Warrior Kings (Preview)

Details: Category: Computer; By CCGR; 01.Jun; Hits: 7578

System requirements

OS: Windows XP/2000/ME/98/95 CPU: 350Mhz RAM: 128MB HDD: 1 GB VIDEO: 8MB with 3D acceleration SOUND: 16 bit Direct X 8 compatible Age: Teen

Set in a fantastical medieval world where small Kingdoms struggle for supremacy in a chaotic land of knights, and demons, you are the ruler of a new kingdom, born from the ashes of a once mighty realm. To resurrect this realm to its former glory you must forge order out of chaos by uniting the fragmented lands into a single, mighty empire under the rule of one warrior king - you.*

What\'s in the demo?

The demo offers four tutorials and one campaign. You will learn the basic and advanced features of how to run the economy and your army. The tutorials are not very interactive. You just read the dialogue boxes and watch short movies on the subject matter. The campaign mission is a bit more in depth. You play Artos a young man representing the House of Cravant. You must prevail against the corrupt patriarch and his evil minions. As usual the future lies in your hands. Unfortunately you do not have much to start off with and must build your town and take over others.

What\'s in the full game?

The full game has campaigns as well as multiplayer game play. You can have up to eight simultaneous players. The game play and depth will evolve as you chose the path for your kingdom. All will start equal and you will not know the paths the others have chosen to take until you confront them. How do I become a Warrior King? The tutorials cover two aspects of the game. The economy and your army. Make sure you pay close attention to both. You have your peasants who will gather precious resources such as food, wood and minerals. You can specialize them to be merchants or priests to add strength to your kingdom. You\'ll also learn about your army and how to manage it. There are five army units to control. Siege units, light infantry, light cavalry, heavy infantry, and heavy cavalry. Each unit has their own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to armor, speed, and range. To maximize the damage they can do you\'ll learn about different formations to use and which ones are good for each unit type. Finally, you\'ll learn how to use the battle field to your advantage. For example attack high up whenever possible.

Appropriate?

From a Christian perspective there are many battles in this game so obviously there is violence. I did not see any blood and the bodies do disappear eventually. However during battle you will hear the soldiers cry, shout and scream as they perish. From a religious stand point, there are three paths on how you can lead your kingdom. You can be the church with her crusading knights, the pagan gods with their destructive demons, or the renaissance scientists with their advanced technology. Neither way promotes Christianity very well. It does have a Black and White feel to it, with deciding on how you want to rule your legions.

Overall experienceEase of use

The game was easy to install and play. The interface was simple to use and there are many advanced options available when tweaking your graphics. For the timid there\'s a performance versus quality slide bar. The controls consist of using the mouse and the zooming in and out takes some getting used to. The game engine is a little slow while loading seven items for each level you play. Fortunately while you are waiting for the game to load, you get to hear nice background music. The voice acting and sound effects were good too. The graphics are 3D rendered but when you zoom in real close they look bad. The game ran fine, there are some patches for the final version. The only problem I had was that it does not alt tab well, it will just close the game. So make sure you don\'t get interrupted when you are playing. If you like RTS games this one may interest you. However the pagan and other non Christian references shy me away.