King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame II Previews

We have two new previews for Paradox and Neocore’s RPG/Strategy hybrid King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame II, the first coming from RTSGuru, that played the game’s prologue:

Through a turn-by-turn story progression, you will encounter the other families of Britain, whilst also deciding whether war and aggression is your ultimate tactic, or conversely if you prefer diplomacy and debate. Through the dynamic storyline, and quest system, it is easy to pick a definitive play style and with morality to take into account, the decisions that you make may have real weight to them.

Neocore Games have also managed to pull off brilliant coup in that they have brought back the Text Adventure long since thought dead to gaming. Through the conversations with various enemies and allies, the narration paints a vivid picture of whatever scenario you are thrust into, without the need for lengthy cutscenes. Options differ from betraying an ally, to unleashing a plague across an entire county, with a large array of actions and consequences to behold King Arthur II feels like a truly dynamic and innovative strategy title. The audio-based nature of storytelling feel fresh and engaging, and with so many ways to influence the things around you this feature seems like a future staple to all proceeding strategy games.

As the story moves on after completing main quests and side-quests, you will also be able to engage in the combat that the game offers. Perhaps King Arthur II’s most glaring fault at this point is that the war engine is simply OK, rather than as engulfing as the rest of the ensemble. It serves a purpose, but won’t see you abandoning Creative Assembly just yet. The animations feel stiff, the landscapes a little flat and the AI needs improvement, but for those truly put off by this, “auto resolve” is the hero of the hour – and ultimately, the battle portion of this game is but one facet of the experience.

And the second from Press2Reset, pleased with the title’s RPG elements:

As I played the game through a combination of turn-based (campaign map) and real-time strategy (battles) I had to make many decisions that would have repercussions down the road. Whether I was looking for scrolls, participating in rival family intrigues, or trying to assassinate someone, I did it with the knowledge that all of it might come back to bite me in the rear. Through it all though, the spirit of Emperor Hadrian guided me as we sought to restore Eboracum to its former glory.

But all along the way I fought slaves, fellow rivals, Picts, Britons, and even monsters as I went about completing these various quests.

All the fighting, naturally, helped to give my generals and soldiers experience so that they could level up. As they leveled up, I could increase my units’ stats such as attack, defense, armor, and HP, making veteran troops more powerful and very deadly. The same went for my generals who have skills as well as artifacts that can be equipped. In fact, I made Septimus Sulla powerful enough to be a one-man army with his spells and insanely high statistics.

The fact that he was so dominant made me a little drunk with power and I laughed with glee as I directed Septimus to wipe out hundreds of enemy troops by himself. When it came down to the final battle, Septimus slaughtered most of the enemy army by himself while I sat there full of pride and awe at the carnage we had wrought.