Summary:
By flipping the script and focusing on civilians trapped in a war torn city, 11 bit studios has created a more humanized and poignant type of war game. The game will run you through a range of emotions from starvation induced desperation, to the guilt and rationalization of a thief, to the heartwarming joy of a rare display of camaraderie among neighbors.
Much like the citizens trapped in this war, you won't receive any guidance on how best to survive. Controls are very simple and intuitive, allowing the challenge to come from how you manage resources and respond to events. My chief complaint toward this phenomenal game is that it can be too slow at times, making me wish there were a fast forward button.
A couple tips: Don't spoil the experience by looking up guides until completing at least one playthrough on your own; overcoming adversity is part of the fun. Alt+Tab consistently crashed the game for me, test it on your system after the start of a new day (when saves occur).
Full review:
Like a microcosm of the split, warring factions of the city, the civilians have also fractured into small, wary, tribe-like groups. Some are willing to trade with you while others will shoot you on sight. The small group that you watch over consists of one to four people depending on which scenario you play. These are drawn from a modest collection of realistic characters. Each has a backstory and reason for being in the city when the fighting began. Don't mistake this for a heavily text driven narrative kind of game. It uses just enough text to set the stage and then lets you experience and create your own stories.
There is a realistic but sometimes burdensome level of variation in how useful each character is. They all have one unique talent that they excel at as well as some hidden general competency statistics. The imbalance among them can make some playthroughs significantly tougher than others. Overall, the game will test you mightily as you learn the ropes but actually became too easy once I had discovered enough ways to boost my efficiency.
Playing as nonviolently as I could limited my combat experience but when I did fight, I found it to be awkward. It is largely dependent on your equipment and whether you get the drop on your opponent, rather than any player skill.
One cool tool that the developers use to feed you information without breaking immersion is the radio. It can give you updates on the war's status, tips on what goods are able to be bartered at a higher price due to scarcity, weather forecasts and more. Winter is the most brutal period to make it through and you will want to know when it is coming.
This game's muted color palate and heavy use of black is what I would call subtly beautiful. It effectively communicates the grimness of the setting. A sketchy, pencil-like visual effect lends a hand drawn quality to its 3D animation. I'd also like to highlight the differences in how each character moves and holds themselves. Their personalities are imbued into their movements in a way that I don't recall seeing very often in video games.
Adding to the atmosphere is a mostly downbeat soundtrack reminiscent of The Last of Us. It has character without becoming too busy for the mood it is trying to set. I like the music, but there are few enough tracks that repetition eventually began to wear on me. The soundtrack is included as a free DLC.
I would like to encourage anyone who buys and likes the game to pick up the War Child Charity DLC. It only adds a little artwork to the game but 100% of the proceeds go to charity. You can choose to pay 1$, 10$ or 20$ for it. I skipped The Little Ones DLC but its recent price drop makes it more enticing.
A final note on game length: My first playthrough took 13.5 hours, the second lasted 11.5 hours, and my final two took a combined 10.8 hours. The final one was a custom scenario designed to be shortened by the optional Anniversary Edition ending attached to the "Epilogue: Exodus" achievement (an annoyingly difficult to accomplish task during regular play, but still fun to experience once).