This War of Mine: The Little Ones Reviews

This War of Mine: The Little Ones is ranked in the 75th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
9 / 10
Jan 19, 2016

This War Of Mine: The Little Ones is more than a game, and can be considered one of the most effective anti-war tools ever created. This is not a game you play for fun or to unwind, and the addition of children for the console release makes it even more poignant, as the realisation dawns that all over the world people are living through these hellish conditions. This War of Mine: The Little Ones doesn't just drive home how desperate people get in times of war, but also makes you take note of how lucky so many of us are to live in a more stable place.

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8 / 10.0
Jan 20, 2016

A game like no other, and even though it can be hard to play at times, it still offers a unique and rewarding challenge.

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88%
Jan 20, 2016

This War of Mine: The Littles ones is a powerful, affecting game that covers an aspect of warfare not typically touched by the medium. Telling the stories of normal civilians caught in the middle of a war, it asks: what you would do to survive? The disturbing answer is: anything you have to.

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9 / 10.0
Jan 20, 2016

For those looking for a unique and unexplored side to war in a slow, gruelingly unforgiving setting, this game is perfect. It will take several tries to get it right, but the truth behind it is there really is no "right" way to survive in war.

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Jan 20, 2016

While the new console release of This War of Mine: The Little Ones does not really bring anything new to the table from the most updated PC version, the surprisingly emotional situations and impressive scavenging and survival system is worth checking out for anybody that missed out on the original release.

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70 / 100
Jan 20, 2016

This War of Mine: The Little Ones is a fun, yet difficult survival game that fans of Don't Starve, and the like, will most certainly enjoy. It takes a chance in telling the story of war from a rarely seen civilian angle, but ultimately doesn't deliver an engaging narrative. The addition of children doesn't add much to the original 2014 release besides a few new items to craft. And the potential for a great and addictive survival experience is hindered by a wonky combat system.

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Jan 20, 2016

It's depressing and filled with tough decisions to make, but This War of Mine The Little Ones is one of those games that you have to play.

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9 / 10.0
Jan 20, 2016

A relentlessly savage take on survival that puts players in control of the fleshy collateral damage that other war games merely gloss over, This War of Mine is a bleak, grim and ruthlessly entertaining affair quite unlike any other.

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9 / 10
Jan 20, 2016

This War of Mine: The Little Ones throws you into a beautiful and compelling hell. Experiencing war as a group of civilians whose lives rest in your hands with only your conscience to guide you is a refreshing change of pace from pretty much any other game out there. This is brilliant mix of harrowing survival interspersed with moments of joy. Having fun really isn't the point here: this is a game that will challenge anyone desensitised to the real sufferings of war – and that's a bold move.

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Metro GameCentral
Top Critic
7 / 10
Jan 25, 2016

A daring, and largely successful, attempt to show the civilian side of war, that succeeds as an interactive drama even when it occasionally fails as a game.

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Jan 25, 2016

This compelling exploration of war's human cost is also a tense strategy game, with kids giving it real heart. Proof you can make an engrossing game, no matter how bleak the subject.

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Drew Leachman
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Jan 26, 2016

This War of Mine: the Little Ones is pretty fully featured. While not for everyone, it offers a decent experience of survival, base building, and time/resource management. The combat can be weak, and the story or at least the one it's trying to convey is weak. Still, for the fans of survival games like Don't Starve, there's something to be had here.

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8 / 10
Jan 26, 2016

This War of Mine: The Little Ones is not a happy game, or even a particularly enjoyable one. It's a painful, gruelling experience that really illustrates the horrors, choices, and atrocities present in war. It's not "fun" by any standard that is usually associated with playing a game. What 11 Bit Studios has done here, is create a masterful experience that lets players share, in a very small way, what it is like to live in a country torn apart by war. While it might be hard to think of This War of Mine in the same sense people think of other titles based on the subject of war, it might just paint the most vivid, terrible picture about what conflict does to those embroiled within it. It's a painful experience, but it's one that is ultimately worth having.

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Jan 26, 2016

This War of Mine: The Little Ones forces you to make tough decisions throughout and the real consequences from these actions are seen in the game. Whether you choose to steal from the hospital, an old couple on medication, or a homeless man's squat, you are made to feel guilty. Consequently, you feel good for helping out a stranger. Keeping track of all your supplies and having enough of everything to keep your people alive is not an easy feat, and it feels like the first story that you are given is a little too hard. The ability to create your own scenario is a great addition and it allows you to tweak the game to your own survival ability. Whilst the days can get a little repetitive and boring if you have to catch up on sleep and not much else, the game challenges you, your morals and your survival instincts against the backdrop of the serious subject of war.

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9 / 10.0
Jan 27, 2016

This is a gloriously mature adventure that is well worth liberating from retail captivity.

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8 / 10.0
Jan 27, 2016

This War of Mine is strangely compelling, pulling you back day after day despite the unrelenting misery of the situations you find yourself in. Inspired by the real events of the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War in the nineteen-nineties, you know right off the bat that this is going to be a somewhat harrowing experience.

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Jan 27, 2016

But ultimately I've invested so much time in this game that my few niggles are also rendered mute. 11-bit Studios has created an exploration of the desperateness of wartime human experience and made it into something you can't help but find compelling. The addition of children into the original mix is a way of enhancing that, making the reality all the more visceral.

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Recommended
Jan 28, 2016

This War of Mine remains a striking, if limited, exploration of civilian wartime survival. Compelling and gritty, it needles deep.

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7 / 10
Jan 29, 2016

The war comes to consoles, but might have lost something along the way.

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4 / 5.0
Jan 29, 2016

As This War of Mine enters the lives of console gamers, we should rejoice that this experience is allowed to reach an even greater audience. It's a game with something to say while providing an emotional experience to the player.

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