This War of Mine: The Little Ones Review (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 & PC)

I thought I had found a short-term solution for a fatal problem back home. I figured, if I could just scavenge the remains of one more apartment across the street, then I’d be able to remediate old wounds and survive another day. But then, a raid took hold in my absence, and all of our supplies were taken during the dead of night by those who were less fortunate. Naturally, I retaliated, not with the intent to harm another victim of war, but to take back what was rightfully ours.

On arrival, the supplies were plentiful, but the mood was sour. Without thinking twice, I threw a fist, and I hit a little too hard. Anger had gotten the better of me, and a viscous rage soon led to the ruthless slaughter of another human being. Though, an army never came to greet me with a barrage of firearms to repay the favor. A woman entered the room, followed by a young girl. And that’s when it hit me: that sudden feeling of guilt. Endless tears quickly began to flood the room, and all I could do was collect my belongings and hold back the bitter taste of disgust in my throat. War had taken me by the scruff of my neck, and before long I found myself on a downward spiral towards a fate far worse than death. I had to pay the consequences.

While there were times where I’d truly believe that I was finally making sense of This War of Mine: The Little Ones, most of the brief moments of optimism were often lost in translation. If I did something right, I’d often have another problem to counteract it. Case in point, I would find just enough building materials to build a bed, but then a resident would soon fall ill and need the materials to cure an insufferable disease. Likewise, if I scavenged enough materials to feed a small fire, I’d find myself with a sudden lack of food to feed desperate children who, in spite of my efforts to eradicate starvation, would always need a little more to boost their morale.

It didn’t take all that long for the bitter truth to come out — that war was no playground, and that there were no winners, only desperate civilians who had no stake in the future, let alone a fighting chance to save their families. Once that depressing reality hit me like a freight train, I was just about able to accept it. It didn’t matter how hard I tried, because I solemnly knew all too well that there were no silver linings — only days, nights, and an endless stream of fatalities that I could never prevent. War was cruel, and it was pushing me to the edge. I just never quite knew how to stop it.

This War of Mine: The Little Ones made a habit of drip feeding me fickle promises. Even from the start, it made it out to me that, in order to survive the war, I would need four basic ingredients: food, shelter, medicine, and just enough tools to keep several heads above water. Yet, it didn’t take all that long for the truth to reveal itself. Progress could be made, if only in short spells — but there would often be something to reverse the procedure. A nightly raid; a loss of fuel; a diseases, for instance, that could spread like wildfire if I failed to stick a band aid on it. The point is, even when it felt like I was making the correct decision, it was often made to feel that I was merely prolonging the inevitable.

Of course, I wanted to prove myself wrong, and deep down I wanted to follow through on an agenda. Heck, I would’ve had an ironclad plan, if not for the abrupt and seemingly unforgiving side effects of war. At times, I could scavenge, and I could install all of the right upgrades to ensure the safety of the community. But, that was the problem with The Little Ones: no plan was ever going to be as airtight as I needed it to be. The punches would continue to pummel, and I, as the spectator, would have to learn how to deal with the constant hammering of fists against the front door whilst the world outside fell to pieces under the veil of an oppressive regime.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, This War of Mine, particularly its Little Ones expansion, isn’t a game that relishes your triumphs, nor is it the sort of game to hold your hand as you witness the gradual downfall of a civilization. Rather, it’s the kind of experience that you can’t help but tolerate, even though it often leaves you feeling uncomfortable, tired, and even a little depressed. But that’s war for you, and honestly, The Little Ones doesn’t dare to shy away from the reality of it. Innocent people perish, and ordinary citizens are often forced to adopt mentalities that spoil perfectly good traits. And as for you, well, you just have to embrace it, even when it gets a little ugly.

Behind its oh-so-dismal exterior is, thankfully, a great survival side-scrolling game with a lot of soul and palpable charm. While incredibly bleak and about as depressing as any lifelike war drama can be, The Little Ones is, in all honesty, a fantastic game that really knows how to get the cogs in your head turning. A difficult game, yes, but one that also manages to get a lot of things right. In addition to boasting an in-depth survival system that requires you to maintain vast aspects of the environment, you also have handfuls of locations to explore, plunder, and exploit. To add, you have dozens of unique events that take place, some of which require you to wax your moral compass, some of which require you to step out of your comfort zone for the sake of upholding the community.

The Little Ones, as a self-contained expansion to the original version, doesn’t add a huge amount to the base game. As the title implies, it features children, and therefore, additional characters to sew into the fabric of your communal home. Unsurprisingly, this feature brings about its own share of problems for you to juggle. For instance, if you neglect a child, or fail to provide them with adequate care or protein, then the entire system effectively collapses. But other than that, The Little Ones is, to some extent, the same game, only with a few additional moral dilemmas to keep you on your toes.

As far as the general gameplay elements go, The Little Ones is still vaguely reminiscent to what you would have seen before, with a cocktail of stealth, resource management, and communal interaction. Similar to the previous installment in the series, you either spend your time upgrading components in your apartment complex, or preparing to dispatch your residents to nearby buildings to scavenge for supplies. In the daytime, you manage the community—an act that primarily consists of crafting tools, building water systems, preparing food, and organizing medicinal herbs. In the night, you decide who will set out to forage for resources, and who will guard the shelter.

As I mentioned earlier, The Little Ones isn’t an easy game to master, nor is it one that comes without its uphill learning curves. And so, it’s best to take it all with a huge pinch of salt. Like Frostpunk, you tolerate it, even when it doesn’t quite go according to plan. But that’s half the battle here; the other half is sewn into a thought-provoking experience that is, in spite of its somber tone, about as compelling as survival games come. It’s depressing I’ll admit. But then, that’s war.

Verdict

This War of Mine: The Little Ones stands out as an excellent example of how to capture the somber tone of war without skirting around the bitter realities that weave through the lives of innocent civilians. It’s bleak, horrifying, and yet, above all else, a masterclass in survival that any die-hard fan of the genre should take the opportunity to experience at least once or twice.