Fit check
Is Highlands worth it for you?
We tell you who should skip it, too.
Play it if you…
Good fit- Turn-based strategy fans who want territory decisions tied to resource management
- Players who prefer individual heroes with distinct classes and abilities
- Story-focused strategy players interested in reclaiming a homeland from a mechanical army
Skip it if you…
Saves you a refund- Players seeking real-time battles rather than turn-based decision-making
- Players wanting a purely tactical game without population, resource, and territory decisions
- Players looking for grid-based battlefields instead of hand-drawn environments without hex grids
Our take on Highlands
The defining structure is the choice to capture or relinquish sectors while shifting the frontline, making territorial decisions central to army growth and progress.
What is Highlands?
Highlands is a hand-drawn, turn-based strategy game about an exiled force reclaiming its homeland from mysterious overlords and their mechanical army.
Players build an army while managing food, weapons, recruits, and other resources. They choose which sectors to conquer or relinquish as frontlines change, then unlock territories and production areas that strengthen their position. Individual heroes have special traits, abilities, and stories. Four classes assign distinct roles: Combatants attack and defend sectors, Mechanics fortify sectors and craft items, Leaders organize resource gathering and recruit heroes, and Academics heal troops and assist with various tasks. Battles, resource management, item crafting, asymmetric play, and decision-making shape the game’s story-driven progression.
How Highlands plays
- 01Four character classes
- Combatants, Mechanics, Leaders, and Academics perform different combat, fortification, crafting, recruitment, gathering, and healing duties.
- 02Sector control
- Players decide which territories to capture or surrender while advancing the frontlines.
- 03Individual heroes
- Units have distinct traits, abilities, and personal stories.
- 04Resource management
- Food, weapons, recruits, and other supplies support the army and population.
- 05Item crafting
- Mechanics can create items while managing and defending sectors.
Highlands compared to similar games
Shogun Showdown focuses on turn-based combat, attack-tile upgrades, combo building, and deck construction before confronting the Shogun. Highlands instead combines turn-based battles with army resources, territory control, character classes, and population management. Back to the Dawn centers on surviving, investigating, and escaping a maximum-security prison, while Highlands centers on reclaiming territory through strategic warfare.
Highlands: platforms & release
Is Highlands worth it?
It is worth it if: turn-based strategy fans who want territory decisions tied to resource management. Skip it if: players seeking real-time battles rather than turn-based decision-making.
Where can I download Highlands?
Use the Download Now button on this page: it opens Highlands's store page, where you can choose how to get it.
What platforms is Highlands on?
Windows only.
