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.
8 / 10.0
Feb 11, 2016

The game does an amazing job of making you care about everything that's happened.

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Feb 3, 2016

11 bit has made an even more compelling war drama with 'This War of Mine: The Little Ones'. The controller is a bit rusty, but don't let that stop you from experiencing one of the most compelling stories in this generation. Coming to the Xbox One 'This War of Mine' is more accessible than ever, and the addition of kids makes it even more bittersweet.

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Feb 19, 2016

It's an unforgettable experience, and a great example of how games can confront some of the world's most serious subjects without trivialising them.

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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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Ken Barnes
Top Critic
8 / 10
Feb 11, 2016

This War of Mine: The Little Ones is a fantastically atmospheric, emotional, and compelling game that constantly makes you doubt what you're doing, in a way that feels entirely natural as part of the experience. You have to weigh up every decision in order to keep your crew safe from harm and that coupled with the strong desire to play through just one more raid to see how things turn out, means that you're more than likely to get your money's worth here. Great stuff.

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GameSpew
Top Critic
8 / 10
Jul 6, 2016

The adults cheer up the children and the children cheer up the adults; it's a mutual profit

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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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8 / 10.0
Jan 31, 2016

"This War Of Mine: The Little Ones is a sad and tragic story of one group's survival amidst conflict, portrayed brilliantly by the silent but powerful characters that help bring the game to life".

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8 / 10.0
Feb 29, 2016

If you have played This War of Mine before then The Little Ones probably doesn't offer enough to go back to it. If, however, this is your first opportunity to play the game, it's an experience I would recommend considering. It's a surprisingly addictive strategy game, despite its morbid setting, and it's one that has a fair bit of replayability. It's rare that games deal with the non-combat side of war, and I can't think of many that do it as effectively as This War of Mine: The Little Ones.

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75%
Apr 28, 2016

This War of Mine: The Little Ones is an interesting title depicting a war conflict through the eyes of children. It doesn't lack strong moments, moral choices, depression or fear for the characters you'll be entrusted with. As a whole, it offers an experience that you'll not find elsewhere. If you've played the original game on a PC or mobile device, don't expect much new stuff, but newcomers should give it a chance.

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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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7 / 10
Jan 29, 2016

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

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Feb 8, 2016

It is disappointing to exert such caution when recommending This War of Mine:The Little Ones, especially to people who may not have a worthwhile gaming PC (low spec requirements notwithstanding), but the limitations of the port's controls compel me to do so. For what it's worth, this is still a good game, and the exclusive addition of the children survivors makes it a more compelling experience at that. But really, if you can play the PC edition instead, it's easy to sacrifice all those kids for a much smoother experience.

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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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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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6.5 / 10.0
Feb 29, 2016

Saying "You should play this game, but don't expect to enjoy it" makes it sound like homework. It's homework of the human spirit that I think will enrich your life and broaden your horizons, but still homework. It's up to you if that seems like something you want to take on.

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3 / 5.0
Feb 10, 2016

The Little Ones is light on actual children but heavy on despair. An emotional insight into the impacts of war on civilians, but not a substantial expansion on the original release.

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Feb 9, 2016

It's interested only in presenting a near-pornographic level of human despair in a warped attempt at edifying players.

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4 / 10
Aug 13, 2018
This War Of Mine: The Little Ones (2014) Review 4/10 video thumbnail
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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