Wenn Dieser Krieg von mir Als ich vor einigen Wochen das Humble Bundle traf, gab es eine kleine Ecke des Internets, die vor Lob für den neu veröffentlichten Titel von 11 Bit Studios explodierte . Nachdem wir es selbst ungefähr 10 Stunden lang gespielt haben, können wir Ihnen sagen, dass das einzige Problem, das wir haben, die Tatsache ist, dass mehr Leute nichts über das Spiel wissen, aber das wird sich hoffentlich in naher Zukunft ändern.
Inspiriert von der Belagerung von Sarajevo Während des Bosnienkrieges ist This War of Mine eine Abwechslung zu den meisten Spielen mit Konfliktthema, da es sich entschieden hat, sich auf die zivile Erfahrung statt auf Soldaten im Kampf zu konzentrieren. Es ist eine emotionale Achterbahnfahrt, die nie zweimal auf die gleiche Weise abläuft und den Spielern einen soliden Wiederspielwert für den Eintrittspreis bietet.
Auch wenn jeder Spieldurchgang anders ist, geht es bei This War of Mine darum, die richtigen – und oft schwierigen – Entscheidungen zu treffen, um nur noch einen Tag zu überleben. Egal, ob Sie entscheiden, wer die einzige Portion essen darf oder welcher Ihrer beiden verwundeten Mitbewohner den letzten Verband verwenden wird. Kalt kalkulierte Entscheidungen sind ein Muss, wenn Sie den Krieg überleben wollen.
In diesem Sinne sind hier ein paar harte Lektionen, die wir in unserer Zeit mit dem Spiel gelernt haben.
Die frühen Tage des Krieges
Sie werden wahrscheinlich die erste Woche überstehen, ohne dass jemand an einer Krankheit stirbt oder sich das Leben nimmt, aber wie Sie sich auf die härteren Tage vorbereiten, die vor Ihnen liegen, wird bestimmen, wie lange Sie es schaffen. Das bedeutet, dass Ihr erster Tag und der anfängliche Reinigungslauf durch Ihre eigene Wohnung von entscheidender Bedeutung sind.
Für den Anfang haben wir uns angewöhnt, am ersten Tag niemanden zu füttern und ihm keinen Schlaf zu geben, sondern uns stattdessen auf die Erledigung der notwendigen Aufgaben im Haushalt zu konzentrieren. Natürlich hängt diese Entscheidung davon ab, ob jemand tatsächlich hungrig oder müde ist, wenn Sie beginnen, aber wenn nicht, sparen Sie es sich für härtere Zeiten auf. Tatsächlich haben wir uns entschieden, niemanden zu füttern – außer unseren Lieblingsaasfresser – es sei denn, sie sind zumindest hungrig und höchstwahrscheinlich sehr hungrig. Wir haben aufgehört, jemanden verhungern zu lassen, aber es war eine kurze Überlegung.
Worauf Sie sich in den ersten Tagen Ihres Überlebens konzentrieren sollten, ist, sich mit Lebensmitteln, Medikamenten und Materialien einzudecken und sich darauf vorzubereiten, wenn die Dinge sehr schwierig werden. Das bedeutet, deine Wohnung zu vernageln, um die Wahrscheinlichkeit zu verringern, dass Banditen hineinkommen, sowie Betten, einen Regenwasserfänger, einen Ofen, eine Nagetierfalle und eine fortschrittliche Werkbank zu bauen, auf der einfache Werkzeuge und Waffen hergestellt werden können.
Die Kunst des Plünderns
Die Vorräte in Ihrem Haushalt reichen möglicherweise nur für einen Tag, und selbst dann ist selten genug vorhanden, um alle Bedürfnisse zu befriedigen. This means that your first night is also going to be your first trip into the outside world, and how you prepare — or who you choose — can go a long way in determining how full your backpack is when you get home.
In the case of our first play through, we were spoiled by having Marko in our group, an expert scavenger with 17 slots in his backpack. Besides him, the most we’ve ever seen is 12. This meant that Marko was almost always tapped on the shoulder when it was time to search for supplies. The key there is that he was almost always the one going out.
We learned very quickly that some of the randomly generated locations to scavenge were dangerous, and the survival of our group depended largely on the well being of Marko. This is where we had to make some tough decisions, often sending someone who was sick, wounded or just generally not very useful to scout ahead. Again, in the case of our first play through this was Bruno , who was frequently in poor health and unfortunately expendable. Don’t judge us, but we often sent Bruno into situations with low odds of survival for no other reason than to clear a path for Marko the next night. If Bruno died, that was horrible, but not quite as horrible if Marko — and his five extra backpack slots — perished. Not to be complete savages, but Bruno’s potential death meant one less mouth to feed, one less person to get sick and one less bed that was required.
The Art of Combat
That’s a perfect segue into the combat in This War of Mine, which is another area that you’re going to want to leave up to an expendable member of your group. For us, this turned out to be someone who joined us part way through our survival journey, and his name was Boris .
Boris wasn’t particularly fast, but he was extremely strong, completely obliterating an entire dwelling of unarmed squatters — and even one with a knife — all by himself. This meant that the very next night, Marko was free to walk into the dwelling and loot it without fear. In fact, he did this for several nights, just what the group needed to make it a few more days.
Besides a clear path for Marko, that combat situation ended in us bringing home a knife, which we then used to stab a man with a gun, which we then used to shoot another man with a bigger gun. This is, unfortunately, one of the most common ways to secure weapons in the game, and it is extremely high risk. Once you’re loaded up with a few pistols and shotguns, though, you can pretty much go where you want without being too scared of the consequences. You can also leave a couple of guns at home to put an almost absolute end to your own dwelling being looted.
Combat isn’t all about the physical, however. It’s also about being able to deal with the psychological consequences, something that is a very real problem in This War of Mine. After Boris killed six — maybe nine — people that night, he was never the same, and even went so far as to walk out on the group several days later. His depression led to somber — more so than usual — times back at home, meaning that besides hunger, physical wounds and being sleep deprived, our group had to deal with depression spreading throughout its members.
The End of the Road
Our original group of Pavle , Marko and Bruno — Boris joined us several days later — was probably our best run at the game so far. We made it 31 days that time, and only managed to survive 13 on our following play through. While partly due to having a great team the first go around, there is another factor that helped us stay healthy, and that was being compassionate.
For all the times that we were forced to be violent, it was our lack of violence and even compassion that helped us stay mentally strong. When none of our members were killing or dying, everyone was able to stay in fairly high spirits. When death began to surround our group, first with Boris killing, then with Pavle and Marko being killed while looting in the night, it was pretty much a wrap. Bruno broke down and took his own life to end our run, and as we mentioned earlier, Boris abandoned the group.
Compassion isn’t just about letting people live while you’re raiding various locales for supplies, though. It’s also about helping your neighbours when they come knocking. It often pulls a member of the group out of the mix for part of a day and a full night, but you’re also frequently rewarded for your efforts. By helping our fellow survivors board up and fend off bandits, we were given a shotgun and some food, both of which were vital to the group’s longevity. It was when we began to get desperate — then abandon our moral code altogether — that things went horribly wrong.
That’s the scariest part about this game. It will push your ability to show compassion to the limit, and eventually force you to cross lines that you never thought you would. When you do finally break your moral code, it might just end up being your downfall.
If you picked up This War of Mine, let us know in the comments how long you managed to survive. If you haven’t picked it up, you can snag it on Steam right now, even if you’re a Mac or Linux user.