Tanneur99
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 01/31/05 @ 12:00 AM
The campaign consists of four scenarios; it is a Mix of RPG and B&D. The story is historical fiction, based on the legends of King Arthur.
PLAYABILITY: The scenarios were of different quality, meaning more or less boring, overall limited fun, no bugs, but some playability issues. In 'Arthur's rise', your objectives to destroy an outpost with a swordsman and to accompany Merlin and a relic to a monastery disturbed by small groups of militias, this is boring. The issues, if you move the two villagers you get eight militias, otherwise six and you win even when you do not bring the relic. With 'The Possession of the power', the campaign improves a bit on the hard level to which I refer under balance. The issues, there is no indication where to look for Guinevere and that you have to destroy a specific, the yellow corner palisade of the inner ring to get Guinevere to wed and a victory signal. 'Kingdom's keep', a B&D is the best part, not very challenging, but it is the scenario to boost this campaigns' rating. 'Exile and Vengeance' is an annoying, 'find the needle in the haycock' scenario. You get a huge map with many islands, where one is Avalon. IF you are lucky to find Avalon, you will scout minutes for Mordred after that, best to Marco Polo, Avalon is the isle with the yellow spot on the mini map, memorize the positions and restart the game. 2+
BALANCE: I consider the campaign as far too easy on the hard level, not a single reload. Still the author had some ideas to improve the balance. In the first scenario, the monk cannot heal carrying a relic, for the second the enemy units of the first are still on the map and lead a massive surprise attack towards the end annihilating my squad to two units, in the third scenario you cannot advance past the feudal age and the last gave a narrow win over Mordred. 2
CREATIVITY: The scenario has some creative map, balance aspects; the theme is popular but not well executed in this campaign. 2
MAP DESIGN: Three scenarios use the same map; I did not deduct a point for that, a deduction is not automatic. The player starts in the south to go north, the second scenario plays in the North West and East, while the third brings the action back to the south into areas not visited before. Often repeating maps are necessary for the story, to give the campaign a sense of continuity. There are good reuses and bad reuses of maps at the blacksmith, to judge that is up to the reviewer, IMO the map of King Arthur's legend falls into the first category. The two maps, custom made, are in average of random map quality. The first with a terrain mix of different grass and dirt, two road types, cliffs and a good use of elevations was slightly better, the last inferior to a random map, both lacking in Gaia and were too green. 3
STORY/INSTRUCTIONS: The history follows the theory that Arthur was a former Briton general of the Roman Army, supported by the origin of the name. There is a small story, mostly told between the scenarios with its own interpretations of the legend. The player receives most of the objectives in game, which unfortunately were not all clear. You always know what to do, but not where and how due to a lack of necessary hints and directions, for that I deducted a point. For example, in the second scenario Merlin says, "go Camelot and make them obbey your divine rights", which I would interpret as 'slaughter them until they give up, obey you'. At the same time, you get an objective change saying, "Go Camelot and convince their King you are the true King of England", which tells me 'go and talk with the guy'. Well, it was a mix; you have to click the king the moment he gets out of the burning town centre, if you kill him the scenario does not continue. After that, you have to save Guinevere, but you get no indication of where she is on the big map and once found you could miss to destroy the yellow palisade wall piece referred to under playability. No deduction for grammar and spelling, the designers primary language is not English, King Arthur's legend is a translation from campaign ID 1494 La leyenda del Rey Arturo. 3
SUGGESTIONS: First scenario, to show an effect with villagers getting armor and weapons, you have to remove them first and then generate the Militias. Change the victory condition from bring object-to-object to object garrison. Second scenario, a hint like 'click King to talk' would help, place a map revealer for the location of Guinevere as done for Camelot and place two triggers with condition object in area for Guinevere outside the prison walls for the change ownership. Fourth scenario, let Arthur leave by boat in a cut-scene, the player is not interested in a long search only to be disillusioned by Avalon, a small, unappealing island with a house.
IN CLOSING: I recommend the campaign for novice to intermediate players. |