Highlands

About

Highlands is a single player role playing game. It was developed by Burrito Studio and was released on April 21, 2015. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Highlands is a hand-drawn turn-based strategy game with unique characters, resource management and RPG elements where the focus is directed toward decision-making.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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80%

Audience ScoreBased on 183 reviews

story31 positive mentions

replayability6 negative mentions

Beautiful and unique hand-drawn art style with a fitting soundtrack that enhances the immersive experience.
Engaging strategic gameplay combining resource management, area control, and RPG elements with challenging difficulty scaling.
Well-balanced mechanics that reward careful planning and tactical decision-making, especially on higher difficulties.

The campaign is relatively short with limited replayability and a story that is simplistic and lacks depth.
Combat relies heavily on RNG, leading to occasional frustrating randomness that may encourage frequent reloads.
UI and controls can be clunky and cumbersome, especially in managing multiple units and equipment swapping.

story
139 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
71%
7%
The story is generally described as simple, familiar, and somewhat cliché, providing enough motivation to progress but lacking depth, complexity, and memorable characters. While the writing and art style are appreciated for effectively conveying the narrative, many find the story short, linear, and with limited player impact or replay value. Overall, the story complements the gameplay adequately but is not the game's standout feature.
- “Beautiful artwork, good music, non-overly complex gameplay, and just enough story.”
- “The story develops through the dialog between the main characters, the Arislaan family, and there are some random events with choices that help to keep the game fresh if you decide to replay it.”
- “Highlands does a fantastic job of delivering a story with minimal design/graphics.”
- “The story is told through cutscenes with vibrant but static art, featuring characters with very little personality (e.g., the builder boy, the healer mom, the leader-fighter daughter), and the story itself is a clichéd 'kingdom taken, take it back' trope.”
- “Storyless - the story is there, but it is pointless, story choices don’t really help (like 'get this bonus or that one'), and the whole concept of flying rocks is stupid.”
- “But the frequent 'charge through a level with few or no resources' missions suck, especially the last one, which forces you to complete it without any resources or special abilities, making the ending dull and disappointing.”
gameplay
134 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
73%
2%
The gameplay offers a turn-based, board game-like strategy experience with simple, intuitive mechanics centered on resource management and territorial control. While engaging and accessible, especially for casual players and fans of strategy games like Risk, it can feel repetitive and shallow over time due to limited complexity and early introduction of most mechanics. The game balances challenge and pacing well, but some players find the strategic depth and variety lacking for long-term replayability.
- “This is a pretty neat game with a board game feel with the turn-based gameplay, simple mechanics, and a heavy emphasis on resource management.”
- “Highlands is an interesting improvement on the 'risk' genre of games, introducing some new gameplay mechanics that make this game 'easy to learn but harder to master'.”
- “Proper use of game mechanics to push/pull, control zones, manage resources, while constantly being on the clock from constant reinforcements... becomes a must.”
- “Some mechanics are not well explained, and some are even harder to understand because the UI doesn't clearly convey what's going on.”
- “The gameplay itself is 95% over a 'board' of a map, each being a mission about taking over regions and dealing with the threat of stationary enemies and occasional warbands, every unit indicated with a round token. The gameplay is just boring, in a tedious sense.”
- “Most of the mechanics are thrown at you right in the beginning and the game does not make it clear at all whether you should be aggressive or 'fortify' your holdings.”
graphics
91 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
37%
3%
The game's graphics consistently receive praise for their beautiful, hand-illustrated, and vibrant art style, often compared to titles like Banner Saga and Bastion, with a charming cartoonish aesthetic that contrasts with darker themes. While the visuals are appealing and effectively complement the story and atmosphere, some note the lack of animation and minimal variety in combat visuals, yet overall the artwork stands out as a key strength that enhances the player's experience.
- “Simply superb, beautiful graphics and stunning soundtrack.”
- “Let me start off by saying that the artwork for this game is simply extraordinary.”
- “+ hand-illustrated artwork is superb, particularly the storyboard pages that are used to advance the plot.”
- “Another mistake of the graphics department are the story pictures between missions.”
- “I was a bit disappointed at the lack of animation, though it is possible that this was an aesthetic choice made by the game devs.”
- “Highlands isn't a graphic masterpiece of the modern age and no number cruncher for mass scripts like paradox games.”
music
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
66%
27%
7%
The music in the game is widely praised for its beautiful, soothing, and ambient qualities that complement the artwork and overall atmosphere, enhancing immersion. While some find the soundtrack excellent and melodic, others note it can be somewhat limited or repetitive, though still pleasant enough to keep on throughout the playthrough. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong and polished aspect that adds significant value to the experience.
- “The soundtrack is excellent, similar to Contre-jour but can get repetitive.”
- “The music gives an excellent, floating ambience that fits quite well with the design of the highlands.”
- “+ Absolutely incredible musical score; very melodic, and really pulls you into your chair.”
- “Perhaps a more diverse soundtrack would have been welcome, as the music is rather prominent due to the lack of action.”
- “The soundtrack is decent, a bit on the light side (ambient) and not too memorable, but I kept it on during my whole playthrough.”
- “The lack of any barks or at least old-school beeps on new lines of dialogue makes an uncanny impression of complete silence, despite the sound of background music.”
replayability
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
36%
43%
The game's replayability is generally low due to its linear story and lack of additional game modes or online play, limiting motivation to revisit after completion. While some find minor replay value in difficulty settings or achievements, the absence of varied content or character progression options reduces long-term engagement.
- “There is some replay value here, so that helps save it a bit.”
- “Attractive, charismatic and highly replayable single-player turn-based strategy game.”
- “While I don't believe there is much replay value other than to get achievements, this game is very fun!”
- “The story is nothing memorable but it isn't bad though, and sadly once you finish it I don't see you coming back. The game has little to no replay value.”
- “Unfortunately, beyond the difficulty settings there is no replayability as the story is linear.”
- “There is no skirmish or custom-battle mode; in fact, although the main campaign is very well-done, the game would be well-suited to host more in the way of game modes in the future. Until that is implemented, there is limited replayability.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is characterized by repetitive and tedious gameplay, especially in the latter half, with missions feeling like a board game of managing regions and enemies. While character abilities can alleviate some monotony, they require resource investment, making progression a cycle of grinding. Overall, the gameplay can become boring due to tedious management and control difficulties when handling multiple units.
- “The gameplay itself is 95% over a 'board' of a map, each being a mission; about taking over regions, and dealing with the threat of stationary enemies and occasional warbands. Each unit is indicated with a round token, making it feel like a board game. The gameplay is just... boring, in a tedious sense.”
- “I agree with many other reviewers: the game gets repetitive in the second half. The tedious character and item management plays a big part in this.”
- “You can mitigate this with character abilities, but they cost resources, which means grinding out the last areas of the enemy becomes a repetitive cycle.”
optimization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The game's overall performance is generally optimized, but troop movement on higher difficulties is notably slow, indicating a need for code improvements. Additionally, the controls lack proper right mouse button support, affecting user experience.
- “The performance shows the code for troop movement could use some optimization and the controls just need proper right mouse button support.”
- “And aside from the lackluster events and story which are okay for an indie title - but would get punished in a AA or AAA title - this mostly concerns the performance, UI, and controls.”
- “The second major problem of the game is the performance.”
- “The performance shows the code for troop movement could use some optimization and the controls just need a proper right mouse button support.”
- “Most things in the game are quick and optimized, but the one thing you will do on higher difficulties often - moving your own doomstacks to counter the enemies - takes ages.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is generally praised for its strong story narrative and well-paced progression, creating an engaging ambiance. While the visuals are visually pleasing and the artwork is appreciated, some feel the graphics don't fully align with the overall atmosphere. Overall, the setting and mood are regarded as positive and well-crafted.
- “The story narrative in this game creates a lovely atmosphere, and the even pace of progression through the levels enhances it.”
- “The artwork is really good, and the setting and atmosphere of the game are nice.”
- “The visuals are nice and eye-pleasing, though they don't necessarily match the game's atmosphere.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
100%
The character development in the game is notably well-executed and refreshing for a strategy title, with commendable growth and engaging designs. However, some users wish there were more character design options available for each class.
- “There is actually a commendable amount of character development afoot; this is certainly refreshing for a strategy game.”
- “+ There is actually a commendable amount of character development afoot; this is certainly refreshing for a strategy game”
- “I do wish there were more character designs for each class.”
- “I especially liked the character designs.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor stems from a quirky contrast between its dark, serious narrative and its bright, whimsical visuals, creating an oddly amusing dissonance. However, this comedic tone is somewhat diminished by gameplay difficulty balancing issues, which affect the overall fun.
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is compromised by a poorly designed and frequently buggy user interface, leading to a frustrating experience.
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users feel that despite the presence of multiple characters, the game fails to create a strong emotional or personal connection to their struggles and achievements.