Highlands

About

Highlands is a single-player Role Playing game with a good story, excellent game mechanics, and exceptional visuals. As an exiled leader, players must build an army, manage resources, and make strategic decisions to reclaim their homeland from mysterious overlords. With its hand-drawn environments and turn-based strategy gameplay, Highlands offers a unique and immersive gaming experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

80%

Audience ScoreBased on 181 reviews

story31 positive mentions

replayability6 negative mentions

Highlands features beautiful hand-drawn art and a charming aesthetic that enhances the gameplay experience.
The game offers a fun blend of turn-based strategy and resource management, providing a satisfying challenge as players must balance character abilities and territory control.
The pacing of the game is well-structured, with mechanics gradually introduced, keeping the gameplay engaging and allowing for strategic depth.

The user interface is poorly designed and can be cumbersome, making it difficult to manage characters and resources effectively.
The combat system relies heavily on RNG, which can lead to frustrating moments where outcomes feel unfair or out of the player's control.
The story and character development are lacking, with generic dialogue and minimal depth, making it hard to become invested in the narrative.

story
137 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
71%
7%
The game's story is generally described as simplistic and cliché, revolving around the familiar trope of reclaiming a lost kingdom, with minimal character development and a linear narrative that lacks depth. While the vibrant art style and music enhance the experience, many players feel the story is not memorable and lacks replay value, often leading to a sense of boredom or disconnection from the plot. Overall, the narrative serves its purpose but does not stand out, leaving players wanting more in terms of complexity and engagement.
- “Beautiful artwork, good music, non-overly complex gameplay, and just enough story.”
- “The story is interesting, the gameplay is interesting.”
- “The characters and storyline are compelling.”
- “The story is told through kind of cutscenes - the art is vibrant and nice, but absolutely static at the same time, the characters barely have any personality (basically their highest stat is their personality - the builder boy, the healer mom, the leader-fighter daughter) and the story is the thousand-year-old cliché of 'kingdom taken, take it back.'”
- “The story exists, but only just barely.”
- “In short, don't play the game for its writing or story.”
gameplay
134 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
73%
2%
The gameplay is characterized by its turn-based mechanics and a board game feel, emphasizing resource management and strategic territorial control. While the mechanics are generally simple and easy to grasp, some players find them shallow and repetitive as the game progresses, with a lack of depth in combat and customization options. Overall, it offers a casual strategy experience that can be enjoyable for those seeking straightforward gameplay, but may not satisfy players looking for more complex strategic challenges.
- “This is a pretty neat game with a board game feel, featuring turn-based gameplay, simple mechanics, and a heavy emphasis on resource management.”
- “It's got unique and engaging mechanics, and it's challenging without being brutal.”
- “The gameplay elements, while simple, serve very well to the purpose of the game.”
- “Some mechanics are not well explained, and some are even harder to understand because the UI doesn't convey really clearly what's going on.”
- “The gameplay is just... boring, in a tedious sense.”
- “The mechanics are shallow; there’s not much to explore in terms of developing your characters or your districts.”
graphics
91 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
36%
3%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beautiful and appealing art style, which enhances the overall experience and complements the story. While some reviewers note that the visuals are largely static and the combat graphics may not be as impressive, the hand-illustrated artwork and vibrant cartoonish design are highlighted as standout features. Overall, the game's aesthetic is considered a strong point, contributing to its charm and engagement despite some gameplay limitations.
- “Beautiful art style, nice mechanics and story.”
- “The artwork and details are tantalizing and make me want more.”
- “Simply superb, beautiful graphics and stunning soundtrack.”
- “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.”
- “The graphics might draw in casual players, but I actually don't recommend it for beginning strategy players.”
music
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
66%
27%
7%
The music in the game is generally praised for its beauty and ability to enhance the overall atmosphere, with many reviewers noting its calming and immersive qualities. While the soundtrack is described as lovely and well-suited to the game's art style, some players feel it can become repetitive and would benefit from more diversity. Overall, the music is considered one of the game's stronger aspects, contributing positively to the experience despite some critiques regarding its memorability.
- “The art and music are gorgeous, and the interface is intuitive.”
- “Simply superb, beautiful graphics and stunning soundtrack.”
- “The music gives an excellent, floating ambience that fits quite well with the design of the highlands.”
- “Perhaps a more diverse soundtrack would have been welcome, being that the music is rather prominent due to the lack of action.”
- “It's mostly inoffensive, light, airy background music.”
- “The soundtrack is decent, a bit on the light side (ambient) and not too memorable, but I kept it on during my whole playthrough.”
replayability
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
36%
43%
Overall, the game has been criticized for its low replayability due to a linear story and lack of additional game modes or features. While some players find limited replay value in achievements or difficulty settings, many agree that the absence of diverse gameplay options significantly diminishes the incentive to revisit the game after completion.
- “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. 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%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly in the second half, where character and item management becomes a chore. While the initial gameplay is engaging, it quickly loses its appeal, especially on higher difficulties, leading to a frustrating experience when trying to complete missions. The controls further exacerbate the grind, making it difficult to manage multiple characters effectively.
- “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 an occasional warband. Every unit is indicated with a round token (see why I called it a board game?). The gameplay is just... boring, in a tedious sense.”
- “And I agree with many of the other reviewers: the game gets repetitive in the second half. I think the tedious character and item management has a big part in this.”
- “You can mitigate this with character abilities, but they cost resources, which means that grinding out the last areas of the enemy is a repetitive cycle.”
optimization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The game's optimization is criticized for slow troop movement, particularly on higher difficulties, indicating that the code requires improvement. While most aspects are quick and well-optimized, the controls also need enhancements, specifically better right mouse button support. Overall, performance issues detract from the experience, especially in comparison to higher-tier titles.
- “The performance shows the code for troop movement could use some optimization and the controls just need proper right mouse button support.”
- “The second major problem of the game is the performance.”
- “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.”
- “The performance shows the code for troop movement could use some optimization and the controls just need a proper right mouse button support.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
The game's atmosphere is enhanced by its engaging narrative and well-paced progression, creating a lovely experience for players. While the visuals are appealing and the artwork is commendable, some users feel that they do not fully align with the overall atmosphere of the game.
- “The story narrative in this game also creates a lovely atmosphere, and the even pace of your progression through the levels lends itself well to that.”
- “The artwork is really good, and the setting and atmosphere of the game are nice.”
- “The visuals are nice and eye-catching, but they don't necessarily match the game's atmosphere.”
- “The atmosphere feels disjointed and fails to immerse me in the game world.”
- “Despite some interesting design elements, the overall atmosphere lacks depth and cohesion.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
67%
The character development in the game is praised for its commendable depth, which is a refreshing feature for a strategy title. While the character designs are well-received, some players express a desire for more variety in designs for each class. Overall, the development aspect is seen as a strong point of the game.
- “I especially liked the character designs.”
- “I do wish there were more character designs for each class.”
- “There's really nothing to nitpick here, though I do wish there were more character designs for each class.”
- “There is actually a commendable amount of character development afoot; this is certainly refreshing for a strategy game.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is derived from the stark contrast between its serious themes of war and destruction and the whimsical, picturesque visuals of floating islands, creating a surreal and ironic experience. However, players find that the humor can be diminished by gameplay difficulty, as easier modes lack comedic elements while harder modes focus more on challenge than humor.
- “I find it funny and really weird how the game constantly describes the cruelties of war, with burning buildings and desperate survivors, while on my screen I can only see lovely floating islands with beautiful and very intact houses. The artwork is really good, but it doesn't match the in-game story and descriptions.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Users report significant stability issues, highlighting a poorly designed and frequently buggy user interface that detracts from the overall experience.
- “The UI is very poorly designed and often buggy.”
- “The game crashes frequently, making it nearly unplayable.”
- “I experienced constant lag and frame drops, which ruined the overall experience.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviewers express a lack of strong emotional engagement with the characters, feeling disconnected from their struggles and achievements despite the presence of a diverse cast.