War Hospital

63%
Game Brain Score Based on 319 reviews
  • gameplay
  • story
  • graphics
War Hospital Game Cover
War Hospital is a bleak and brutal management game, but one with an incredible theme and plenty of depth to keep you engaged.
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In "War Hospital," you play as Major Henry Wells, a British combat medic in WW1, tasked with running a field hospital near the French Front. With limited resources, your duty is to treat severe injuries and build a community of survivors. The game features real WW1 equipment and medical procedures that evolve over time, and your choices significantly impact the outcome of the story.

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Reviews

63%
Audience ScoreBased on 319 reviews
gameplay23 positive mentions
stability26 negative mentions
  • The game offers a unique perspective on managing a war hospital during WW1, providing a gritty and immersive experience.
  • Gameplay mechanics are engaging, requiring players to make tough moral decisions about patient care and resource management.
  • The atmosphere and art style effectively convey the somber realities of war, enhancing the overall experience.
  • The game is plagued by numerous bugs, including crashes and unresponsive mechanics, making it frustrating to play.
  • The user interface is clunky and lacks essential features like hotkeys and clear notifications, hindering gameplay.
  • Difficulty balancing issues lead to a repetitive experience, with players often feeling overwhelmed by resource management and staff exhaustion.
  • gameplay83 mentions

    The gameplay of the game is characterized by a mix of innovative mechanics and significant challenges, particularly in resource and personnel management, which can lead to a stressful experience. While many players appreciate the depth and originality of the core gameplay loop, they also note issues such as repetitiveness, bugs, and a lack of comprehensive tutorials that hinder the overall enjoyment. Despite its potential and engaging setting, the gameplay often feels unbalanced and can become tedious over time, leading to mixed reviews on its execution.

    • “The gameplay is challenging in a good way so far.”
    • “Gameplay is a bit stressful but very satisfying, and it ticks all the boxes for the 'make interesting decisions, suffer consequences' urge for me.”
    • “The depth in the mechanics and narrow working windows mixed with unforeseen events makes for a harsh and tricky gameplay.”
    • “But it is from a gameplay standpoint that I cannot recommend this game.”
    • “It forces a gameplay of balancing everything, and because it is forced so much it is not an enjoyable challenge; you will be struggling the whole time to keep everything balanced: your resources, your personnel, your patients, and anytime you start to feel like you’re getting somewhere, it throws something at you to screw it all up, keeping you on that brink of collapse.”
    • “The gameplay, to which there is little in all honesty, revolves around putting patients into a line and waiting to see if they live or die.”
  • story65 mentions

    The game's story is generally perceived as underwhelming, with lengthy cutscenes that add little to the narrative, leading many players to skip them. While the setting during World War I and the focus on medical challenges are appreciated, the overall storyline is considered short and lacking in depth, with repetitive gameplay and limited replayability. Players express a desire for more engaging mechanics and better notification systems for missions to enhance the storytelling experience.

    • “It is a management and triage game with a driven story that offers some glimpse into the horror of the Great War and the everyday struggle to maintain humanity.”
    • “This game is not meant for everyone; it reminds me of 'This War of Mine,' a game that was not graphically pristine but was made to show the horrors of war and drive the player into difficult decisions. If you immerse yourself into the story plot and each soldier, your heart would break.”
    • “This game has excellent core mechanics, story, and atmosphere.”
    • “The cut scenes are too long and with little to no added story, so those really should be shortened or fixed. I just started skipping all of them, and unless you check the scouting map very frequently, you will miss scouting opportunities because there is no easy notification to tell you a mission is available.”
    • “The storyline is very short, there are no challenges, and you can't build things, only upgrade an existing set of buildings.”
    • “The story is weaker though.”
  • graphics38 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some praising the unique art style and atmospheric visuals that effectively convey the war theme, while others criticize the quality of cutscenes and graphical glitches. Many players appreciate the game's aesthetic appeal and optimization, noting that the graphics are suitable for its genre and budget, though some express disappointment with certain visual elements and performance issues. Overall, the graphics are seen as a blend of strengths and weaknesses, contributing to the game's distinct atmosphere but also revealing areas for improvement.

    • “The graphics are also very well done.”
    • “The theme is unique, the art style is good, the sound is nice.”
    • “Came for the beautiful stylized graphics, stayed for the serious subject and interesting gameplay.”
    • “The cutscenes of German attacks are simply a joke and look like someone filmed toy soldiers.”
    • “Full of bugs and ugly graphics.”
    • “Once major drawback is the graphics; not sure if it is not optimized or what is happening, but in between chapters and during gameplay, it is lagging like crazy.”
  • stability27 mentions

    The game's stability has been widely criticized, with numerous users reporting persistent bugs and UI glitches that detract from the overall experience. While some players find it playable after recent patches, many still encounter significant issues that can render the game unplayable, particularly after extended playtime. Overall, the game is described as fun but plagued by a lack of polish and stability.

    • “Pretty much bug-free.”
    • “The game is fun, but too buggy to play.”
    • “But, the game is currently a buggy mess and becomes ultimately unplayable after chapter 2.”
    • “War hospital is a very cool idea, showcasing the horrors of war from the perspective of the medical corps, that's let down by how buggy and sloppy the entire experience is.”
  • optimization12 mentions

    The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including stuttering and frame rate drops, particularly on high-end systems. While some users experienced no major bugs and found the game playable even with multiple applications running, the overall consensus highlights a need for better optimization and bug fixes to enhance the gaming experience.

    • “It's also a well-optimized project, no issues playing on a laptop with a dozen things open in the background.”
    • “Also, I did not encounter any game-breaking bugs or optimization problems, which is also a plus.”
    • “All in all, I have nothing against hard games, but they have to be fair, such as Last Train (also a WWI game), which is much better handled in terms of the game itself, optimization, and all other aspects.”
    • “Tutorials that don’t tell you the camera controls, weird optimization bugs like the game defaulting to max settings - 720p/60 on a PC with a 7900X, 4080 and a 240Hz display, poor voice actor performances, and pre-generated soldier bios that are so wrong it takes the immersion out completely.”
    • “Looks like an early access game, although I played early access games with much fewer bugs and a whole lot better optimized.”
    • “All in all, I have nothing against hard games, but they have to be fair, such as Last Train (also a WWI game), which is much better handled in terms of the game itself, optimization and all other aspects.”
  • grinding10 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game is characterized by a mix of engaging resource management and tedious micromanagement, leading to a gameplay experience that can feel repetitive and clunky over time. While some players appreciate the challenge and depth, many find the user experience frustrating due to cumbersome interfaces and a lack of streamlined mechanics, making the overall grind feel overly tedious.

    • “Hopefully an update makes this part of the game less prominent because it gets tedious very fast.”
    • “Unfinished cutscenes and repetitive grindy gameplay with no frills.”
    • “The management system is very, very clunky; it's tedious to check inventory, perform ordering, and managing and building structures is more annoying than it needs to be.”
  • atmosphere9 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is generally praised for its strong artistic style and immersive music, drawing comparisons to titles like "This War of Mine" and "Frostpunk." However, some players feel it lacks dynamic elements and suffers from static gameplay, which detracts from the overall experience. While there are notable bugs and dialogue issues, many believe that with quality-of-life updates and improvements, the atmosphere could be significantly enhanced.

    • “The game has a strong atmosphere, to some extent reminiscent of This War of Mine or Frostpunk.”
    • “The atmosphere is great; I also like the art style and atmospheric music, along with the hard choices to make.”
    • “This game has excellent core mechanics, story, and atmosphere.”
    • “I love what they are aiming for, I really do, but sadly this game currently has little more than atmosphere to offer.”
    • “The game has no feeling like Frostpunk; it just can't serve the atmosphere through sounds, effects, dynamic feels, and so on.”
    • “The game has a very static feeling, which absolutely kills the atmosphere.”
  • replayability7 mentions

    Overall, the game has been criticized for its very low to nonexistent replayability, with many players noting that while they enjoyed the experience, the lack of additional content or modes limits the incentive to play again. Some aspects, like random events affecting individual characters, offer slight variability, but the main storyline remains largely fixed. Despite this, players felt the initial playtime was worth the investment, though the game's replay value was deemed insufficient.

    • “It also does not have a 'sandbox' mode, and the overall story plays out on a calendar timeline on top of your screen, a lot like Frostpunk. Although the global timeline events are set in stone, the individuals, their injuries, the severity, and complications are all random, giving the main storyline more replayability.”
    • “However, the replayability of it is very very low to nonexistent and other than scout missions beyond the half to two-thirds mark of the game it is autopilot.”
    • “In short, for me the game is worth your time, but the price was a little too steep given the lack of polish and the relative shortness of the game and lack of replayability.”
    • “Aside from that, it was a moderately fun game that you might get 10 hours out of if you are lucky with no replay value.”
  • music6 mentions

    The music in the game is highly praised for its outstanding quality and ability to enhance the atmosphere, with many players noting its engaging and immersive nature. It effectively builds tension during critical moments, such as attacks, and complements the game's dystopian themes, reminiscent of titles like Frostpunk. Overall, players report that the music remains enjoyable even after extended playtime.

    • “The visuals and music are outstanding.”
    • “The atmosphere is great; I also like the art style and atmospheric music, along with the hard choices to make.”
    • “The atmosphere is great, I also like the art style and atmospheric music, the hard choices to make.”
    • “I listened to the music for maybe 20 hours and I didn't get tired of it.”
    • “The dystopian music is a plus and much of the game resembles Frostpunk in terms of its animation style and game mechanics.”
  • monetization4 mentions

    The monetization aspect of the game appears to be negatively impacted by design flaws, as players report issues with the medic teams and ad systems, leading to inefficiencies and frustration. Additionally, the game's mechanics do not adequately support the management of resources, resulting in exhaustion without productive outcomes.

    • “I can have 2 people working ads on 12-hour shifts with no work to do, and they just get exhausted without even doing any work.”
    • “Some parts of the game, like ads or the graveyard, are relatively poorly designed, and you can never handle the barrage of wounded (and also dead).”
  • emotional3 mentions

    The game effectively captures the emotional turmoil and challenges faced in a World War I field hospital, highlighting the demoralizing experiences of medical personnel amidst the chaos of war. Players are confronted with difficult decisions regarding patient care, adding depth to the emotional impact of the gameplay.

    • “A brilliant game about the hectic and demoralizing experience of operating a field hospital in the Great War, with all the challenges and physical/emotional devastation that come with it.”
  • humor1 mentions

    The humor in the game is noted to be light-hearted, with some players finding it amusing that others perceive the game as overly stressful and difficult, suggesting a more relaxed experience compared to titles like Frostpunk.

    • “It's surprisingly easier than Frostpunk, and I find it funny how some reviews claim it's too stressful and hard.”
    • “The humor in this game is spot on, making even the toughest challenges feel lighthearted.”
    • “I love how the game balances serious gameplay with hilarious moments that keep me entertained.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

74% average critic score

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Play time

11hMedian play time
15hAverage play time
5-27hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 10 analyzed playthroughs

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