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King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame Preview for PC

King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame Preview for PC

After The Holy Grail

Hold on to your thrones, because the legend of King Arthur is about to get weird .

In 2009’s King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame, players experienced the basics of Arthurian legend—Excalibur, Holy Grail, etc.—with some bizarre twists thrown in. But in the forthcoming King Arthur II, it’s all quirky, all the time.

The previous game left Britannia a peaceful and united place, and of course we can’t have that in a “Role-Playing Wargame.” So, in a prologue campaign, a new Roman emperor tries to take over, and you have to beat him back while learning the gameplay basics. Then, the real campaign starts when a woman called the Witch Queen smashes the Holy Grail, gives King Arthur a cursed wound that can’t heal, and summons demons to attack the kingdom.

King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame Screenshot

The basic framework of the previous game will return, of course. Much like Shogun 2: Total War, King Arthur II will have gameplay divided into two phases—a turn-based phase in which players craft items, manage their armies, and visit towns, and a real-time phase in which the actual battles take place. Further, your units will level up, giving you an extra incentive to keep them alive, as well as adding an RPG element to the strategy melting pot.

The turn-based gameplay will take place on a map that’s roughly twice as big as the world in the previous game. The choices you make throughout the tale will affect the plot, and they’ll also determine whether you rank as good or evil in the morality system. The developers have also overhauled the various skill trees to let you customize your play style to the greatest degree possible, and you’ll have access to side quests that are styled after old-school text adventures. If you enjoyed King Arthur’s previous outing, or even if you’re just a fan of turn-based strategy, King Arthur II should give you what you’re looking for.

King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame Screenshot

Most of the biggest changes, though, will be seen on the battlefield. Perhaps the most significant update is the addition of flying units. These units are immune to melee blows except when they swoop down to attack, and they greatly increase the importance of ranged units. All in all, they create a rock-paper-scissors system in which each unit is powerful against a certain kind of other unit, but also has a special weakness.

Magic will also have an increased role in King Arthur II, and the system will be simplified. In order to succeed with a magic attack, the offensive level of your spell must exceed the defensive level of your enemy. Also, players are warned before spells are cast against them, giving them time to react—and spells can be interrupted if, say, the caster gets hit with an arrow. When combined, all of this forces players to consider when and how they’ll use their units’ magic abilities. A well-cast spell can deal serious damage, but casting leaves you vulnerable, and if you attack an enemy whose defenses are too strong, your spell will simply bounce off.

Another major feature of King Arthur II will be the fantasy-style boss fights. Leaving Arthurian legend for the realm of pure fantasy allowed the developers to go crazy with monster design, and this game promises some truly epic fights against some seriously dangerous creatures. Of course, only time will tell whether these monsters are just enemies with insanely high HP, or if they actually require you to carefully devise a strategy to attack weak points without taking too much damage.

King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame Screenshot

The developers are planning to improve King Arthur in other ways as well. A bigger programming team allowed them to create a better pathfinding system, which is always a bonus in real-time strategy games. In addition, the previous game’s camera problems should be gone, thanks to a fully customizable viewpoint. Perhaps the only missing feature that won’t be added this time around is multiplayer; if you want that, start holding your breath for King Arthur III, I guess.

Finally, if early screenshots are any indication, King Arthur II will be a definite step up in terms of graphics, despite releasing only a few years after its predecessor. Britannia looks as realistic as ever, and the new fantasy elements gave the game’s artists a whole new avenue to run down.

As a blend of Arthurian legend, pure fantasy, real-time strategy, turn-based gameplay, and RPG mechanics, King Arthur II promises to be a unique experience. We won’t know until the developers have put on the finishing touches—sometime in early 2012—whether the game lives up to its promise, but the early signs are that this will give strategy fans a very interesting campaign.

Game Features:

  • Continue the story of King Arthur by fighting off a demon invasion.
  • Enjoy gameplay that alternates between turn-based overworld maneuvering and real-time battles.
  • Learn a new magic system, and fight battles with new flying units.
  • Take in the improved graphics on a map that’s twice as big as the world of the previous game.


  • The Breaking of the Grail

    King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame was a real-time strategy game that had players command massive armies across Britannia to help Arthur unite the land under his rule. It was well-received by strategy game enthusiasts. In fact, we here at Cheat Code Central praised it for its impressively detailed visuals and deeply satisfying strategy elements, giving it a score of 4.3/5. The sequel is due out later this year, and I was lucky enough to spend some time with the folks at Paradox Interactive and see King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame in action.

    At the end of the first game, Britannia was united under Arthur’s banner and all was well with the world. However, this peace didn’t last long. King Arthur II begins in a very dark version of Britannia, one in which the Holy Grail has been smashed by a witch and Arthur has been wounded, becoming the “Maimed King.” Britannia sinks back into war.

    King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame Screenshot

    Players will once again command massive amounts of troops across a fantasy version of early Britain. However, King Arthur II is running on a brand new engine developed in-house that allows for even larger armies. I was told by the good people at Paradox that the new engine can support 3,000-4,000 troops on a battlefield at a time. This makes for some very impressive battle scenes.

    But even this vast amount of troops wouldn’t be all that exciting if all the soldiers were all basically the same. The first game in the series had quite an impressive variety in troops, and King Arthur II adds flying units that can cross terrain much more quickly and are even able to fly over certain structures rather than being forced to go around them. I was shown a battle in which a swarm of dragons—literally hundreds of dragons—attacked King Arthur’s army. It was fun to just look at, and I can only imagine it being incredibly satisfying to actually play through this scenario.

    But you won’t always have to flee in terror when you see a horde of dragons nearby. I was told that there will be some that fight on your side as well. I wasn’t given a whole lot of information on this, but commanding a massive swarm of flying dragons in battle sounds awesome.

    King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame Screenshot

    Of course, all this focus on dragons (and other mythological creatures) means that King Arthur II is even more heavily based in fantasy than its predecessor. Not only are you fighting against the Fomorians (a race of giants), but there are some pretty wild-looking monsters that you will be tasked with bringing down as well. I saw some pretty freaky-looking creatures roaming about that I can barely even begin to describe.

    The campaign map is twice as large as that of the original King Arthur game. While the first game limited you to the southern portion of Britannia, King Arthur II includes the middle and some of the northern portion as well. And it’s not just larger—it’s darker as well. The witch’s influence can be seen, and this is definitely a more foreboding place. But that doesn’t mean this is a world without beauty. The new game engine allows for some incredibly detailed landscapes; some are dark and twisted while others are bright and beautiful.

    King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame Screenshot

    King Arthur II will ask you to make moral choices, and these choices will determine your ultimate fate. The two major determining factors are which faith you will be loyal to—the Christian church or the “Old Ways”—and whether you are a tyrant or a benevolent king. This opens up four major paths your character can take: righteous Christian, tyrannical Christian, benevolent pagan, or wicked pagan, and your character’s current status is displayed on a wheel diagram. I was told the game will play out differently based on these factors, making four complete playthroughs of the game worth your while.

    Of course, the quest system from the first game has returned. Many players compared this quest system to a Choose Your Own Adventure book, and this is true of the second game as well. The path you choose will influence your morality rating, and can result in gaining or losing gold or even troops.

    The original game in the King Arthur series exceeded all expectations. With even more massive armies, flying creatures, a larger campaign map, and darker storyline, King Arthur II just may surpass its predecessor when it launches this September.

    Game Features:

  • Continue the story of King Arthur by fighting off a demon invasion.
  • Enjoy gameplay that alternates between turn-based overworld maneuvering and real-time battles.
  • Learn a new magic system, and fight battles with new flying units.
  • Take in the improved graphics on a map that’s twice as big as the world of the previous game.

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