This War Of Mine Plays The Battlezone As Civilians

A new game, This War of Mine, aiming to tell the story of a warzone from the perspective of a civilian trapped in it, has been revealed, with developers 11 Bit Studio challenging first-person shooter convention. Billed as a game of survival, where "in war, not everyone is a soldier", development of This War of Mine was triggered by a real-life story the developers saw about an actual survivor in a besieged city, and the challenges he faced.

So, rather than plotting group raids on enemy territory, or calling in air-strikes to take out locations of military importance (with a little collateral damage along the way), the game takes a more essential, personal approach. Players will have to scavenge for food and other essentials, venturing out after dark to avoid snipers and patrols.

Rather than being responsible for just one individual, players will have to consider the good of the group as a whole – or, conversely, which members of the group they're willing to sacrifice. "Make life-and-death decisions driven by your conscience" 11 Bit Studios suggests. "Try to protect everybody from your shelter or sacrifice some of them to endure the hardships."

In fact, you could almost begin to suspect This War of Mine was an anti-war viral, not a real game, if it wasn't for the studio behind it. Warsaw-based 11 Bit Studios was set up in late 2010 by a group of developers formerly of CD Projekt and Metropolis Software, and has since released titles like Anomaly: Warzone Earth across PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PC/Mac, and iOS/Android.

This War of Mine will be released on PC, Linux, and mobile platforms, it's been confirmed, though an exact release date is unknown at this stage.