War Hospital review

War Hospital review: When it comes to war games, the first thing that comes to our mind is to grab a gun, drift from action to action in the time and place where the game takes place, defeat the enemies we encounter and become the winner of the war. It is obvious that this is caused by the industry, because action and war can seem almost synonymous and difficult to separate from each other. However, it is an undeniable fact that when we think of war, we think of drama and death on a more realistic level.

War Hospital review / PC

Wars take place on fronts, and what games do is to drag us into an adventure according to the way they handle the concept of war on these fronts. So, is the war just about the front? Definitely not. Since our game started with this philosophy, the quote from Emile Zola that greets you on the opening screen is quite meaningful: “War is a life that can’t exist without death.”

War Hospital review

Hidden Heroes of War

We said that the war is not just about the front. What does it consist of then? In war, behind the front is as important as the front. Being shot and dying is certain, but it is not certain that everyone who is shot will die. There is also a group that saves the lives of those who were shot but did not die. Doctors, nurses, etc. War Hospital was founded in 1918 during the First World War by Dr. It begins with Henry Wells being sent to a recovery facility in the north of France, quite close to the front. I say recovery facility because it is very difficult to call the area a hospital. This facility contains various sections such as warehouse, lodging, engineering building, operating room, operation building, and what you are asked to do is to quickly resuscitate the wounded soldiers coming from the front right next to you, decide their fate, and continue the operation of the hospital by fulfilling the orders of the command center.

A Busy Environment

The game welcomes you with low budget but careful cinematics. In this way, you can establish a better bond with Wells. Cinematics are more like drawings, but they help you better understand what the producer wants to tell you, the current environment of the war and the seriousness of the mission you have been assigned to. Then, we start the task with a few tutorials. In the first place, we have very limited resources and a barely functioning facility. Our aim is to make this facility more functional. Likewise, Dr. Wells is a notorious figure in the neighborhood. The resources we use in the game are various and strangely enough, contrary to the realistic approach of the game, this resource is not money. Of course, this is justified since the hospital is not a business. A unit called the Command Center (HQ) provides you with resources and facilities.

War Hospital review

You can use these resources both to develop your facility and to provide other resources required for the facility to survive. What are these other resources? Of course, there is a need for food for the surgeons, first aid teams, engineers, nurses, in short, the staff in the hospital. You cannot stock up on food as you wish and think “I won’t bother with that, brother” because there is a maximum capacity of the resources you can acquire. This is directly proportional to your storage power. At the same time, you have to meet every need with the very limited opportunities HQ provides you.

These are the needs of the personnel as well as the needs of the injured coming to the hospital. Since there is a constant surgery going on inside, you need surgical supplies, as well as trauma medications and chemicals for various other injured people. So you do not apply the same treatment to every injured person. If your resources are very limited at that moment, you can even resort to amputation. In this regard, the game provides enough variety that will not bore you or become repetitive.

War Hospital review

However, the most basic thing in a game where you are in such a cycle is to fall into repetition. The game never hesitates to give you variety to break this. In addition to the patient types I have mentioned, some high-ranking soldiers are also brought to your hospital with injuries. Healing soldiers of this rank is much more important than others because when the treatment of these soldiers is completed, they will be very beneficial to you and your facility. Some of them are HQ’s nerds, some of them are injured engineers, and after they recover, they show their support for you and start working for you in the hospital. You never know who the injured person who comes to your table in the hospital is.

The soldiers you treat do not immediately stand up and run to the front. First, they go through rehabilitation processes and then their treatment is considered completely completed. What happens to the soldier afterwards is at your discretion. If you wish, you can send the soldier back to the front. This gives you the advantage of establishing a stronger line against the enemy on the front directly above you. The enemy does not hesitate to attack you frequently, so you must keep your front strong. Because in case the enemy crosses that line, your guard drops and the game is over.

War Hospital review

Another option for soldiers who have finished their treatment is to send them to the Command Center (HQ). This gives you the HQ points I mentioned before, which is a plus for the facility. Without HQ points (that is, HQ opportunity with the plane on which the game is placed), you cannot make any improvements and you may have difficulty in treating the wounded that come like rain and leave a lot of lives on the table.

The last option is to completely dismiss the soldier. These soldiers are considered to have completed their duties and the advantage of this is that it increases the morale of the hospital staff. Morale is the most important factor in the game. The entire functioning of the hospital depends on the morale of your staff, and in this context, the ratio of injured people remaining on the table and those recovering has a great impact on staff morale in your hospital. You must manage the process well. Which of these three options you choose depends entirely on the current facility needs and the soldier’s situation. Just as it would be unreasonable to send a soldier who is no longer capable of fighting to the front, it would be equally unreasonable to dismiss a soldier who is capable of fighting.

War Hospital review

Not every injured person will recover; there will be injured people who die on the table, either due to the severity of their wounds or due to your mismanagement at that moment. We are not going to leave them aside. There is a cemetery just east of the facility where these soldiers are buried, and you should bury the soldiers who lost their lives with the same care. For this, you still need staff.

You have to care for your personnel as much as you care for the injured, those you saved or those you couldn’t save. As I mentioned, the entire functioning of the hospital depends on the morale of the staff, and your rate of recovery for injured people increases and decreases in direct proportion to morale. You will appreciate that a facility with low morale and pessimistic personnel will not be very successful in healing the injured. Since the number of personnel you have is quite low, you have to be careful not to overload your personnel and to ensure that they rest. If you want, you can keep them on duty all the time, but this will cause the personnel in question to faint while on duty and you will not be able to use that personnel for a long time.

War Hospital review

Since your number of personnel is low, the collapse of the staff of one wing of the hospital means the collapse of that wing. This will cause that wing to not function and therefore the hospital to not function. You have to pay attention to the working hours of your staff. If necessary, you should stop the activity for a few hours, but you still have to let the staff rest. No one wants a system that works well and then collapses for a simple reason. Remember, there are more injured people waiting in line, and the collapse of one of your wings may cause those injured to not receive treatment.

Apart from that, you have to constantly improve your facility because after a certain time, a huge influx of injured people come to your hospital. Prepare yourself especially every time the enemy launches an attack on the front right next to you. A long shift awaits you and your staff. After a certain point, the personnel and resources you have become insufficient.

War Hospital review

To give a simple example: Since you have received so many injuries, the nursing staff you have is no longer sufficient and you need more nurses. To ensure this, you must first have enough capacity in your lodging to accommodate the nurse you intend to employ. You achieve this by improving your lodging. To develop housing, you need the opportunity that HQ provides you, and above all, you need another personnel to do this development, namely the engineer. You can then request more staff from HQ. Every mechanic in the game is tied to each other by a thread in this way. Failure to operate a mechanic means that they all collapse.

I never talked about the visuals of the game. War Hospital has very nice graphics compared to its modest budget. I can say that I especially liked the art design of the game. It adapts you very well to the pessimism and boredom of the environment. We can say that the game also makes you experience the healing process visually. For example, when you lose an injured person, it is possible to see him being carried to the cemetery on a stretcher. Or, after an injured person’s surgery is completed successfully, you may see him/her being taken to the rehabilitation center on a stretcher, or newly arrived injured people being carried to the operating room. The game has done a great job considering its budget. Although it is certain that it is the work of a well-intentioned effort, I cannot help but say that it is a game that will appeal to those who are interested in the genre.

War Hospital review

CONCLUSION

War Hospital is definitely a well-thought-out, well-planned game that smells of care. It is obvious that the game will not appeal to everyone due to its type. If you like creating wonders with your business strategy from scarce resources and are prone to strategy, you should give War Hospital a chance. If what you are looking for is more movement and action, behind the scenes is not for you. Let’s take you to the front.

War Hospital review

War Hospital review

War Hospital review