Kingdom Two Crowns (PC)
Kingdom Two Crowns
Developed By: Noio, Coatsink
Published By: Raw Fury
Release: December 11, 2018
Available On: Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Genre: Sidescrolling tower defense
ESRB Rating: E10+ for everyone 10 and older: Fantasy Violence
Number of Players: 2 offline, 2 online
Price: $19.99
(Humble Store Link)
Thanks to Raw Fury for a copy of this game to review.
The Kingdom starts from simple things: some coins, a horse, and a king or queen. A camp is built, archers and engineers hired, and a wall constructed. Night rolls in, and brings with it the "Greed". The are creatures that are never satisfied, and never have enough. They will take everything you have: tools, coins, and even your crown. They will destroy everything in their path to get what they want. Unless... you can stop them.
Kingdom Two Crowns is a 2D sidescrolling tower defense that can be played singleplayer, local co-op, or online co-op. Controls are simply moving left or right, sprinting, and spending coins. Coins can be used for hiring, bows, hammers, farms, and more. The archers hunt rabbits and deer, in addition to holding back the Greed. Engineers cut trees, build structures, push the catapults forward, and more.
Strong Points: Simple controls; beautiful music
Weak Points: Crashes; bugs
Moral Warnings: Ghost; violence; goo blood
Some things can only be bought with gems, such as mounts and unit upgrades. Gems are limited per campaign. Once they are all lost or spent, there is no getting them back. People can be hired to work for you from the camps outside your base. The camps are limited per island, so be careful not to destroy them all when expanding. Coins aren't as limited if archers are hunting rabbits or farmers are working.
There are five different islands to conquer. Initially, the plan is defense, but as the game progresses and new islands discovered, offense into the Greed's home becomes possible. The first three islands are fair, but as I progressed to the fourth and fifth island, the difficulty was too much. Each time progress is made by destroying a Greed portal, a large wave of Greed spawns. While this should create balance, the waves on islands four and five leveled my kingdom, no matter how many units and walls I produced.
Higher is better
(10/10 is perfect)
Game Score - 70%
Gameplay - 10/20
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8/10
Stability - 3/5
Controls - 5/5
Morality Score - 90%
Violence - 8/10
Language - 10/10
Sexual Content - 10/10
Occult/Supernatural - 7/10
Cultural/Moral/Ethical - 10/10
I've had the game crash on me when I boarded the boat once. Seeing the archers walk in midair to their post left me with the feeling the game could use a bit more polish. The pixel art is well defined and easy to understand what is seen. Audio was limited, but what existed was beautifully done. The controls are simple to grasp.
The king or queen is guided by a ghost to the campsite on each island. The game contains fantasy violence between the people and the Greed. Usually the Greed don't kill your people, but rather take all their coins. The exception to this is the flying Greed when they grab the people. The Greed structures gush purple goo when destroyed, although this isn't as noticeable until the player raids the Greed's home.
Kingdom Two Crowns was fun for the first two islands. After that, the challenges were repetitive and then unfair. The rapid change in difficulty left me wondering if I missed something. In addition the visual bugs and the crash broke the feeling of immersion. I loved Kingdom, but Kingdom Two Crowns may need a bit more work.
-Sorrel