War Hospital Review | War’s Unspoken Terror (PC)

World War I was very brutal and terrifying, and most video games nowadays try to depict that terror through fast-paced action sequences, or by putting you in the shoes of a tank crew member, and other roles. However, there is an angle that is rarely spoken about in mainstream media: the field hospital, a forerunner of medics who desperately tried to save their allies while surrounded by the terror of tanks, artilleries, and enemy attacks. War Hospital is here to provide us with that kind of angle during World War I.

With that in mind, for this article, we will review War Hospital‘s many aspects, including the story which revolves around Major Henry Wells, the gameplay, which forces your hand to pick who gets to live and who gets to die, and lastly, we will also analyze the game’s graphics and sound design, and see how they help elevate our gameplay experience. Let’s begin.

War Hospital recently came out on January 11, 2024, and is available on Steam for $19.99, PlayStation 5 for $39.99, and Xbox Series X|S for $39.99.

Story | The New Hospital Director

War Hospital depicts a terrifying truth about World War I, often regarded as the War to End All Wars, in which we must manage a field hospital on the Western Front in 1918. We’re playing as Major Henry Walls, a British medic who must return to war by leading a handful of staff members to try and save as many lives as possible during the nightmare that is World War I.

While the story takes a backseat for 90% of the game, War Hospital still depicts quite a realistic situation that happened on the Western Front from the British’s point of view through Major Henry Wells. Although the game’s supporting characters are forgettable, as they only fulfill minor roles and sometimes hand out Quests to you, they feel humane enough that you can believe them to be a part of the nightmarish landscape trying to save lives, one at a time.

Major Wells’ Backstory.

Gameplay | War Hospital’s Greatest Strength

Now that we glimpsed at the game’s gritty story, it’s time to move on to its gameplay. This section of War Hospital review will be divided into two parts: Hospital Management and Resource Management.

Hospital Management

Let’s talk about Hospital Management in War Hospital, the forefront of its gameplay, and what I’d like to think is the best part of the game. In short, the hospital that we are responsible for has many buildings: Operation Ward, Staff Lodgings, Canteen, Rehabilitation Centre, and many more. 

As the hospital director, we must employ staff to man those buildings, which are largely divided into: Doctors, Nurses, Medic Teams, Engineers, and Scouts. These staff are your lifeline on the war front, as without them, the hospital won’t work and the wounded soldiers will die out. The idea is brilliant, as you need to meticulously manage them at all times, however, there might be a point where you feel that the gameplay becomes tedious, as you do have to keep on doing the management until the Main Objective is completed. Still, the main frame of War Hospital‘s gameplay is so great that it’s definitely the strongest point of the game.

While I did say that this is the best part of the game, several mishaps can stop our progression dead in its tracks. For starters, there have been multiple instances during my playthrough where the Medic Teams and the Doctors simply stop working even though they’re not in the Collapsed state. They just refused to move at all, thus greatly overloading the Casualty Clearing Station, and I was forced to deny many patients due to this. Hopefully, the developers can rectify this bug and provide a much smoother experience for all players.

Advanced Dressing Station.

Resource Management

The next gameplay aspect of War Hospital is Resource Management. Just like hospitals in general, we need to procure medicines to treat the patients, and we can do that in the game through Pharmacy. To do so, we must first assign at least one Engineer to man the building, and after that, we still have to decide on which area we want him to be: Surgical Supplies, Trauma Medicine Supplies, or Chemical Medicine Supplies. The first category is available immediately, while the latter two must be unlocked before you can initiate the production.

Another production building that we can have is the Engineering Depot, where we can produce Food and Alcohol for the hospital staff. This is a tertiary building, so you can hold off from building it during the early phase, however, it becomes essential once your staff members grow larger and need more Food as time progresses. 

One thing that I’d like to highlight is the lack of resources at hand sometimes. The main resource (leftmost of the bottom UI), is crucial in producing the items for helping the soldiers and keeping your staff healthy and full. Yet, the delivery of this main resource is often slow, as the trains that deliver them only arrive once in a while, usually 8-12 in-game hours. Meanwhile, I burn through that resource to produce Supplies and Food faster than the deliveries, as the latter phase of War Hospital is getting hectic with all the injuries coming in. I do hope that future updates can help negate this problem by buffing the delivery times, just to make our lives as hospital director simpler.

Life at Pharmacy.

Graphics and Sound | Gritty Reality

Lastly, for this review, let’s talk about War Hospital‘s graphics and sound design. In terms of graphics, this game nails the grey aesthetic that indicates the desperate and gritty reality of World War I, because the buildings back then were like that: either greyish or reduced to ashes due to bombings or other causes.

The vehicles are also realistic, with the train and medical vehicles all bearing resemblances of their real-world counterparts. I did not find any issues in terms of the graphical aspect of War Hospital. Everything enhances the immersion we get while playing, as it also boosts our connection with the characters, the soldiers, and the hospital’s staff.

Meanwhile, the sound design is beyond my expectations. I initially thought that since this is a relatively ‘passive’ game where we don’t have many actions beyond treating patients and managing our hospital staff, everything just clicks together.

The sound of Operation Ward, the hustle and bustle of the Engineers trying to build a new improvement for our hospital, and the Train Station’s train arrivals, these aspects truly give us a sense that we are indeed in the deep of the war. Overall, I have no issues with War Hospital‘s graphics and sound design, although they don’t make this game stand out from other strategy games, they do their jobs well, and honestly, that’s enough for me.

This War Hospital review on PC is possible thanks to Dead Good Media for providing a review code to us.