The developers at Brave Lamb Studio took a leap of faith and made a simulator where you take on the role of one of the medics in a War Hospital. It’s a game that focuses on making the right choice about a person’s health condition that could win the factions’ war. It’s a game that also relies on realism, so they collaborated with an imperial war museum in London to give that realistic touch. It’s a unique experience. Let’s talk.
The player takes on the role of one of Britain’s finest field medics in the business, named Henry Wells. Henry wants to make an important impact on the war by saving as many soldiers as he can but he also wants to grieve about his dead son as well. Running the War Hospital is a coping mechanism to deal with the loss of his son and channel his frustration and sadness on the victims of the current war. Of course, nobody said you would start in a War Hospital full of supplies and functional. It’ll take all of Henry’s skill to get the War Hospital up and running while dealing with multiple war victims with the supplies/ support he can. Not an easy task if you ask me…
“Whatever the right choice might be, you’ll have to see for yourself.”
It’s not an easy task for several reasons… and the game does capture the war vibe very decent. So there’s always this streamlined process you go through when you’re playing War Hospital. So First of all, victims of the war are being gathered at the CCS which stands for Casualty Clearing Station. This is the patient’s first entry when he comes to the War Hospital for his needs. They arrive at this place and you ( the medic) will have to decide the faith of these patients. You’ll have to direct the patients towards the right section of the War Hospital and you’ll have to give priority to the different victims. Whatever the right choice might be, you’ll have to see for yourself.
After carefully diagnosing the patient, you’ll have to attend to the patient with a specialized medical team with their strengths/ weaknesses. The medical team will then operate on the patient and hopefully, the patient will come out alive. If the patient survives the operation, they will be sent to the recovery part of the War Hospital. Just like you did with the medical team for the operation, you will also be able to assign nurses to the recovery space. These nurses will take care of the patient until he’s fully recovered. After that, Henry will have to decide if the patient will have to return to the battlefield or home safely. Of course, this is your streamlined process without any hiccups or unfortunate events. The further the game progresses, the more events will happen and it won’t always be easy to make the right call.
“The most simple operation can lead to a disastrous turn of events…”
Talking about these hiccups during the process… Nobody has to tell you how bad a situation can get during times of war. Decisions have to be made and a lot of these decisions have to be made in a fraction of a second. If you know something about the war, a lot of people died of injuries that couldn’t be handled fast enough or unsuccessful operations because of the lack of resources and the right tools. The same “vibe” is present in War Hospital. The most simple operation can lead to a disastrous turn of events that may cost you the lives of some good soldiers. Sometimes, a soldier is being operated and if the operation takes a lot more time than you thought, you’ll have to decide on what to do with the person on the operation table because the number of waiting patients will also increase. It’s important to treat their wounds as well, otherwise, the chances of their survival will slim down by the minute as well and you’ll be indirectly killing off more soldiers than healing. The question you’ll always want to ask is, what soldier is worth saving? Also is it worth it to continue an 8-hour operation, if there isn’t even certainty of his survival? The longer you operate on one person, the more soldiers are coming through the CCS and they have a life timer as well.
The game is all about managing and making the right decisions but it’s also set in the WW1 era, so the War Hospital will have a minimum of technology to save the incoming patients. Not only that but there is also a lack of supplies, personnel, and especially the energy to keep moving forward despite the losses or dangerous hazards. Keeping your cool and your morale high, are a couple of important aspects to make you a successful medic. Of course, these aspects are bound to the field medic and can only be improved by the field medic himself. All those other things like technology, supplies, personnel, … are aspects that can be physically gathered and brought to you. In War Hospital, you will get an in-game currency that allows you to trade for extra personal or technical improvements. Also, the fact that you have a War Hospital running, you will have to make tools to survive, and personnel can help you with this but then again if you order personnel to make tools, they can’t be put in other jobs. People also need to eat, so you’ll have to look for a decent amount of food to keep your personnel happy for them to perform outstanding. However, there’s also the option to give them less food but this will impact their productivity as well. Everything you want to do needs a consideration of a couple of minutes. You need the right person at the right job but you’ll have to think about the opportunities that are at hand and the consequences that come with them.
“Morale does so much in this game because it impacts the performance of your personal.”
The War Hospital also has a tech tree where different technologies can be acquired to make your operations more successful. For example, there’s a tech where amputation is being drastically improved. This heightens the success of your operation at the hospital as well and will result in more happy and alive soldiers.
You can tell that a War Hospital is trying to survive as long as it can with the tools/ resources that are available to them. But not only are the physical requirements to run the hospital key but also the status of the people’s morale. Morale does so much in this game because it impacts the performance of your personal. You can keep your morale high by saving as much of the soldiers as you can but there are also other opportunities/ activities to heighten your morale. Losing people or making bad decisions can cause a drop in morale as well. It is also important that the morale can be heightened by sending people Home instead of the Front. But you’ll also have to keep this in balance because the more people you send towards home, the fewer soldiers that can fight against the Germans. If there are no soldiers at the front, the battle will turn in the favor of the Germans.
“The dark color palette suits the game perfectly.”
The biggest part of the game is mostly managing stuff but there will also be some opportunities to do recon missions where you can gain intel from the opposing team or even look for saboteurs and make them harmless.
Technical speaking the game’s presentation is okay but nothing game-breaking. The dark color palette suits the game perfectly. The palette uses dark/ brown/ eerie colors that capture the dark vibe on the battlefield. The voice acting is okay but the UI can still use some more work. The information that’s been given isn’t always clear as day. The basic resource tab is simplistic and visualized and gives the information that’s needed, but the status of your personal for example can use a bit more input. I feel like you can’t give enough information about these types of games.
Conclusion:
If you like management games, this can be put on the radar. War Hospital does a lot of things right. You get a good feeling about being a field medic in WW1 where resources/ tools were scarce and the vibe was very gloomy. The decision making is probably the highest stress factor you can get from a game. Deciding about life or death in this type of situation feels hard but rewarding as well, as you find out that your decision was the right call. Will this game eventually make you the real deal? I doubt it but it’s a good way to pass the time.
7/10
tested on PS5
