Front(line) Mission

HIGH Good tools enrich the solid gameplay.

LOW The controls and interface are a bit clunky.

WTF Excuse me, just going to drive this Sherman through a building now…

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Despite World War II ending nearly 80 years ago, gamers seem no less interested in the subject, and Headquarters: World War II allows them to relive legendary battles via an incredibly well-built strategy framework that captures the spirit of commanding troops in some of the conflict’s most pitched encounters.

Headquarters: World War II is a turn-based strategy game, where players’ troops start at a predetermined area of the map, and must capture objectives. Each side has access to a limited number of units, such as tanks, ground infantry, artillery groups, and more.

The main campaign features three factions for players to choose from — the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Each of the campaigns features iconic and legendary battles, such as the Omaha Beach landing, Operation Good Wood, and Operation Tillich. Each features a difficulty selection, alongside a custom difficulty setting with adjustable sliders for accuracy and damage, both for the player and enemy.

Every unit’s ‘health’ consists not of hit points, but instead, how many men are left in a particular unit. As each unit is damaged (loses men) its combat effectiveness is diminished. For example, an infantry unit may not be as accurate when firing, or a tank may not be able to drive as far in a turn. Each troop is visually depicted on the battlefield and in the status screen of the unit.

Ally and enemy squads also have morale, which will cause teams to run away if depleted — helpful in herding retreating enemies to a position where a trap has been laid. In one skirmish, I was able to drive an enemy away from hard cover and into the open once they lost their nerve, at which point the rest of the unit was dispatched. Morale affects allied units too, though, so the player’s morale should be kept as high as possible. This really made me think about which units to send ahead, and which to have fall back.

When attacking, each combatant is subject to fire from the other side. Terrain, cover, and manpower determine how accurate each group will be. There are also some units impervious to specific types of fire. For example, an infantry squad is unable to destroy a tank under any circumstances, but I could use recon units to spot tanks so my artillerymen could blast them from afar — it never failed to make me feel accomplished in my strategy.

In addition to this, units also have unique abilities. Recon troops can spot enemies from farther away than others can. Transport trucks can move troops around without any action cost to the unit they’re moving, mobile artillery can deliver long-distance pain to faraway enemies, and so on.

There are also some special abilities that take a few turns to recharge after using them. The most helpful was the “reinforcement” command, which allowed one unit to completely replenish its troops, allowing them a chance to recover ranks (essentially healing the unit) every three turns. There are also spy planes which allowed me to see units I hadn’t spotted yet, as well as extra artillery and naval gunfire, which could soften or destroy targets, but had a longer cooldown.

These were all incredibly nice to have, as they provided me with some extra options that I didn’t normally have on hand, or had in short supply. These helpful resources made the playthrough more enjoyable, not because it gave me an unfair advantage, but because I had to be judicious with their usage.

There is also a player vs. AI skirmish mode, which allows players to set up a random battle on a predetermined map, or make their own. This adds replayability, as it offers a lot of control on the mechanics of this mode, so players who’ve beaten the campaigns can create their own battles.

The whole package is pretty extensive, and I had a great time going through each map, each with its own goals and objectives that tasked me to rescue allies or capturing convoy materials, for example. I was challenged with using all the tools given to me to attain victory, and I never felt like any of the missions were impossible. With a good understanding of the toolkit, there were no roadblocks to progress — every mistake was my own, and I made sure to learn from them.

While the majority of Headquarters: World War II is aces, one issue I had was with the UI – it gets very crowded with information at times!

While it was nice to have plenty of info, it made things a bit hard to read for me. It did become a little tricky to see units with how cluttered the screen was, and removing some elements (like completed objectives) would have freed up some of the real estate. Related, some elements were simply hard to see, not due to crowding, but because of the fonts and colors. Stats about my currently selected unit, the mini map, the available forces I had, and combat predictions were muddy and tough to parse as they were displayed on a brown background, with the text being only slightly brighter. Leaving the text white would have alleviated this issue.

Headquarters: World War II is an excellent game for WWII enthusiasts and strategy aficionados alike. It provides a great amount of tools for players to use on the battlefield, in addition to plenty of options to tailor the experience to their needs. Some UI and interface issues diminish the experience a bit, it will still provide many hours of enjoyable warfare for fans of the material.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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Disclosures: This game is developed by Starni Games and published by Slitherine Ltd. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher, and reviewed on PC. Approximately 6 hours was devoted to the game, and it was not completed. There is an online multiplayer mode for up to four players.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB rating. This game is set in World War II, and allied and enemy units can be killed in a variety of ways, including gunfire, flamethrowers, artillery, and so on. However, the deaths are never gory or violent. Troops will simply collapse as they are dispatched, and machines and tanks will explode. There is some dated language and insults, such as use of the phrase “Kraut” when the German military is discussed by American troops.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game does offer subtitles, but cannot be resized. (See examples above and below.) All voiced dialogue is accompanied by subtitles. The text can be a tad difficult to read, and therefore this game is not accessible.

Remarkable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.