I love games based on historical facts such as the Total War series of games, and I also enjoy the games where the facts blur together into the proverbial fire for the more fantastical element of storytelling. King Arthur II is more of the latter. The quests and trials of King Arthur the human have been well documented many times in different cultures, however this version is more along the lines of fiction than the standard Knights of the Round Table story everyone has grown to love over the years.
The game opens with Arthur being wounded by a magical knife from the Witch Queen as she prepares for war in the Northern and Southern realms of Britannia, sending her swarms of evil in the lands to lay waste to every living being alive. King Arthur II is the battle against the Witch Queen as the story progresses through the game.
King Arthur II is split between two separate elements. In the war section, the game plays more along the lines of Total War, with your heroes and men fighting another squadron of heroes and men. As you progress through the wars, your specialized units gain XP and level up, with each champion having a skill tree which helps make the individual until more unique and powerful. One branch of the skill tree goes to the champion unit itself while the second branch details the troops under their control. This is one of the few things I saw unique about King Arthur II.
The second section of the game is the time between wars, where you can complete quests, upgrade and build armor or weapons and study different magical systems, for example: to battle flying enemies. The map section is where all the standard role-playing elements come into play. In the demo release I played, there was a nice balance between running adventures and participating in wars, however, there isn’t anything new introduced in King Arthur II that isn’t already part of another game.
For people wanting the war simulation game, they would be better off with the Total War series while gamers wanting to quest and do adventures would have more fun with Kingdom under Fire.
Bottom Line: King Arthur II gives a good amount of fun for a few hours before the realization sets in that this has all been done before, and done better, in other games.
Rating System: (0-10 ranking) |
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|---|---|---|
| Graphics: | For a role-playing game, the graphics are very vibrant and crisp with motion of the troops believable and awe-inspiring with the amount of motion happening on the screen at once. | 8 |
| Storyline: | A different take on the standard King Arthur series of events. Nice touch, but a bit too fantastical for my tastes. | 6 |
| Controls: | Basic RTS movement with troops and battle sequences. If you played StarCraft, this isn’t anything new. | 7 |
| Replayability: | The whole point of RTS are to get faster in your movements and beat the target with the least amount of loss to your team. Replaying is the point of this genre of games. | 8 |
| Value: | If you’re into RTS and want to see a more evil side of King Arthur, this is for you. Otherwise, not interesting. | 6 |
| Total: | 70% | |
- Chris Tallant
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