12/31/2023 0 Comments This war of mine survivorsWhen the basically skill-less Emilia showed up needing shelter and we took her in despite knowing it might jeopardize the rest of the party. When I genuinely felt pulled between a need to survive, and a need to live as a decent human. While the adults in the shelter typically wander around listlessly or flop down in a chair when not under the player’s control or assigned to a task, Iskra bounds and runs through the shanty with a convincingly precious childlike energy. Call me a sucker, but it broke my heart watching little Iskra busy herself with a ball while her father frantically worked to assemble a make-shift stove so they could cook what little food they had. Thankfully though, that trio soon succumbed to a combination of sniper fire and untreated illness and I started a custom-made scenario that included the previously mentioned father/daughter team of Iskra and Christo along with their friend Marko. Going by that slim interaction, one could be forgiven for thinking the expansion content was rather shallow. They were jerks (we’d already robbed another pack of survivors) who were out for themselves (and truth be told, they were pretty bad at that). Stuck with a trio of surly guys, the only time I saw a child was when a pair of brothers came knocking on the door begging for some medicine - the wartime equivalent of asking a neighbor for a cup of sugar. Some will be willing to trade supplies, others will beg, some will puff up their chests and toss out threats only to fold when pushed back.įor a game subtitled The Little Ones, I was surprised how few children I saw in my first playthrough. However, many of the survivors in the ruins are just scared and desperate people themselves not looking for a fight. Everyone is on edge, and it’s easy for a slight misunderstanding to spiral into a frantic, fatal exchange. The most interesting aspect of the stealth sequences is when you bump into other survivors. More than once I blew my cover dashing left or right while trying to get down a set of stairs, or accidentally throwing open a door after carefully scoping out the situation through the peephole. This would be annoying in its own right, but it is compounded by the awkward controls that make moving up and down stairs or choosing between opening a door and looking through the keyhole a chore. Lean on the stick a rabbit’s breath harder than intended, and the scavenger will burst into a full-out sprint. On the console, sneaking is done with a light touch on the analog stick. When skulking around the war-torn ruins, its important to stay as quiet and out of sight as possible, which is why the PC version comes with a distinct “sneak” button. While I don’t think these light-action sequences would have been the game’s highlight on any platform, they are where the console port stumbles the most. War is depicted as a monstrous force that chips away at humanity through a combination of savagery, cynicism, and desperation. The typical eye-popping explosions and bitchin’ guitar riffs are replaced with ruined homes and shivering people huddled together, listening to the static popping of a half-busted radio for any updates on when the siege will end. Inspired by the siege of Sarajevo and originally released on the PC in 2014, this console port/expansion is a grim look at the side of war that usually gets overlooked in video games. This War of Mine: The Little Ones excels in depicting these fragile moments of raw humanity. He spends the day hacking apart the chairs and recliners of the shelter for fire wood. Christo, Iskra’s father, goes hungry and puts on a brave face. She hasn’t eaten in days and the long nights of standing guard are making her edgy. Marko, who risked his life the night before scavenging in Rebel-held territory, is rewarded with a proper bowl of home-grown veggies and rat meat. She doesn’t like it and complains about the taste, but she’s small and the tiny portion will carry her further than anyone else. Iskra, our little sad-eyed girl, gets the canned food.
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