14 DAY TRIAL // The original King Arthur strategy game from Neocore Games was one of the surprises of year when it comes to late 2009, and the follow-up seems to be another solid game that will occupy many gaming hours for those looking for some strategy and role playing to give into during the early months of 2012.
I have played about five hours of the game with the Dead Legions prologue campaign, which was offered as a pre-order incentive, and with the early stages of the core campaign, and this seems to be a revolution of the core concepts seen in the first game in the series rather than a bigger revolution.
The basic structure is the same, with a turn-based strategy layer focusing on heroes, locations and unit management and with a real-time battle component where quick thinking, tactics, magic and area control are crucial to success.
The story is set just after the events of the first game, with Arthur now wounded and a new dark threat taking over the land. The new fantasy additions to the world include some flying units, dragons and a number of magic powers.
There are also many more text-based adventures, some of them linked organically to the battle sequences.
The battles feel more interesting than in the first installment, mainly because there’s less of an emphasis on controlling the various places on the map and the Artificial Intelligence is better able to judge the weaknesses of the player (they go after archers like crazy, even though their overall ability to destroy whole enemy units has been limited).
Engagements seem to be much more decisive, and the clever use of special abilities can really impact the course of a battle and heavy infantry seems to be a pre-requisite for success.
King Arthur II also seems to have very limited interest in the concept of surrender, as battles tend to end with all enemies on the field dead.
The video of King Arthur II – The Role-playing Wargame shows both the intro to the game and one of the first battles.