Heads Will Roll: Reforged Review Summary

Addictive roguelike mode with progression: The game features an engaging roguelike mode (often called "Heads Will Roll") that provides a sense of progression with each run. Players can earn permanent upgrades and experiment with different builds, making the game highly addictive, especially on the hardest difficulty.

High replayability via branching paths: The game boasts high replayability due to branching storylines, multiple endings (up to 30+), and impactful choices. Players are motivated to explore different paths and character builds across multiple playthroughs. The game blends visual novel elements with RPG and roguelike mechanics.

Engaging story with impactful choices: The game features a well-developed and engaging story with meaningful choices that impact the narrative. The narrative is easy to follow, with well-written dialogue and interesting characters, creating emergent storytelling moments.

Immersive medieval setting, progression: The game is set in a well-executed medieval setting, offering a gritty and nuanced portrayal of the era. Players experience a sense of progression from a peasant to a powerful knight, with diverse options for character development and equipment.

DLCs add depth and content: The DLCs add substantial content and depth to the game without being overpriced. The developers continue to expand the game with more DLCs.

Poor writing and technical issues: The game suffers from numerous technical issues, including frequent typos, grammatical errors, and poor translation. This significantly detracts from the story and overall immersion. The low production value is further evidenced by the lack of animations, voice acting, and uninspired graphics.

Unbalanced and unforgiving difficulty: The game's difficulty is a major point of contention, with many reviewers finding it unbalanced and unforgiving, especially early on. Inaccurate hit probabilities, overpowered enemies, and a reliance on save-scumming contribute to player frustration. The combat system itself is criticized for being clunky, unintuitive, and lacking transparency.

Repetitive gameplay and story: Repetitive gameplay loops and static storylines make the game tedious, especially on repeated playthroughs. The lack of meaningful choices and event variety further exacerbates this issue, leading players to skip content and lose interest. The game's length amplifies the tedium, as the novelty wears off quickly.

Clunky UI and inventory: The game's UI and inventory management are clunky and unintuitive, lacking essential quality-of-life features. The font is also criticized for being difficult to read, causing eye strain and detracting from the experience. These issues make navigating the game and managing resources frustrating.

Poor fatigue and combat systems: The game's fatigue system is poorly implemented, with limited ways to restore fatigue and an imbalance between the player and enemies. Combat encounters are often repetitive and slow, with a lack of strategic depth. The squad system is also criticized for being ineffective.

Strategic turn-based combat system: The game features a strategic turn-based combat system with diverse weapon types (swords, axes, maces, polearms) and stances, requiring resource management and tactical decision-making. Armor affects stats, and players can target specific body parts, adding depth. Mastering the combat system takes time, but it offers surprising strategic variety.

Timeline-based resource management: The game is structured around a timeline with limited time for tasks like training, resource gathering, and quests, requiring prioritization. Players must manage character fatigue, equipment, and relationships within this time frame. This creates a gameplay loop that balances peaceful activities with story-driven adventures.

Medieval warfare survival experience: The game immerses players in the harsh realities of medieval warfare during the Hundred Years War, focusing on the experiences of a common soldier. Players navigate battlefield conditions, royal politics, and moral dilemmas, shaping their legacy as a knight, thief, or something in between. The game aims to replicate the life expectancy of a peasant soldier during this era.

Text-based visual novel gameplay: The game is primarily a text-based visual novel with turn-based combat integrated into the story. It uses a minimalistic style and mechanics reminiscent of older browser games. Gameplay involves clicking and reading text-based story elements.

Crafting and resource conservation: Crafting and resource management are essential for survival, requiring players to scavenge materials and make strategic decisions about loot. Resource conservation is key, forcing players to prioritize their needs and make sacrifices. Crafting is also a viable way to earn money early on.

Game suffers from performance issues: Several reviews mention performance issues such as lag, stuttering, and crashes. These issues occur in both VN and combat sections, and may be related to disk access speed. These problems can disrupt gameplay.

Lacks ultrawide resolution support: The game lacks resolution options, which causes issues on ultrawide monitors. Fullscreen mode can cause brightness problems in other applications.

Missing voice acting, minimal sound: The game has no voice acting and minimal sound design. This may detract from the overall immersive experience for some players.

Excessive heat impairs gameplay: One reviewer reported an issue where the sun in the Middle East was too hot, causing their character to be unable to move after 30 seconds of fighting. This seems like a bug or oversight.

Unoptimized fast-forwarding feature: The fast-forwarding feature is unoptimized, which may lead to a less-than-ideal experience when trying to quickly advance through dialogue or scenes.

Highly engaging, replayable, and recommended: The game is highly recommended due to its engaging gameplay, replayability, and the developer's commitment to updates. Many reviewers plan to purchase DLC and replay the game multiple times, indicating a high level of satisfaction and perceived value, despite some technical flaws.

Appeals to niche genre fans: The game is frequently recommended for fans of specific genres and settings, particularly those who enjoy medieval themes, RPGs, visual novels, turn-based strategy, and roguelike elements. It is also seen as a spiritual successor to 'A Legionary's Life,' appealing to players who enjoyed that title.

Negative experience, not recommended: Several reviewers do not recommend the game due to issues such as poor story, restrictive character building, input problems, and overpowering enemies. Some reviewers found the game to be a waste of time and requested refunds, indicating a significantly negative experience.

Translation and writing improvements needed: A reviewer suggests that adding an official Chinese translation would broaden the game's audience and increase sales. Additionally, another reviewer suggests that the game could benefit from a writing partner or editor to improve the overall quality of the writing.

Price versus quality concerns: Some reviewers feel the game's price is not justified by its quality and suggest waiting for a sale or price reduction. This indicates that the perceived value of the game does not align with its current cost for some players.

Hundred Years' War setting: The game is set during the Hundred Years' War, casting the player as an English soldier. However, the game deviates from historical accuracy, so players should not expect a faithful representation of the conflict.

Minor translation issues present: The game's translation from Russian to English contains minor grammatical errors. This may result in some awkward or cringeworthy dialogue, but the English level required to understand the game is not too high.

Experimentation and learning are rewarded: The game rewards experimentation and learning. Players should focus on survival early, explore different choices, and learn what stats/gear are needed to stay alive to gain knowledge of what's to come, leading to more points and easier starts.

Sequel to 'Heads Will Roll': The game is a sequel or remastered version of 'Heads Will Roll,' expanding upon the original's mechanics. Players familiar with the first game will find familiar elements and expanded gameplay.

Crafting system is useful: Crafting is a useful mechanic in the game, with potions and tools providing tangible benefits to the player. Utilizing crafting can enhance the player's survival and progress.