One Military Camp: A war strategy-sim title where war is not the only option

One Military Camp is a strategy game similar in some ways to the Tycoon games, but if you swapped out the calm life of managing zoos and theme parks for war. The main objective of the game is to refurbish and set up an old abandoned military facility in an area not conquered yet. This will serve as a defence against the villain of the story, Dragan.

Sergeant Hawkins is in charge of introducing us to the story. Through the tutorial and during the first few minutes, we learn about the game's features while we rebuild our base. Once we've settled our main area and put some buildings down, we have to provide them with electric power, resources, and create roads to connect them.

A different way of fighting the enemy

In order to fight against evil, we must build, upgrade and maintain camp buildings. In addition, scientific research must be done and supply stores must be kept as well stocked as possible. But human resources are the most important in One Military Camp, such as the civilian population and soldiers, as their well-being will be decisive.

Unlike other games, in One Military Camp everything we need is already given from the start. This allows the main challenge, which proves to be quite difficult, to be the placement of the your facilities, as well as managing space, energy and resources, both material and human. The placement of the buildings is decisive for your soldiers, as each one will have a specific position.

In terms of war games it may seem somewhat unusual, but in One Military Camp it is very important to have a healthy economy to increase the durability of the facilities as well as their strength over time, as we have a limited budget. If you find yourself in a pinch, though, you can take out a loan that you will have to pay back over time.

If you are wondering about the menu, One Military Camp provides different views of troop health, building maintenance and soldier motivation. In addition, a toolbar at the top and bottom of the screen allows you to change the weather and access the functions that I have mentioned above.

Reconquering

As mentioned, this game was a far cry from traditional war games. Here, fighting is not a priority. The most important thing is to reconquer territories controlled by the enemy through missions. We also have to control the defence of our facilities and create other camps in different biomes. At the beginning, the challenge can seem overwhelming, but little by little you get the hang of the mechanics.

In order to reconquer territories, soldiers must be trained for the missions they have to perform to get that territory. Once a territory is reconquered, we can then improve our resources and create of more buildings, soldiers and missions. To prepare the soldiers, the game allows the creation of individual routines and schedules for each of them. This will help you to make sure that your soldiers and also your workers have routines spread over different shifts and that your camp is as productive as possible, while those not working can get some rest.

To conquer territories, One Military Camp gives you a percentage chance of success depending on the troops you select. This serves as a guide for the player to see both the weaknesses and strengths of each of their troops and to decide how to improve or reward them.

A tip that will help you to improve performance of recruits, and workers in general, is the importance of location of individual buildings within the camp. If you locate houses or barracks in places where there is a facility that causes a lot of noise or where living conditions are hard, soldiers and workers will suffer both physically and mentally. It is therefore important to locate resting places in convenient areas.

A great sense of (military) humour

One Military Camp has a great sense of humour that makes the game experience that much more fun. Your soldiers will have to deal with some crazy circumstances. If they have taken advantage of your training, they will be able to overcome them, but if not, you will have to be more demanding and encourage them a little more in their training.

The game also does a good job at parodying certain aspects of the military world, which we have internalised, both collectively and individually. There are bad-tempered, demanding sergeants and soldiers with a lot of ambition to climb the ranks, and much more. All of this makes the game more human and closer to the player who, as the creator of that camp, feels the responsibility to care for, train and provide facilities for the recruits and workers who work for you.

Visually, it has a fresh aesthetic, very close to a cartoon style. Maps and environments are well crafted and have a lot of detail. Animations of characters and their interactions make the game much more expressive.

Perhaps what I liked the most were the customisable elements that give more control to the player in a way. For example, you can record your voice and listen to it over the camp's public address system, or write messages on posters and signs placed around the facility. These are small details at first glance, but I found them to be a lovely breath of fresh air from other titles in the same genre.

One Military Camp also references other classic strategy titles, such as Evil Genius or Theme Hospital, and we can also find influences from cinema, such as Heartbreak Ridge or Full Metal Jacket.

Overall, OMC is a very fun game to play. It's innovative, well-crafted, and all its elements are made with great detail. I think that the level of control it gives to a player, including aspects that can be customised, seems to be a great success.

The narrative is actually a little flat, but that will be fixed as more content is guaranteed for 2023. Don't forget that this is still early access.