Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade: Review
Neocore Games Recently, King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame shot her historical and magical project. The strategy was compared with Total War, C Mark of Chaos and Dark Omen and very often, even putting on a par with such eminent games, praised. The developers did something fresh, which is very important for the genre. And therefore many were waiting for the continuation of the kinge’s adventures Arthur, But Neocore Games soon stated that she exchanged the knights of the round table for the crusaders and wants to tell the whole world about adventure Richard Lion’s heart in the east. And historically reliably, without magic and miracles.
Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade – This is partly the ideological continuation of Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come, although very conditional. The continuity of King Arthur is also visible here, although it is also not fully.
The game is divided into two modes. In the global, we have several dozen provinces in front of us. Cities, as in Total War, They are not in them. If we capture Jerusalem, then make a soldier there, build a new market, make stronger walls – you can’t do it. It was about the same in Mark of Chaos. We just walk on the map, move, roughly speaking, a chip of the commander in chief.
And when we step on a new cell called the province, the tactical battle begins. The fights are familiar. Like in Total War, We have various groups of soldiers, such as cavalrymen of any varieties and sizes, archers, swordsmen, spearmen. All those that existed during the third crusade. The landscape is also realistic – a lot of deserts and small Arabic townlessly, built of yellow stone.
In appearance, both regimes are familiar. And you can’t say right away that the game is fundamentally different from the counterparts. We walk on a global map, fight in tactical battles. Familiar? Another how! But after all Neocore Games I was able to surprise us the last time, is it really not possible to cope with the task?
Comrades are going on the right course
There are differences and features. Here we get on a global card, we begin to go there and black. They won someone, captured something, and our commander, the famous owner of the lion’s heart, begins to actively hint that the army, like a homeless pet, is going without attention.
Open the window of the troops, and there-pluses burn over the icons of the soldiers, some empty slots for weapons, parameters to increase and
lower. It turns out that there is a role system, and not the simplest, not the one that is done for a checkmark, so that then on the disk a PR man can proudly write: “With role -playing elements”.
In every battle, all units receive experience points on the global map, later, we distribute them. Let’s say we have a squad of swordsmen, which we love to put in the front ranks. He always takes damage. And this group can either increase the attack, or defense, or increase the morale or improve endurance. For fighters who play the role of “walls”, the most important thing is strong shields, heads and nerves. Therefore, we develop them along this path – we raise the parameters of defense and morality. After seven to eight of the fights about these swords, the Saracens will already whisper in market squares, they say, oh this Christian god does not play according to the rules, sends the earthly battles of the angels of his indestructible!
Imagine that there is exactly the same detachment, but it is used with us in a completely different way. We always throw it from the flank or from the rear. The task is to quickly destroy the enemy. Do not keep it on yourself, but quickly chop everyone. Then we will increase the power of attack. And after a few hours two identical ones in the name of the detachment will become completely different from each other.
Moreover, the more actively the soldiers are fighting, the more pleasant things happen to them. When they have enough experience, they will be able to retrain into a stronger combat unit. Ordinary swordsmen become copper-bearing knights, and all their qualities are significantly growing.
However, increasing parameters is not the only thing that improves the army. Each detachment can also be equipped. In battle, you pick up weapons, armor and potions, and then distribute all this to your army. Give someone a sword that increases the speed of the attack, others will receive a blade that applies more damage. One armor makes knights more mobile, the other allows them to stand more firmly under the arrows.
Drinks are something like magic in fantasy universes or doping in fantastic. Soldiers sipped from a faceted glass of some kind of transparent liquid-and stopped being afraid. Drank something else-thirty seconds chop the enemy more actively.
In general, such “management” is very interesting. If in Total War just sorry for the fallen, then this is a disaster. We do not have many troops, we fight relatively small groups, where everyone performs an important function. Lose someone, and recruits will no longer be able to do the same as effectively. Our swordsmen-scalds will die, who will restrain the myriad Saracens? The young man who has not yet seen blood, who believes that the faith in the soul and the cross on the shield is enough to withstand hundreds of strokes?
Therefore, tactics in Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade slightly different from what we saw in Total War: there is no cannon meat, but the gods-gods-as much as you like.
Religious studies three steps
True, the local battles, not only because of the power and exclusivity of the soldiers, the developers came up with an interesting “chip”: they divided tactical battles into several stages.
First, for example, we need to reflect the enemy’s offensive. We hold a position, defending us, the enemy comes in from different sides, but we do not give up. Everything, the stage is over, the screen goes out, and now we are a little different – the turn has come to take the city of the enemy. We are allowed to install catapults and ballists, set up troops again. We did everything – we continue. There is a siege, we break the walls, protect the guns. It feels like this is the following battle, but it is inside the main. After we raise our flag on the main square, the final stage will begin. There will also be something interesting.
This structure makes contractions much more diverse. If you remember, in Total War We usually just need to kill all the enemy forces. The enemy’s armies go on the map, we catch them and eliminate them. It’s great, but very familiar. Here are more and more “plot”. Well, or “screamed” if you want. The developers have especially prepared every battle – and this is a great idea. Duel crowd on the crowd – the destiny of the network mode. It’s great when there is a composition.
And, curious, tasks (these steps) in the same battle can be different. Politics is already entering into business. In the world Lionheart There are four fractions, and they all want us to be friends with them. But each of this friendship of the presentation is very … special. And the love for their neighbor is usually manifested in those moments when we are going to rush into the attack (in the campaign for Saracin, this aspect was made somewhat different).
Each faction before the fight invites us to act according to her scenario. Everyone, for example, may agree that for a start it is best to land in the north. But representatives of the Papal region will say that then it is necessary to immediately take the city, the delegate from the Holy Roman Empire will offer, moving south, to destroy all the Gentiles, and the Templars will decide that it is just necessary to hold the position until reinforcements arrive. All four sides necessarily put forward their wishes and at the same time promise various bonuses for victory.
Our friends also help us with recruits. At one of the stages of the battle, they will give good reinforcement. Sometimes such that only they can win the battle. So we have to think firmly, with whom to be friends and who is closer to us in spirit.
Well, in the end, all this increases the variety. You can always try other methods of passing. Especially if you lost. The battles are sometimes very difficult, so getting it no wonder. Why repeat everything again a second time? Much nicer to act differently.
Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade – A very, very interesting strategy. Moreover, in addition to the campaign for the crusaders, there is still a story for Saracens, I did not specifically tell about it so that you get the most fresh impressions. Of course, there are also disadvantages of the project: at times boring fights, some AI flaws and so on. But they are insignificant. The game is solid – we advise.
Pros: An interesting role system for the genre;multi -stage fights;Good graphics.
Cons: The game sometimes crashes to the desktop;The soldiers are crowding, throwing themselves on those whom they did not order them to touch, go not in the shortest ways;It is impossible to persist during the battle.