A survival game that turns the war genre on its head: you play civilians huddled in a shelter, choosing whether to steal or let others die. The tone is heavy, the atmosphere suffocating, and every decision lands hard. Brutal, but morally rare on console.
Your verdict
Category
Survival1 player18+
Description
Far from the front, civilians try to survive in a besieged city, between scarcity and moral dilemmas. Published by 11 bit studios, released worldwide in 2019. Scavenging by night, shelter management by day, heart-wrenching choices and a complete edition with all the content.
This War of Mine: Complete Edition review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
3/5
Music
★★★★★
"Memorable"
MAX
Story
★★★★★
"Masterful"
Surviving a siege not as a soldier but as a starving civilian: that is the harrowing stance of this war chronicle. Each night forces impossible choices — to steal, to lie, to abandon — and its restrained writing lets guilt settle into the player and stay.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"Pleasant"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Steering a group of civilians through wartime forces constant decisions: who scavenges at night, what to barter, who gets treated first. Every day brings fresh shortages and moral dilemmas that push you to see "how this week ends," then the next. The narrative tension and the replay value of its scenarios keep pulling you back into another run. Worth noting: the heavy tone and some long sessions call for genuine emotional breaks.
Difficulty
"Easy"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Keeping a group of civilians alive through a siege turns every night and day into a wrenching dilemma: steal, heal, share or survive. The complete edition adds scenarios and characters, and every run differs by your choices. That replayability born of the gravity of decisions, rather than mere content, makes it a work you don't recover from quickly.
Technical info
💾1,5 GB📅29/08/2019
Published by 11 bit studios
This War of Mine: Complete Edition (Nintendo Switch) price, value & rarity
On paper, just another survival game; in practice, one of the genre's most unsettling experiences. There are no heroic soldiers here, only starving civilians you must keep alive through nighttime scavenging and shelter management, right up to choices that linger. Its bleakness kept crowds away, yet that moral weight is exactly what deserves rediscovery, made for anyone seeking a game that disturbs as much as it makes you think.
A questionable morality
Playing civilians trapped in a besieged city forces choices you'd rather never make: ransacking an elderly couple's home, turning away a pleading neighbor, even stealing to survive. Cornered by hunger and cold, we rationalize each theft as necessity. The unease comes precisely from the fact that the game never rewards cruelty: it simply lets us grasp how much sheer survival can dirty one's hands.
Is This War of Mine: Complete Edition still worth playing in 2026?
This War of Mine remains one of the most striking survival games ever made, and time has dulled none of its force. By placing the player among civilians rather than soldiers, it imposes morally raw dilemmas with rare bite, free of judgement or lecture. The day-night cycle, resource management and the wearing-down of characters build a tension that never dissipates. The complete edition gathers all the content. It is not a comfortable game, but that is exactly what keeps it necessary and hard to forget.
