I’ve followed This War of Mine for a long time as a gamer, but never had the chance to really sit down and play it until now. It’s hard not to associate this game with current events in the world. Indeed, the game’s developer, 11 Bit Studios, recently donated £520,000 to the Ukrainian Red Cross using sales from the game. Playing a game like This War of Mine: Final Cut comes with its own emotional attachments, but knowing that this is reality for many people right now makes it even more haunting. There’s no other game quite like this this one, so does that make it a must-play? Let’s find out. War Through The Eyes of The Innocent This War of Mine: Final Cut, is coming to PS5 on May 10th and brings with it a collection of DLC that adds three story-driven campaigns to the freeform base game. The PS5 enhancements include 4K resolution and sharper graphics, all of which look exquisite with their washed out pencil-drawn style. For the uninitiated, This War of Mine: Final Cut is a survival game at its core, but it has a setting wholly unique in the genre. Where most games that even contain a hint of war place you in the shoes of soldiers and super-powered secret weapons, This War of Mine places you in the shoes of everyday civilians who are caught up in the chaos and the horror of war. This is survival at its most basic, and its most human. The procedurally generated areas are always some sort of dilapidated structure, bombed out house, crumbling apartment building, or the like. You start with very little, and unlike other survival games, you won’t ever find that things get better. At least, not significantly. Each day in This War of Mine involves managing the needs of your people, or in some cases your children. Things like hunger, thirst, and rest are all factors you need to account for, but mental states come into play as well. Characters can become sad, depressed, or worse. It’s an important dimensions to highlight in a game like this, because war and survival is mentally taxing in addition to being physically exhausting. During the day, you can navigate your shelter, make or eat food, craft new items at your workbench, or rummage through unexplored rooms. When it’s time to end the end, you assign roles. Who will get to sleep? Will they sleep on the floor or in a bed? Will someone go out to scavenge for valuable items and crafting material? If so, will they go with any weapons or supplies, or carry as little as possible to maximize their inventory space? Scavenging itself is a tense and unpredictable part of the experience that really brings home the atmosphere and tension in This War of Mine: Final Cut. One night while scavenging, I came across a young man who was hiding from a sniper in the nearby park. Without spoiling the rest of the scenario, … Read More