Habet is a strategy, indie, and simulation game set in ancient Rome where players manage a gladiator school as a lanista. The core experience revolves around acquiring fighters, preparing them for combat, and making decisions that shape their fates and the school's survival in a volatile historical period.
Gameplay
Players begin with a modest facility and limited funds, purchasing men from the markets to build a roster. Training involves arming, feeding, drilling, and treating injuries to improve their readiness for arena bouts. Real-time fights unfold in stylized voxel graphics, where combatants can suffer severe wounds, lose limbs, or perish. The player observes from the stands but can intervene directly if needed. Economic management includes setting prices for services, balancing costs for upkeep, and handling the aftermath of each engagement. Historical context places the action near Capua in 73 BC, with external events like a nearby slave uprising influencing market conditions and fighter morale without direct player involvement in those conflicts.
Each gladiator carries personal history and potential, as many start from similar circumstances to the player's own past. Decisions extend beyond combat to long-term care and endings, where outcomes range from death in the arena to sale or earning freedom through performance. The school itself persists across generations of fighters, continuing until external pressures or internal choices lead to its decline.
Game Modes
Habet operates as a single-player experience focused on ongoing management rather than discrete competitive or cooperative modes. The primary loop combines roster building, preparation, and observation of arena results, with no separate campaign branches or multiplayer elements confirmed. Progression ties directly to financial stability, fighter development, and narrative tracking through a chronicle that records key events and transactions.
Setting and Themes
The game unfolds in Pompeii and surrounding areas during a time of social unrest, where gladiatorial schools operate amid shifting prices and tensions from distant rebellions. Themes center on power dynamics, mercy versus pragmatism, and the cyclical nature of enslavement and survival. Players determine the school's character through choices like freeing skilled fighters or enforcing discipline publicly, with no external guidance on the moral path. Violence appears in fights and executions, though blood effects can be disabled while retaining other visual elements like injuries.
Is It Worth Playing?
Habet suits players interested in deliberate management simulations with historical gladiator elements, where success depends on careful resource allocation, fighter development, and acceptance of losses. As an unreleased title with no user reviews available, its appeal rests on the detailed single-player systems described, including real-time combat observation and branching personal stories for each recruit. Those drawn to indie strategy experiences that emphasize long-term school operations over fast-paced action may find it engaging once available, particularly if they value atmospheric decision-making in a grounded ancient setting. Availability is currently limited to wishlist status on PC platforms.