Defender of the Crown is one of the most exciting adventure/strategy games created for the Amiga in the late 1980's. The game takes place in merry old England, during the Crusades. You begin with only one ally, Robin Hood, and attempt to control all of England through several ways: jousting tournaments, raiding castles, marriage, and more importantly controlling your economic and military sources.
A player can amass an army of hundreds to invade a castle. Each piece of land can be bought, fought for, and have a castle placed on its property.
The more castles the player has the more wealth and power they acquire.
For the time it was made, this game had excellent graphics. You are able to watch the castle as it is being destroyed by your trebuchet, (somewhat akin to Age of Empires, but on a larger scale), see your small group of raiders enter a castle and kill its inhabitants with swords, and more amusingly have your male character romance a female princess.
You can choose to be several different knights, each with weak and strong points. Some are better at jousting, while others can more easily raid a castle. This game allows the player to be entertained for long periods of time. Quite simply, it is not that easy to "beat" the game. The computer
AI is rather advanced.
The gameplay itself is also quite addictive. The jousting tournaments can be fun and exciting, with the player riding courageously on horseback, hoping to knock off the other knight from a first person perspective. If you fail your character's appearance will undoubtedly show it. In fact, throughout the game your character changes. If you are doing well and are prosperous he looks good, however, if you suffer defeat after defeat it will also be evident. This adds to the color and flavor of the game, making it more realistic, and certainly more entertaining.
The game's music, probably one of the strongest points, is on par with other great games. Defender of the Crown is a "must have" for all fans of classic games. It was probably one of the first (if not the first) strategy adventure games of the 1980's.
