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pobbles's This war of mine (PC)
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| [January 24, 2016 01:11:29 PM]
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Day 9. That's when it finally happened. That's when I caved and stole something. And it was from a hospital. But Bruno escalated to "lethally wounded" and I couldn't find bandages anywhere and all the traders are hacks who take way too much for anything useful. I talked to all the nurses, I couldn't find the doctor to trade with, and no one would help me unless my actually wounded and sick character was the one there, so I opened a private property cabinet and found food and bandages and took it. I even left a bunch of stuff there in its place as a sort of trade to make myself feel better, but it wasn't a fair trade and I knew it.
The worst part, though, was the next day getting back and having people show up to say that someone stole from the humanitarian center and they asked if my guy did it. I said no, but they didn't leave. Then I had to stop playing and I didn't finish the day so I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to face them again when I get back. I still have a lethally wounded dude who's also depressed now, as well as a severely sick guy who's beyond the help of herbal medicines and needs real medication. And keeping up with food is just impossible. I had a miracle of a new reporter girl show up and join my group who has "bargaining skills" but I haven't had the chance to use her skills yet and see how good they really are.
I really don't think my group is going to make it much longer.
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| [January 23, 2016 11:15:13 AM]
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After my second session with the game I'm feeling pretty proud of myself - day 7 and I still haven't stolen any private property or hurt anyone! Well, I've been raided a couple times and one of my dudes is "severely wounded", which is probably my fault, but I haven't been an aggressor yet. I have had a couple of pretty rewarding moments along the way, too. I went into a school that was labeled as "huge amount of materials," but then said materials were nowhere to be found and every path was blocked by rubble and I had no shovel. I took a big risk and picked a pile of rubble to clear. It took like half the night, but it was the best pile of rubble to clear because it provided a round-about path to nearly every room in the school, going around all the other piles, and I had a full haul of wood and components by the end of the night.
The other experience was at the super market. There was already a group of at least 3 looters there and I was trying to sneak by them when one with a VERY intimidating gun saw me. He said, "Hey, you!" and I instantly ran the other direction. I almost ran all the way home but then I saw him say, "There should be enough for all of us." I didn't trust him at all, but he did let me walk by him and I got a full haul and then just booked it out of there before giving them time to turn on me.
I have a nice rotation going of two guys sleeping at night and working during the day while my "Good at scavenging" guy sleeps so he's ready to scavenge again at night. The only problem is at least 2 people are still always hungry, and one guy is severely wounded and I just barely got some bandages for him. Sometimes it says "recovering" but then that goes away and he's still severely wounded. I'm scared for him. And not entirely sure what to do beyond bandages and rest. Plus he's the best cook so I need him.
I knew this game would challenge my ethics, but what I wasn't expecting was the rewarding side of that--the sense of accomplishment of getting by this far without giving up my morals. I'm still worried the storm is coming, but at least so far, I can feel proud of myself. And I am strangely satisfied in a way I've never been in a game. Not satisfaction of skill or creativity, but of morals.
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| [January 22, 2016 10:12:41 PM]
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There's a lot to talk about with this game, but for some reason I find myself focusing on how much the game seems dedicated to breaking through to become something more than a game. Right from the initial main menu, where the only button is "Survive" rather than "Play." There's also a complete lack of tutorial, which trades comfort of play for more complete immersion--a risky but totally appropriate choice for this particular game's goals.
At the same time, though, unlike so many other "ethical test" type games, there's absolutely no mistaking this for a game--goals, obstacles, rules, resource management--it's all there. It's amazing how they achieve both at the same time.
Having no tutorial, though, I definitely screwed some stuff right out of the gate. For some reason, I assumed it was turn based and each person had some certain amount of "action points" per day, so I kept having one guy do everything waiting for him to run out of actions and the game to automatically switch to the next guy, and then all of a sudden the day was over and I'd done basically nothing.
As soon as I realized it wasn't turn-based, I suddenly got really stressed out in the same way I do in an RTS game--everyone must be doing something all the time. I felt like this was quite effective at immersing me in the struggle of my three characters--like every other resource, time is scarce, and the best defense against the crippling fear of imminent death is working so furiously to avoid it that you don't even have time to think about what would happen if you stopped.
Before I started this game I actually wondered if I would just give up and let everyone die--just beat the game by not playing. Now that I'm not playing I'm thinking I should just do that again--that death would almost be better for these characters than the life they're given. But the second I'm playing again, I know I'll be gripped instantly with the survival instinct and be right back to working furiously. In this first play session I avoided attacking anyone and even willingly passed up a cache labeled as "private property" because I felt I could make it out just fine with my morals intact. But I can already feel the pressure, and I know my ethics will be tested very soon--I'm a little scared what I'll find out.
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pobbles's This war of mine (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 22 January, 2016
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