impact also on selling items to NPCs.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to prevent items from getting stolen during night attacks.
- Fixed a bug with getting stuck with only one initial dweller group.
- Fixed a bug with incorrect shelter description when Reinforced Door was built.
- Fixed a bug with visible gendertag in shelter description.
- All achievements can now be unlocked.