Im sorry... I love you previous games but i just can't into the style of this one.

[WarMaster GoreHowl]

Like the music is great and your art style is always good QUALITY... but little children running around fighting greed in the 80s? Like man im trying I really am, but Its just not doing it for me. I would have happily paid for like another civilization in two crowns over this any day... give me greeks, romans, orcs for all i care... hell, ANY civilization over this honestly. The music is great and I get what you are going for and I hope this does well for you but I am just one of those people who will probably never play this.

[Chompers]

I was going to post a very similar thread. I'm a huge fan of the franchise but haven't loved the direction it's gone overall. Now this entry is just embarrassing. It's clearly a cash-in on a trend that peaked about 5 years ago with the Stranger Things nonsense. I love Kingdom, but I just can't. I gave it a fair shot... but I shut the game off almost immediately after the gameplay began. It's obnoxious and I just can't.

If you want a fresh new take on the Kingdom experience, try Thronefall. It's basically just Kingdom but in a 3d environment instead of scrolling. It has a free demo in Next Fest and I'm loving it so far.

[CarnageInc.]

I tried for a few minutes and couldn't get interested in the demo. I guess the stranger things nostalgia trip into other decades is still popular these days?
Also, paying to hire little kids to defend and cut the grass was weird..

[One Man Army]

This game should had been released during the mega hype period of The Stranger Things S1-S3. It would do so much better.
I understand development takes a long time but I feel like the 80's hype that came with the series has cooled off by now.

I love the 80's, but I think the style & theme used here are not a good fit for a game such as this. In the previous Kingdom games in medieval times the world had that sense of
believability and made the game more enjoyable.

Don't get me wrong, It' still a good game but thematically doesn't feel great.

[hthought]

Yeah, I almost refunded it. It's super short too, just 4 episodes. The worst of the series by a mile.

[Middy]

I much prefer this look to the same old generic medieval tropes we see crapped out onto Steam at least once a week, but the gameplay feels overly simplistic.

[Waggish]

Agreed that the quality of the art, animations, music, and tweaking other aesthetics of a medieval game to fit a much more modern time period is great! This game is clearly a labor of love to an aesthetic/vibe. But even as someone who plays Kingdom quite casually, the actual gameplay is way too streamlined.

As someone who just plays solo, the biggest miss to me is not being able to go back to previous islands/maps (to say nothing of having a reason to do so). I can understand why from a narrative standpoint the characters wouldn't want to go back, but with a story so, so generic, why would you sacrifice a major mechanic for narrative reasons? Don't get me wrong, the cutscenes were very stylistic and charming in their own mega-cheesy way, but the actual story is weak as hell. LOTS of games have weak stories though, and it's fine when it's just a way to ferry you from one fun objective/challenge to another. But it's like if Monster Hunter prevented you from hunting world-ending Elder Dragons more than once because it doesn't make sense story-wise, despite the fact that farming monsters for materials over and over is a core part of gameplay. Again, why change a major gameplay mechanic for a narrative that doesn't serve a higher purpose than to segue from one chapter/phase to another?

Another major pet peeve - so hard to see the yellow hard hats of Builders on blonde kids! Makes it much harder to eyeball how many Builders vs. jobless recruits I have while speeding from one end of the map to the other.

Fingers crossed there's some major gameplay updates/additions for this game, because there's a lot to love here. It was really cool to wrap my head around the new "mounts" and I like the tweaks - I think they balanced them more towards making travel less tedious, and I really appreciate it. The laser turrets are SO COOL, though I'm curious if the fact that they don't take up Archers feels as OP on harder difficulties. I wasn't as fond as the forest backgrounds as other Kingdom games, but the developed areas looked great and still had that Kingdoms art vibe. Another thing I'll need to see if it feels as OP - there's no reason to NOT fully develop the map in Eighties, whereas in other Kingdom games you had to think ahead to winter and make decisions on how much forest to clear, how much land to claim vs. stay wild, where to build walls optimally for farms vs. defense...

[Waggish]

Originally posted by Chompers:

I was going to post a very similar thread. I'm a huge fan of the franchise but haven't loved the direction it's gone overall. Now this entry is just embarrassing. It's clearly a cash-in on a trend that peaked about 5 years ago with the Stranger Things nonsense. I love Kingdom, but I just can't. I gave it a fair shot... but I shut the game off almost immediately after the gameplay began. It's obnoxious and I just can't.

If you want a fresh new take on the Kingdom experience, try Thronefall. It's basically just Kingdom but in a 3d environment instead of scrolling. It has a free demo in Next Fest and I'm loving it so far.

I just ran through the Thronefall demo after reading this, and thank you! I've been dying for more iterations of "micro-strategy" a la Kingdom and it scratches that itch wonderfully.

[GlitterGloo]

I love it. It's pretty awesome that they can take the same game design and make it work in a variety of different themes.

The kitchey "ragtag group of kids" schtick always has an audience, but there are very few games that cater to it.

[WarMaster GoreHowl]

OK so I do REALLY like the laser towers. those are very cool and their variants. Oh and the hover skate board is cool. I just really wish I didn't have pre-schoolers running around as my minions.

[Quazimortal]

I love it. Just as fun as the others even if not as involved.

[Astral]

Originally posted by Chompers:

t's clearly a cash-in on a trend that peaked about 5 years ago with the Stranger Things nonsense.

You realize it could also just be the developers wanted to make a game in this style, and that it wasn't purely motivated by making money? If they wanted money they could've made an updated Two Crowns with co-op - they certainly have enough feedback from players saying it'd be bought.

[WarMaster GoreHowl]

Originally posted by Astral:

Originally posted by Chompers:

t's clearly a cash-in on a trend that peaked about 5 years ago with the Stranger Things nonsense.

You realize it could also just be the developers wanted to make a game in this style, and that it wasn't purely motivated by making money? If they wanted money they could've made an updated Two Crowns with co-op - they certainly have enough feedback from players saying it'd be bought.

I would like to point out that I actually respect the devs idea and hope it is successful. I just don't like it in my own taste. Im happy some do. I just would have preferred another civilization or two for two crowns as a dlc or something lol

[GlitterGloo]

Originally posted by Bender B. Rodríguez:

Other games have expansive free updates. Kingdom new releases and updates always seem to be hollow in term of new content and especially replayability. Norse Lands is what started this downward trend to mediocrity and it is sad to see as someone who loved and eagerly purchased Kingdom, New Lands, and Two crowns.

How many times are they going to just reskin a few things and slap a new price tag on it. If they can't break this trend then I don't see myself ever buying a Kingdom game again. It just seems lazy and feels like the devs don't care about the fans to make a good quality product anymore.

Did you actually play Norselands? Or this for that matter? Every expansion has introduced completely new elements and mechanics. They're far from just re-skins.

To each their own, but your reasoning just isn't a fair criticism.

[GlitterGloo]

Originally posted by Bender B. Rodríguez:

Originally posted by Smirkin' Merkin:

Did you actually play Norselands? Or this for that matter? Every expansion has introduced completely new elements and mechanics. They're far from just re-skins.

To each their own, but your reasoning just isn't a fair criticism.

I paid for Norse Lands and refunded after I realized it was a cash grab as well. I have not purchased this one based on the very detailed reviews and feedback provided so far which suggests these devs haven't changed their ways since Norse Lands expansions. You don't have to agree with my criticisms but I am not the only one who has them and just because you can't accept some of them does not mean that some of these criticisms are not valid.

Actually, you just confirmed that you didn't play any of these long enough to make the claims you made. You took a quick glance, made a harsh judgement and blasted the devs for criticisms that aren't true.

If you're not even a fan of the series, why even complain about it at all? If you actually played the games, you'd see they are different.

[Chompers]

Originally posted by Smirkin' Merkin:

Originally posted by Bender B. Rodríguez:

I paid for Norse Lands and refunded after I realized it was a cash grab as well. I have not purchased this one based on the very detailed reviews and feedback provided so far which suggests these devs haven't changed their ways since Norse Lands expansions. You don't have to agree with my criticisms but I am not the only one who has them and just because you can't accept some of them does not mean that some of these criticisms are not valid.

Actually, you just confirmed that you didn't play any of these long enough to make the claims you made. You took a quick glance, made a harsh judgement and blasted the devs for criticisms that aren't true.

If you're not even a fan of the series, why even complain about it at all? If you actually played the games, you'd see they are different.

I enjoyed Two Crowns and New Lands quite a bit, but both of the prior sequels were developing similar issues for me. I always enjoyed the bulk of the gameplay, but the systems they developed for end game and transitioning between maps I found largely unsatisfying relative to the rest. That experience started to stale me on the series as a whole even tho I still love it for it's uniqueness, but this new entry I just can't get behind even in the early game.

I hope they turn the direction around and right course to something I'll enjoy more again, but if they don't I'm honestly fine with that. The games they created before will always be here, and they have inspired a new subgenre and I'm starting to see "Kingdom"-likes such as Thronefall more often and I can just migrate to those and find one more my taste.