Headquarters: World War II
- April 11, 2024
- Starni Games
- 3h median play time
Get on Steam"Headquarters: World War II" is a turn-based strategy game set during the Battle of Normandy. The combat system is deceptively simple yet offers depth with unit positioning, directional cover, terrain bonuses, and destructible environments. Players can choose their side, form their force, and level up units with heroes and headquarters skills. Join the discord for more information.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features solid graphics and a well-designed user interface, enhancing the overall gameplay experience.
- It offers a variety of campaigns and missions, allowing for strategic depth and replayability.
- The turn-based mechanics encourage thoughtful planning and tactical execution, rewarding players for careful unit management.
- The AI is often criticized for being predictable and lacking challenge, making skirmish mode less engaging.
- There are numerous bugs and performance issues, including crashes and slow loading times, which detract from the gameplay experience.
- The game lacks significant diversity in unit abilities and mission objectives, leading to repetitive gameplay.
- story98 mentions
- 10 % positive mentions
- 85 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The game's story is criticized for its lack of diversity and depth, with missions primarily revolving around capturing points and repetitive objectives. Players note that the AI is poor, leading to frustrating scenarios where enemies spawn unexpectedly, undermining the tactical experience. While the game features three campaigns with a total of 30 missions, many reviewers feel that the missions lack excitement and replay value, often feeling more like a puzzle than a cohesive narrative.
“The game consists of three campaigns, one for each force with nine missions each.”
“I like blowing the enemy to bits and having nearly every mission saying don't destroy the building was less fun.”
“Each mission completed just makes me want to get right back into it to see what the next mission has to offer.”
“Absolutely no diversity in missions; it's just take point A and B, and while you're doing so, you get a side mission to take something else.”
“Not only is there little content, there is absolutely no replay value, and the way missions are formatted often creates situations where enemies will just spawn in front of you.”
“I fell in love with the demo campaign mission but found that most of the full campaign missions lack the same excitement.”
- graphics55 mentions
- 56 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive a mixed reception, with many praising their quality and detail, particularly in unit design and environmental artwork. While some players appreciate the visual appeal and smooth performance on lower-end systems, others criticize issues like oversharpening, poor information conveyance, and unoptimized performance that detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the graphics are generally considered good for the genre, but they are not enough to compensate for other gameplay shortcomings.
“The graphics are superb and run smoothly on lower-end systems.”
“The unit graphics are detailed and look extra great when the small cutscenes trigger when a unit attacks or kills.”
“A gem of a tactical turn-based game, in some ways like X-COM, but with a real WWII flavor, superb graphics, models, and destructive terrain.”
“Graphically the game looks great but sadly that's about all that's good, so don't waste your money on it like I did.”
“It may look fancy at first, but the graphics and animations really belong in a mobile game.”
“Graphics feel dated and very archaic.”
- gameplay35 mentions
- 26 % positive mentions
- 66 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its enjoyable mechanics and tactical depth, while others criticize it for being overly simplistic and lacking in options and polish. Many find the turn-based system engaging, with unique features like the crew loss system and camouflage mechanics, but note that the AI can be unbalanced and the tutorial fails to adequately explain key gameplay elements. Overall, while there are promising aspects and potential for tactical variety, the game may require further refinement to enhance the overall experience.
“Gameplay loop is very enjoyable and has a nice feel to it.”
“Interesting play mechanics and scenarios.”
“Fun, turn-based WWII game with sensible tabletop-esque mechanics.”
“The gameplay is terribly simple, lacking in options, depth, and replayability.”
“It's designed like those old strategy games from 15 years ago but with none of the charm and with extremely simple gameplay.”
“I played the demo of Headquarters: WWII at Nextfest and wasn't really feeling it during the tutorial because the mechanics felt a bit clunky and rigid.”
- replayability7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the build variety and thematic campaign missions that offer potential for replay with different factions, others criticize the simplistic gameplay and lack of content, leading to limited replay value after completing the campaign. Many users suggest that the game may only provide around 10 to 20 hours of engaging content before it feels repetitive.
“There is quite a bit of build variety here, and overall this would probably help with replayability.”
“So far, the campaign missions are really thematic, and I expect a lot of replay value with different factions playable for each campaign.”
“Definitely a 20-hour single-player experience with enough options to add replayability for die-hards.”
“The gameplay is terribly simple, lacking in options, depth, and replayability.”
“Not only is there little content, there is absolutely no replay value and the way missions are formatted often create situations where enemies will just spawn in front of you.”
“Limited replay value, unlikely to get you more than 10 hours once you beat the campaign.”
- optimization6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has received mixed reviews; while the graphics run smoothly on lower-end systems, players have reported bugs, crashes, and performance issues that detract from the experience. Additionally, some design choices, such as the zoom feature, may contribute to these performance problems, leading to a perception of poor optimization overall.
“The graphics are superb and run smoothly on lower-end systems.”
“Unlike PG/PZC, unit facing is important, and when you suffer losses to a unit, it degrades in performance.”
“However, I don't think it's currently worth its price due to some bugs, crashes, performance, and balancing issues.”
“The developers picked a very odd design decision with zoom, which I suspect is linked to performance issues.”
“The game seems very poorly optimized.”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game has been criticized for its stability, with numerous bugs and glitches that detract from the overall experience. While some players appreciate the gameplay, the prevalence of technical issues suggests a lack of thorough development and support from the developers.
“It's also buggy despite them now working on DLC.”
“For the player, it is enforced with a few glitches.”
“Too many glitches to ignore... sloppy game development... the devs just seemed to have walked away from it.”
- atmosphere3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game effectively captures a distinct WWII atmosphere, enhanced by good graphics and a diverse roster of units. While the atmosphere is praised, some players find the movement animations to be a hindrance to gameplay flow. Overall, it offers a strong sense of immersion in its historical setting.
“The game rewards creative and enterprising play, and its roster of units delivers a distinctly WWII atmosphere.”
“The graphics are good and add to the atmosphere, creating an immersive experience.”
“Great feel and WWII atmosphere!”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, as it diminishes the impact of their actions and lacks rewarding mechanics for dynamic strategies like fire and movement, favoring a slower, more methodical approach instead.
“It’s just tedious and makes your actual actions less impactful.”
“There is no reward for fire and movement over just slowly getting the right units in place and grinding down the opponent.”
- music1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The soundtrack bundle is priced the same as the game without it, highlighting its perceived value and significance to the overall experience.
“Fun fact: the cost of the bundle with the soundtrack is the same as without it.”
“The music feels repetitive and lacks variety, making it hard to stay engaged.”
“The soundtrack doesn't match the game's atmosphere, which detracts from the overall experience.”
