Kingmaker was certainly not what I expected it to be. It was still a pleasant surprise if you enjoy games of strategy that are intricate and need to be well thought out. Kingmaker is a lot like Risk placing you in history between two factions of England, the Risk part is that you need to not only govern your provinces but allocate your troops wisely. You can promote your men and nobles which gives shades of the KOEI made game Genghis Khan or Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Kingmaker was certainly not what I expected it to be. It was still a pleasant surprise if you enjoy games of strategy that are intricate and need to be well thought out. Kingmaker is a lot like Risk placing you in history between two factions of England, the Risk part is that you need to not only govern your provinces but allocate your troops wisely. You can promote your men and nobles which gives shades of the KOEI made game Genghis Khan or Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
It starts out a little boring with an odd tale told by a Shakespeare clone and it’s a little confusing for how one starts out but exploration is half the fun. There are helpful little green automatic
instruction windows that pop up to help you understand what certain icons do and how others work. The music was pleasant enough but can get quickly annoying and after awhile I played with no sound so it wouldn’t interfere with my strategic thinking. It is easy enough to start with but it can get so much harder and I warn you now it will frustrate you and it will cause you think and re-think your movements, how you govern, and who you choose to help you.
The graphics were decent enough given it is an old Dos game and were actually quite impressive given the timeline but you can easily tell it was a much older game. It combines the gameplay of Sim planet by pointing and clicking on the different lords and nobles that have sworn themselves to your cause and these are represented by little icons on a map of England complete with borders and when zooming in castles and banners.
The goal is obviously a fight for the crown but half the time your fighting with how things work. It takes a lot of time and patience and a real love for intricate strategy games but those who enjoy Chess, and Risk or older games made by KOEI will really enjoy the chance to rule and rewrite the history of Kings and nobles. However those that enjoy more fast-paced action games or ones that allow the player to place men and command units like Command and Conquer will quickly become bored.
This game deserves a good 7.5 ranking in graphics, and a solid 8.0 in game play but again this is only for those that like to really get their minds turning.
