14 DAY TRIAL // King Arthur II – The Role-playing Wargame is a strategy game when it comes to a genre definitions but, when it comes to its conceptual core, the Neocore sequel is basically a game about disappointment and the tendency of order and happiness to disappear.
The end of the first game in the series promised peace and development for the fantasy Britannia that it depicted, with the threats either assimilated or defeated, the Knights of the Round Table watching over the realm and King Arthur himself leading the development of the unified nation.
Of course, gaming requires conflict and that peaceful state could not be sustained in King Arthur II because, after all, we players need to right a wrong in order to feel motivated to play a game.
But I am disappointed in how King Arthur II destroys the previously created order in quick fashion and, annoyingly, via cutscenes over which I have no control and eliminate my suspension of disbelief.
I understand that King Arthur needs to end up wounded and with a gash in his side that never closes and that the Knights need to be scattered fighting with each other, but it would have made much more of an impact if I, the player, would have been able to control them during the fall.
The developers could have made the initial cataclysm a bigger battle against the Fomorians, with all the Knights and Arthur up against overwhelming odds, saved by some magical intervention from Merlin which makes all of them disappear, setting up the premise for the new campaign.
That would have meant the player had a chance to actually see how powerful the enemies he was up against were and to feel the loss of the Knights and Arthur, making the entire campaign pack a much bigger emotional punch.