This game is broken. Latest version, played from start, bug prevents game completion.

Retrospective Review.

I replayed this game recently and finished it. I didn't encounter the Galahad Grail shard bug. It's obvious the game wasn't finished. Even if it was Neocore made some really peculiar (stupid) design decisions, and it could have been an outstanding game.

The graphics look like an oil painting that fell on the floor and a dog dragged it's ass across before the paint dried. Stuff doesn't work (Lancelots grail shard spell, etc). The sound guy should have been fired by Neocore - you zoom in and hear broken sounds like enemies farting at each other, and zooming out is effectively like pressing the mute button. Most of the game is played in silence.

Every time your mouse hovers over something a big f*** off tool-tip instantly appears (adjusting the slider to delay them doesn't work) which is like someone sticking an opaque post-it note on the screen constantly. Somone thought it would be a great idea to have the narrater say "AN ENEMY HERO IS CASTING A SPELL" every time AN ENEMY HERO IS CASTING A SPELL...

Which is often.

The story is a reworking that's good but there isn't enough of it, and a big part of something isn't really explained.
Campaign-wise; the demons (TM) are flooding from all demonic gates across the island of ancient England - but apparently only one of them works, and every 7 turns or so sends a generic weak army at you. The army is so weak that I thought all William Pendragon had to do was build a wall in front of it - like the Stargate iris...
But unless you use this army to grind, there isn't enough game to level all three of your armies. And forget using the dimplomacy option (which is really good BTW - the benefits outweigh wiping out territories).

They mullered the Knights of the Round Table. I played as a champion, but I suspect the Warlord wasn't as good in melee, the sage build looked interesting but they all suffer from faults listed below. Then you come across knights that are built better than your character - they should have just let you build a character.
Story-wise (apart from main arthurian legend characters) the secondary knights are lifeless, pointless, and characterless...they're efffectively just another army unit. The fact that some have clone character models from the previous game, but names I don't recognize from arthurian lore just boggles the mind - why not just name them by the character model from the first game to give them a bit of life?.

You can see some effort went into this game, but either a prat of a manager (or someone on the team) did stupid crap, or their funding ran out, or publisher trouble, etc. Which is a shame because their RPG mechanics are excellent, the animations and graphical quality of the units are amazing that (even today) provide moments of visual poetry - where else can you build a golem that slowly wades into battle against an army and scatters them with a swing of a truck-long sword, or red,white,black dragons swooping out of the sky to freeze and ignite enemy armies. The giants are actually intimidating - they charge an enemy, lower their shoulders and smash into them with huge weapons that send enemy soldiers or cavaly flying convincingly all over the place. The rag doll physics are so convincing I feel like donating to horse rescue charity after some of the battle's I fought in this game.

They almost got scaling right for items and armies. Let's just say that as the game progressed I wasn't bothering to use/make artifacts, my melee Knights useless (outclassed by elite units), spells were useless (they implements a magical shield for each army that gets reduced as offensive spells are cast at it - but the battle is usually over by the time one of you're spells actually penetrates it) - so I ended up just one-shotting most enemies with my elite units.

I think they implemented a HP / Damage based difficuly system, so mileage may vary.

AFAIK the game breaking bug is still there - but although it seems to be a random thing, it's still indefensible that it's in the game.

I changed my recommendation - it's worth it if you buy it in a Steam sale, make a beeline for the Galahad shard quest (can be done in a few hours, you get given an army), and then place £30 or so quid on the table in front of you and decide if it's worth spending on Neocores next game depending on what happens.

Replaying this has made me re-think not buying another Neocore game, but I'll need to see some extremely positive reviews before buying the upcomming Warhammer game on day one.

This game is broken. Latest version, played from start, bug prevents game completion. Retrospective Review. I replayed this game recently and finished it. I didn't encounter the Galahad Grail shard bug. It's obvious the game wasn't finished. Even if it was Neocore made some really peculiar (stupid) design decisions, and it could have been an outstanding game. The graphics look like an oil painting that fell on the floor and a dog dragged it's ass across before the paint dried. Stuff doesn't work (Lancelots grail shard spell, etc). The sound guy should have been fired by Neocore - you zoom in and hear broken sounds like enemies farting at each other, and zooming out is effectively like pressing the mute button. Most of the game is played in silence. Every time your mouse hovers over something a big f*** off tool-tip instantly appears (adjusting the slider to delay them doesn't work) which is like someone sticking an opaque post-it note on the screen constantly. Somone thought it would be a great idea to have the narrater say "AN ENEMY HERO IS CASTING A SPELL" every time AN ENEMY HERO IS CASTING A SPELL... Which is often. The story is a reworking that's good but there isn't enough of it, and a big part of something isn't really explained. Campaign-wise; the demons (TM) are flooding from all demonic gates across the island of ancient England - but apparently only one of them works, and every 7 turns or so sends a generic weak army at you. The army is so weak that I thought all William Pendragon had to do was build a wall in front of it - like the Stargate iris... But unless you use this army to grind, there isn't enough game to level all three of your armies. And forget using the dimplomacy option (which is really good BTW - the benefits outweigh wiping out territories). They mullered the Knights of the Round Table. I played as a champion, but I suspect the Warlord wasn't as good in melee, the sage build looked interesting but they all suffer from faults listed below. Then you come across knights that are built better than your character - they should have just let you build a character. Story-wise (apart from main arthurian legend characters) the secondary knights are lifeless, pointless, and characterless...they're efffectively just another army unit. The fact that some have clone character models from the previous game, but names I don't recognize from arthurian lore just boggles the mind - why not just name them by the character model from the first game to give them a bit of life?. You can see some effort went into this game, but either a prat of a manager (or someone on the team) did stupid crap, or their funding ran out, or publisher trouble, etc. Which is a shame because their RPG mechanics are excellent, the animations and graphical quality of the units are amazing that (even today) provide moments of visual poetry - where else can you build a golem that slowly wades into battle against an army and scatters them with a swing of a truck-long sword, or red,white,black dragons swooping out of the sky to freeze and ignite enemy armies. The giants are actually intimidating - they charge an enemy, lower their shoulders and smash into them with huge weapons that send enemy soldiers or cavaly flying convincingly all over the place. The rag doll physics are so convincing I feel like donating to horse rescue charity after some of the battle's I fought in this game. They almost got scaling right for items and armies. Let's just say that as the game progressed I wasn't bothering to use/make artifacts, my melee Knights useless (outclassed by elite units), spells were useless (they implements a magical shield for each army that gets reduced as offensive spells are cast at it - but the battle is usually over by the time one of you're spells actually penetrates it) - so I ended up just one-shotting most enemies with my elite units. I think they implemented a HP / Damage based difficuly system, so mileage may vary. AFAIK the game breaking bug is still there - but although it seems to be a random thing, it's still indefensible that it's in the game. I changed my recommendation - it's worth it if you buy it in a Steam sale, make a beeline for the Galahad shard quest (can be done in a few hours, you get given an army), and then place £30 or so quid on the table in front of you and decide if it's worth spending on Neocores next game depending on what happens. Replaying this has made me re-think not buying another Neocore game, but I'll need to see some extremely positive reviews before buying the upcomming Warhammer game on day one.