Knights of Honor Demo

Judging by what the history looks like in movies and video games, war was almost always raging in somewhere on the planet at any given point in time, regardless of whether there was a good reason for it or not. In Europe, however, there were many empires and small kingdoms that wanted more power, which made the Medieval era one of the most violent in history.

Knights of Honor is a strategy game in which you get to do the same thing, using one of the many factions available on the continent at the time. While the end goal is to conquer almost everything in Europe and become a huge empire that cannot be defeated, it does take quite a long time to reach that stage, which means that a lot of the gameplay is actually about you being able to efficiently gather and trade resources in order to fuel your army.

The army is your main instrument when it comes to winning battles and conquering other countries, although there are a few other tricks as well and you do not always have to recur to war. Religion is also a powerful tool, since it can be used to exert your dominance over the other nations without actually shedding any blood. Once you decide to start a crusade, however, blood is guaranteed and you can definitely upset some other countries as well.

Whenever you choose to settle a manner using your army, the game quickly changes perspectives and throws you into the heart of the battle, using a classic RTS bird's eye view. Out on the battlefield, your troops can be controlled using the mouse, just like in any other strategy title, although here you are only able to select entire unit groups at once, rather than single individuals.

The graphics engine is not exactly high-end, but it does fare quite well, considering the fact that the confrontations can feature a few hundred units at once on the screen. Despite that, most of your time is spent looking over Europe's map and establishing fruitful trade routes with other nations, because it takes quite a while for the buildings to finish and the troops to be trained.

Knights of Honor does not put any pressure on you at any time, since there are no time limits and the end goal is to basically conquer the entire Europe, at your own pace. You can also decide not to do that and continue to live in harmony with everyone else, as long as that does not get boring.