See what makes War Hospital so unique in a trio of dev diaries

If you’ve been following along, then you already know War Hospital is pretty unique when it comes to management games.

Kinda like MASH

Is it fair to say there’s never been a “management” game like War Hospital? Probably so, since this new title from Brave Lamb is set in the days of WWI, and tasks players with running one of its title facilities. As you might imagine though, that’s easier said than done.

Not only will players have to maintain the actual hospital, but they’ll have to pay attention to the servicemen that enter it as well, making sure that their patients get the best treatment possible. That’s not all either, as there’ll reportedly be some tough choices on tap, ones that can have far reaching consequences and affect the lives of patients’ families.

With the title all done with development, it’s now heading to retail next week (January 11th), for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. And to celebrate that little milestone, we’ve got a trio of new videos to share, each taking a look at an element of gameplay.

Realistic, vivid art direction

The developers at Brave Lamb opted to give War Hospital a “pseudo-realistic” graphic style. This artistic direction, stylised yet also true to historical reality, humanises the game’s characters. Thanks to a deliberate exaggeration of their proportions, the characters become more expressive. The clothing of the time had a limited colour palette of green, grey and brown. The slightly more colourful style of War Hospital gets around this limitation, with the greater relief really bringing the characters to life on the screen and enabling the player to better distinguish the various units. The studio has definitely avoided identikit character models.

Brave Lamb press release

Moral choices with serious consequences

In War Hospital, the choices facing the player are not black-and-white. Whatever decision they take, it always comes with its own set of economic and moral impacts. At the end of the adventure, the sum of these choices unlocks one of the possible story endings. Decision-making in War Hospital means anticipating consequences, whether they are measurable in the short or long term.

Brave Lamb press release

A very human economy

War Hospital combines a purely strategic economic approach with a more human dimension. Brave Lamb studio has used several methods to humanise the data that the player needs to consider during the game: a complete character file, including a variety of personal info, such as family situation or medical history, or additional prompts given to the player during decision-making. The content of this extra info can make for more dramatic choices, if for example the player learns that one of their patients is expecting a child, or that there is a young wife desperately longing for her husband to return.

Brave Lamb press release