Hardcore survival RPG 'Heads Will Roll: Reforged' out now

If you're after a choice-based hardcore survival RPG, Heads Will Roll: Reforged looks like an interesting option that launched this month with Native Linux support. Note: developer sent a key to our Steam Curator.

This game is a big revamp of their original, which launched back in 2021. The developer said that the original " had a very unique vision behind it, a vision that — for a variety of reasons — we were not able to fully accomplish at the time" but Reforged is "everything that we envisioned the original HWR to be".

Not an RPG in the sense of Skyrim, it's not 3D where you run around exploring. This is more of a turn-based combat game with survival mechanics, one that blends in visual-novel styled story-telling with lots of choices (made in the visual novel game engine Ren'Py). A game you will need to replay plenty, because all the choices you make end up with different results and things will often go very wrong.

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More about it: "Heads Will Roll: Reforged lets players take on the 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 perseverance, 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 Linux version tested on Kubuntu seemed to work without issues, which is not unexpected considering games built with Ren'Py usually do work great as it has supported Linux for a long time. So if you like your choice-based interactive fiction RPGs with combat and lots to do, this is a good choice for you to spend many hours with.

You can buy it on GOG and Steam.