King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame II Preview

Rock, Paper, Shotgun brings us a solid hands-on preview of King Arthur II this evening, with most of the text comparing and contrasting the sequel's tweaks and refinements to its predecessor. On the UI, morality system, and quest structure:
Much of the UI and the mechanics of the map screen remain the same: turn based movement split between four seasons, with Winter being the time for levelling up, recruiting and researching and building upgrades. It's these upgrades that will help reduce the old problem of running out of crucial units: Castles and guild halls in owned provinces can produce new troops, and mercenaries can be easily hired, including all sorts of fantasy creatures such as the mighty Welsh Dragons although expect to pay a lot of gold for one of those to join your ranks.

The Morality wheel is still in effect, with your decisions in the regular quests effecting how tyrannical your reign is and where your religious devotions lie. I was shown an early quest from the prologue campaign, which tells the sad story of Septimus Sulla, one of the Roman nobles left behind. A victim of political wrangling from the other houses, he stands in front of the assembly to protest at his unfair treatment.

Quests have been described as simple text adventures, though they're more like a choose-your-own-adventure. This one was long and involved, twisting and turning between decisions, a pleasing increase in complication from the first game. Your resources can also affect certain outcomes: Tóth mentioned the chance to assassinate political opponents by use of Assassin Guild Halls during these quests. She also boasted a game length of around 50 hours if you pursue all the optional quests and 20 if you just burn through the main story.