Time was not a luxury you could afford during the first World War, everything was at risk and you had to make extremely difficult decisions when it came to who would live and who would ultimately pass on. That was just in the trenches. War Hospital takes you to a place beyond the trenches and warfare and has you deciding on the fate of those unlucky enough to be injured or ill. This is at its heart a time management simulator but you have to make some exceedingly difficult choices as it progresses. You may think to yourself ‘Oh Derek, surely it’s just a fun wee distraction’ but let me tell you, for anyone with an ounce of empathy in them they will see this game for what it is, a slice of the hardships that people had to endure during a horrible war. Take your time with this game, read everything, choose your path carefully and remember that unfortunately you cannot save everyone.
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion of the writer. Got unanswered questions about this game? Get in touch on X!
| Developer | Brave Lamb Studio |
| Publisher | Naco |
Things I liked!
This game makes you think | War Hospital is in my opinion a game that is not meant to be so much played as it is meant to be experienced. I feel that the developers of War Hospital have done an admirable job in making this a game that will encourage you to think about the sanctity of life and what it means to be in charge of making the kinds of decisions that…let’s face it, nobody should ever have to make. After playing this for a while I actually went and looked up conditions that hospitals on the front lines faced and it is shocking.
The pacing of the game | Sometimes you want to rush through a game to beat all the bad guys and win the prize, but other times you need to slow down and take your time. War Hospital is one of those games that is meant to be played at a slower pace, the tutorial level itself is a good few hours of play time in itself, normally I’m not a fan of lengthy tutorials but trust me when I say that you will miss the help when you are on your own. The slow pacing of this game helps to build the suspense of the experiences you will go through. Yes you can increase the games speed, but I would actually recommend playing it at the original speed just for the atmosphere.
Choices | I don’t know if I actually can say I enjoyed making the difficult choices this game made me face in regards to the lives I could save and those I couldn’t, but it did give me a sense of accomplishment when I could save more people. Honestly though the choices you make will stick with you but just as it was during times of war you must make sure the strongest survive to protect the others from being injured as best they can.
Neither good nor bad
The management aspect | Managing your resources in this game is not as easy as most other games, you have to go in knowing that you will never have enough of what you need, be it medical supplies or even staff to assist you. You really have to plan around the very real possibility of failure. This is something that took me a while to get to grips with but when I did it actually made the game flow a little better for me. Now this is going to always be something that a lot of people will find tricky to handle but do bear with it and see how far you can go.
The lengthy tutorial | I know I mentioned this as something I liked but in some regards too I think that it might just hold your hand a little too much in the opening hours of the game. Yes I enjoyed learning and yes the cost of losing the lives of patients was deadened a little by the friendly pop ups, but was it deadened too much? I think a happy medium could have been reached or maybe a choice of tutorial lengths.
Things I disliked!
The voice acting | Some of the voice actors really got into the role, but others sounded bored, they actually took away from some of the suspense the game was trying to convey. Now I realise that sometimes people find it difficult to show emotion when they are reading lines but I feel like a few of the actors might have just been in it for the pay and didn’t give it their all.
Conclusion
75/100 ⭐| A worthy addition to your gaming collection if you are into management style games. Take your time with this one and soak up the atmosphere. But don’t get lost in the history too much.
I’m just a tall bearded bald Scotsman who loves games of every type. I’m a voice actor as well and have been for a few years now. I have an odd sense of humour.
