King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame II Previews
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Games Radar:
Things aren't looking so hot for King Arthur this time around. Having just recently conquered Britannia, Arthur's finished proving to everyone that he's big man on campus. While the kingdom did enjoy a brief period of the whole (peace and prosperity) schtick, Morgause the Witch Queen has decided that she doesn't like Arthur all that much and incites all-out war between Britannia and a race of demonic creatures.
Even though the game is still in a pre-alpha build, the graphical quality is looking fairly slick. According to Neocore PR rep Orsolya Toth, the campaign map is now twice as large as the original game's. In addition, King Arthur 2 once again enables players to take on quests, make key decisions that determine your moral alignment (become a (tyrant) or (rightful king)), practice Christianity or (The Old Faith,) ally yourself with key Arthurian figures like Merlin and Morgana, establish laws for your subjects and a whole slew of other things. All of these choices determine what type of special abilities you will unlock (both passive and combat-oriented) as well as which heroes will join your cause.
Strategy Informer:
The hero characters are one area where this RTS has more in common with things like Warcraft, and they return in this game with an expansion to how they work. There's now a second type of hero who is even more powerful still, and these characters come packed with their own unique abilities and bonuses in battle though putting them in danger might not always be a wise decision.
In battle magic has been changed up some to make it a little more viable, too. In the previous game magic spells triggered would happen immediately which meant players wouldn't have time to react. That's changed now. If you're summoning a gigantic fireball from the heavens, the player will get something of a heads up on the map. If they're paying enough attention, they might even be able to move some of their troops out of the path of the fiery ball of destruction.
And RTSGuru:
As mentioned, the second game will bring a lot of the same basic gameplay elements to the series, while taking the fantasy setting of the first game, and ramping it up to 11 amidst a mystical catastrophe that ravages Brittania. Getting the opportunity to see some of the actual gameplay (in pre-Alpha, mind you), was a real treat. The gameplay was fluid and striking, notably thanks to its brand new game Coretech 3D engine, and the number of visible sprites on the battlefield at any given time has also increased, to an impressive 3 or 4 thousand soldiers. The integration of flying units brings about two levels of combat on the battlefield, allowing you to fly and manoeuvre above the trees, allowing for a whole new set of tactical approaches. The campaign map is nothing short of gigantic.
The game will have three types of quests (familiar to anyone who's dabbled in the original game's expansion packs): The Adventure Quests, wherein your choices made effect what results you will face, both on the battlefield and in story, Diplomacy Quests, wherein you might receive a request for help from a province of your kingdom and you have several options as to how to react, and finally, the Battle Quest, wherein you simply lay some medieval smackdown in full glory on the battlefield in a bid to overcome these monstrous forces thrust upon Brittania. The game employs a sort of alignment system (quite popular in video games these days, it seems) wherein the choices that you make as a leader are tracked on a morality chart, will build you as either an iron-fisted tyrant or a hero. Your choices and your morality chart will also affect the way that you receive spells and abilities throughout the course of the game.
