A Kyo Akiara review
My second forray into Reviewing takes me to the amazingly detailed world of Brittania in King Arthur II: The Roleplaying Wargame.
King Arthur II is an immense game taking place shortly after the events of the first title. With the kingdom of Brittania at peace and united, a new, darker enemy emerges from the depths known as the Fomorians; a race of demonic enemies first banished by the She-beings. During a secret meeting around the Holy Grail, King Arthur is left mortally wounded and cursed with no hope of cure, and as the kingdom falls into darkness and disarray you (Prince William) Arthur’s son, must take up his father’s position as King and ultimately unite the Kingdom once more and fight the Fomorians.
The gameplay in King Arthur II is quite expansive and incredibly well done. Firstly, you begin the game with Prince William taking his first steps to becoming a monarch. Throughout the intoduction to the game you are given various choices that help shape the way your game will begin. Each choice is based upon various aspects, such as combat skill, diplomacy, and city management, and your choices effect your playstyle. Upon entering the game for the first time you are greeted by an incredibly detailed terrain map which is immensely impressive and beautiful to look at even in low settings. Shortly after staring in awe for a short while, you are greeted by your first quest, and each quest has various completion requirements that ultimately carry you through the story. From what I’ve grathered the quests are voice acted, and voice acted incredibly well I should add. Throughout each quest you are given various choices that ultimately affect gameplay, be it combat, diplomacy or city management, and affect your morality as a whole. By the end of the dialogue and the choices you make you find yourself having to do battle with the enemy.
Battles play out much like Total War games, where you directly control each unit and must use various tactics to overcome the enemy, with the major difference being your heroes who are able to use magic. There are various pillars on the battlefield that improve your magical capabilities. After you finally defeat your enemy, you are greeted by the winter phase of the game. The winter phase is a turn that’s dedicated to leveling up your units, building structures, diplomacy and improving your realm as a whole. Each individual group of units level up and acquire skill points that you can use to improve their fighting capability in various ways. While your units can level up, they can’t use magical spells. This is where your heroes come into play. Your heroes level up differently from units in that when they level up, you choose from various specific areas to improve. For example, Prince William chooses between, HP, MP, or magical spellpower. I believe this changes based on the choices you make at the beginning of the game. Heroes also get skill points to learn and upgrade new spells to use in the battlefield. Training units also allows you to heal any wounded groups of units in your regime.
I mentioned morality earlier in this review and now is the time to cover it. Morality is basically how good or evil you are, and it also affects the religion of your kingdom. You can be anything in between Rightful or a Tyrant, and religions include the Old Faith and Christianity. Your actions throughout the game determine your morality rating.
Stucture upgrades allow you to choose whether or not to give your heroes bonus XP or your individual units. Choosing one will block your progress in the other. Researching new technologies unlocks various improvements to your Kingdom. These technologies go straight to villages in your Kingdom. These villages also determine the type of units you can train, so the various technologies improve that type of unit. Diplomacy allows you to form treaties or go to war with various factions in the game.
The game’s Story is an incredible, Dark and Gritty affair, with excellent narration during quests and various aspects of the game that really immerses you in the experience. The game’s sound effects and music are very well done as well, and are well suited to the setting and tone of the game.
Overall this is probably one of the best turn based/RPG/RTS game’s I’ve ever played. Hugelly enjoyable and immensly fun, I give this game my highest recomendation. Big props to Paradox Interactive and Neocore Games for making an incredibly polished, rewarding title that combines strategy and role-playing.
I hope this Article has shown some insight on this great game, it was a pleasure to review such an awesome game and thank you for reading
Kyo Akiara (Shaun Meyers)
9 holy hand grenades out of 10