Review written by KrustyManMeat
We've all wanted to run our own little Kingdom at some point in our lives. Galloping about the lands on horseback as the big I am. Peasants bowing to you as you ride by in all your regal finery. An army at your disposal ready to do your bidding and a mountain of gold to do with as you wish. Sounds great doesn't it?
Kingdom: New Lands takes this concept and turns it into a side scrolling adventure simulation. If the idea of a side scrolling simulation sounds a bit weird to you, that's exactly how it sounded to me at first. You begin your rule by choosing to become a King or a Queen and once that choice is made there is no going back. Now you must protect your crown, people and lands from the ever present Greed.
You have to conquer five islands which get more difficult as you progress. Any personnel that survive each island follow you onto the next island you try to conquer. Kingdom: O w Lands drops you right in it without much help at all. This was very annoying to begin with but after a little bit of trial and error and by trial and error I mean getting my arse handed to me on a plate and stopping myself from expanding my camp beyond its means things started to come good for me. The lack of a tutorial will put some people off but I was intrigued enough by what I had already seen and played to stick with it.
Gameplay consists of you riding on horseback across your land spending hold.coins by chucking them into or at objects and peasants you want to recruit to your ranks. If you want to recruit peasants you simply ride up to them and throw a gold at them and they will automatically become part of your workforce. Peasants aren't only there as cheap labour though. You can recruit them to be archers or further on in the game knights.
The life of a King/Queen revolves around one thing and one thing only, money. Everything you need to do to progress relies on it. Want to build up your army? That's gonna cost you. Do you need to kit your army out with weapons? That's gonna cost you as well. How about strengthening up your kingdom's defenses? Guess what. That's gonna cost you even more money. How you spend your money is the real challenge. Do you invest in labour at the cost of an army? How about investing in farmlands to grow crops which will provide you with an income? Do you build up your defenses to keep the Greed at bay? Or do you plough all your resources into building your boat so you can move on and conquer the next land? You can even choose to just stay put and see how long you can last against the Greed. It's a rock, paper, scissors mentality that kept me coming back for more. But lose your crown and it's game over.
Keeping a steady stream of coins is key and random chests appear while you scour the land. These random drops offer a nice quick boost to your bank balance or sometimes even items that you can use to improve aspects of your kingdom or army. These chests always tempted of out of my kingdom just in case one had appeared somewhere.
The game is not without its faults though and this was first one was nearly a game breaker for me. There are five islands in total 0gat you must conquer. But you have no choice when it comes to which island you want to start on. You will always have to choose the first island and death here is permanent and you will have to start all over again. My other issue is how certain characters just do their own thing and the fact that you cannot control where they should be. There is no option for you to place few archers at a strategic location and have them stay there. No, these little ****ers just wander off and leave areas completely exposed because then just walk about doing their own thing. I lost over and over because of this piss poor mechanic. I'm all for AI characters acting independently as long as they have enough intelligence to get into the fight if my camp is being attacked. Maybe I was missing something but this is really frustrating. A simple command selection screen would work wonders here and avoid a lot of unnecessary pillaging. I've had the same problem with my knights just wandering off but not nearly as often.
Retro graphics are all the rage at the moment and Kingdom: New Lands uses a 32 BIT style that harkens back to my teenage years and I love it. The animation on the characters especially the horse is beautiful to watch. As the game fades between its day and night cycles the attention to detail is beautiful to watch and wait until the seasons come and go or the weather changes from a bright sunny day to a storm. Every makes release these days comes with the promise of being the next big thing in graphics but Kingdom: New Lands makes no such claims and is easily one of the best looking games of the year. The sound is also worth mentioning. The background music fits the game perfectly and even though your going to hear it over and over again it never got on my nerves.
Overall Kingdom: New Lands won me over with it's simple to use management system and fantastic looking graphics. I would have killed for a good save system though. If you're willing to put in the time and effort it takes to learn the game's mechanics and don't get put off by the game's few faults there is a lot of fun to be had and I've lost many an hour trying to become the king of my own virtual kingdom.
Kingdom: New Lands £11.99
