Info about Heads Will Roll: Reforged:

Official game description:
  
Heads Will Roll: Reforged lets the player to take a role of an ordinary medieval soldier who finds himself in the middle of the legendary Hundred Years War between the kings of England and France. You start your way as a simple footman, whose sole ambition is to survive, but with proper skill and cunning or through blood and preservation, you might soon see yourself becoming one of the most famous knights of your time.  
This game is a unique type of RPG with survival mechanics and turn-based combat that requires player to make careful decision both inside and outside the fight. The sophisticated combat system utilizes many different parameters including characters’ stats and attributes, familiarity and proficiency with certain weapons, weapon length, fatigue level, various traumas and injuries, as well as hundreds of different items and consumables.  
The game offers more than 200 different lootable items varying from all kinds of medieval weaponry and armor to trinkets with unique effects, several types of poisons, medical supplies and many crafting items.  
All of the actions that your character takes will have in-game consequences. The NPCs will change their opinions of you depending on how you treat them and how you behave both inside and outside of battle. This in turn will enable or disable various future interactions with them and sometimes trigger special events.  
Make good use of any loot or supplies that you got your hands on. A lot of them can be combined in order to craft medical and utility items, as well as many types of crossbow ammunition.  
Heads Will Roll utilizes many random generation elements that will turn two separate playthroughs into two completely unique experiences. Start with different items and stats, face different enemies, make different choices and live through different events each time you play.  
The game has dozens of weapons ranging from swords, axes, maces and spears to throwing knives and crossbows. All of them have varying movesets that rely on and make use of different stats & skills (strength, agility etc.), while also having distinct features and countering each other in some way.  
Fight not only for wealth and honor but also for the hearts of several stunning beauties with unique personalities, views on life and tastes in men. Conquering some of them might prove to be just as tricky as surviving the war.  
Choose from a wide array of authentic medieval defensive equipment: from all kinds of helmets and armor to gorgets, bracers, greaves and chainmail stockings. All with varying qualities and characteristics.  
Game features a complete Roguelike mode where player can level his profile with each death, unlocking new starting items and improving character's base characteristics allowing to progress further and take on even harder challenges.  
There is a special story mode for those who are after the thrills and twists of the story rather than hardcore survival. It offers just enough of a challenge to keep you engaged as well as quick save and quick load options that can be accessed at any time.

Release date: 4 Oct, 2023

Categories: RPG, Turn-based Combat, Survival, Roguelike, Visual Novel, Choice-based Narrative, Crafting, Resource Management


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Addictive roguelike mode with progression (weight 0.91): 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 (weight 0.85): 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 (weight 0.83): 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 (weight 0.19): 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 (weight 0.08): The DLCs add substantial content and depth to the game without being overpriced.  The developers continue to expand the game with more DLCs.
- Similar to "A Legionary's Life" (weight 0.08): The game shares similarities with "A Legionary's Life", borrowing its combat system and expanding on its content. The game provides more content for players who enjoyed "Life of a Legionnaire."
- Variety of weapons, unique characteristics (weight 0.08): The game offers a variety of weapons, each with unique bonuses and characteristics. The game provides a sense of accomplishment when overcoming challenges.
- Romance options, charming characters (weight 0.07): The game includes romance options with charming female characters, with rewards for completing romantic storylines. This feature adds depth and engagement to the game world.

Common complaints:
- Poor writing and technical issues (weight 0.59): 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 (weight 0.53): 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 (weight 0.24): 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 (weight 0.13): 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 (weight 0.11): 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.
- 'Heads Will Roll' is grindy (weight 0.1): The 'Heads Will Roll' difficulty mode is criticized for its excessive grind and reliance on repetition. Players are forced to replay the same sections repeatedly to gain stats, making the early game tedious and frustrating. The scaling in this mode is also a major issue.
- Overpriced and cheap marketing (weight 0.07): Some reviewers feel the game is overpriced for the amount of content it offers, and the DLCs are not worth the asking price. The inclusion of 'adult' content is seen as a cheap marketing tactic that detracts from the overall product.
- Unbalanced DLC mechanics (weight 0.07): The game introduces updates in mechanics and balance in DLCs that can lead to the player being defeated by random enemies. Random events can cause the player's fatigue to drop to zero, leading to unexpected defeats. Some enemies are designed to be unbeatable initially, acting as "run-enders" that can be frustrating.
- Unreliable save system (weight 0.06): The game's save system is hidden and unreliable, leading to potential progress loss. The UI lacks documentation and intuitive design, making it difficult to understand key features. The visual novel interface is also seen as a hindrance to the roguelike progression system.
- Inferior to 'A Legionary's Life' (weight 0.04): Compared to "A Legionary's Life," the writing is weaker, the characters feel less authentic, and the UI is worse. The story is also too similar, making plot points predictable. Weapon skills are not gained from fighting in real battles.
- Lacking CGs and choices (weight 0.04): The game has too few CGs, and some endings are very complex. The reviewer would like a gallery for cutscenes that have already been seen. The game's choices feel too lacking, and the story's ending feels abrupt and unsatisfactory.

Gameplay feedback:
- Strategic turn-based combat system (weight 0.32): 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 (weight 0.18): 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 (weight 0.09): 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 (weight 0.07): 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 (weight 0.06): 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.
- High difficulty, learn by dying (weight 0.04): The game is designed to be difficult, even when playing cautiously, requiring perseverance. There are multiple game modes with varying difficulty levels, including a hardcore mode with permadeath and no saves. The game is a 'learn by dying' type.
- Genre-blending gameplay elements (weight 0.04): The game blends various genres, including visual novel, roguelike, dating sim, survival, crafting, and turn-based RPG combat. It features blood, romance, and a touch of mysticism. The game is described as a mix of visual novel and a simplified version of Darkest Dungeon.

Performance notes:
- Game suffers from performance issues (weight 0.07): 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 (weight 0.02): 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 (weight 0.01): 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 (weight 0.01): 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 (weight 0.01): The fast-forwarding feature is unoptimized, which may lead to a less-than-ideal experience when trying to quickly advance through dialogue or scenes.

Recommendations:
- Highly engaging, replayable, and recommended (weight 0.7): 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 (weight 0.18): 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 (weight 0.08): 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 (weight 0.03): 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 (weight 0.03): 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.

Other player notes:
- Hundred Years' War setting (weight 0.04): 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 (weight 0.04): 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 (weight 0.04): 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' (weight 0.02): 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 (weight 0.02): 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.
- Optional free nudity DLC (weight 0.02): A free 'Mature content' DLC is available, which enables tasteful nudity in the game. This DLC is optional and does not appear to be a core part of the game experience.
- Multiple difficulty levels available (weight 0.01): The game features multiple difficulty levels, with the highest difficulty including permadeath and account progression. This provides a challenging experience for players seeking a greater level of risk and reward.
- Fast-forward dialogue option exists (weight 0.01): Players can fast-forward through dialogues they have already seen by pressing the 'ctrl' key. This feature helps to reduce tedium during replays or when revisiting previously explored content.

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