Kingdoms New Lands is a rogue-like RTS where you play as a monarch attempting to personally colonize a scattered chain of islands. While the game touts its minimalistic appeal and great atmosphere, it fails consistently in the game design department. Obtuse mechanics, random upgrades you lose upon defeat, dysfunctional AI, and questionable balancing make it a chore to play. It's constantly at war with itself in terms of design, creating mechanics that undermine each other at every turn. It's largely tedious and frustrating to play, and therefore isn't particularly enjoyable in any capacity.


Kingdoms New Lands is a one-dimensional RTS in a vaguely similar vein to something like Reus, Settlers, or Majesty. You control a singular character, a displaced royal who hops from island to island building up very small encampments and eventually escaping via a longboat.

Your kingdom runs solely on money, which is dropped by various activities like hunting or farming. In order to hunt or farm, you need peasants and tools. You recruit your peasants from vagrant camps, which are randomly scattered across the map. You purchase tools from tool vendors present in your kingdom proper. You also build up a military, primarily from your hunters, which helps fend off the invaders that wish to steal your crown and end your reign.

The only other thing of note would be its graphics, which are superb. I don't generally care to talk about graphics in reviews, as the images on the store page will speak for themselves.


That's about all the good I can say about this.


Kingdoms New Lands considers itself "beautiful" and "tranquil" while also being "frantic" and "stressful". If all those statements sound strange to you, that's because those concepts can't really coexist.


Much of the experience relies on trial and error. There is almost no feedback on a lot of your actions. For example, you'll encounter a random statue to dump your gold into with no obvious outcome. You'll change mounts only to observe no visible changes to your character. You'll pick up hermits that ride on your mount, but be unable to discern their function.

The game then expects you to figure those mechanics out while also being assaulting by increasingly difficult waves of attackers. If you fail, all of those upgrades you purchased are lost entirely, meaning you'll have to "rediscover" them if you want to take a second shot at figuring out what they do.

Ultimately, I had to resort to using guides and the wiki to understand what was going on. I did not have the luxury of losing a bunch of times to get the privilege of figuring out what some random structure or upgrade does.

In a regular sandbox-style game where I'm not constantly fending off invasion, this kind of inquisitive game design might be interesting. If I have to choose between experimenting with an extremely vague upgrade that I lose when I die, or not dying, I'm going to choose not dying more often than not.


Then there is the non-persistent random upgrades. All upgrades are randomized, meaning you're unlikely to encounter the same upgrade each run. Upgrades must also be unlocked via a signpost before they even appear in the upgrade rotation. These upgrades are also island dependent, meaning certain islands will never offer particular upgrades.

You'll arrive on a new island where there is nothing of interest. You must pay a signpost to unlock the chance at a random upgrade. Then you must beat the island, which might take an hour or two. Then you must return to that island. After that, the upgrade you discovered could be available for pickup IF it randomly spawns.

It's also possible that you'll end up never seeing a vital upgrade. In my particular case, I did not see a hermit until the 15th hour of play, despite most guides saying I'd see it in the 4-5th hour. I had no idea hermits existed and what upgrades they conferred, and therefore felt ill equipped to fight certain foes later in the game. When I finally found said hermit, I immediately lost him because I did not know how he worked and the game didn't feel the need to teach me. I then had to repeat the island three more times to get another hermit.

Since upgrades are lost upon defeat, this means farming out a particular set of upgrades could take many hours of your time. If you lose at any point, or if an upgrade gets stolen by attackers, they're just gone. If you want them again, you have to roll the dice on a random upgrade and also beat the island to keep it. It's like a roulette wheel made of one-round revolvers.


Still not frustrating enough? Your kingdom is manned by your peasants, which take their roles based on the tools you give them. They are rather slow and stupid, and have a penchant for getting themselves robbed by the enemy.

In order to recruit a peasant, you need to pay a vagrant. It might take between a few seconds to several minutes to reach a vagrant camp. Once you recruit them, they WALK back to your kingdom, at a pace that could best be described as "excruciating". It might take them several in-game days to return to your keep. All the while, the enemy is constantly sending out waves of attackers at night, which inadvertently encounter your newly recruited peasants and shake them down for their money, returning them back to their vagrant state.

Your hunters huddle by the walls at night and arc poorly aimed arrows over the wall at enemy attackers. These arrows are literally hit and miss, and don't deliver enough DPS to stave off large attacks. Once the attackers knock the wall down, the hunters simply stand there and get overwhelmed, rather than fleeing back to a safe position. Subsequently, all the gold you invested in them is immediately wiped out.

Thus, your constantly trying to keep these idiotic lemmings alive and equipped while you shore up your kingdom with increasingly sparse vagrant population that are miles away and take several days to utilize.


Kingdoms New Lands is the sum of its faults, and I think part of the problem is with its presentation. The game wants to paint itself as some kind of serene exploration-based town building experience, and then it proceeds to beat the crap out of you with cryptic mechanics, unbalanced difficulty, and shoddy AI. I was expecting something chill, but got something that was tedious and rage-inducing.

If you wanted to make an combat-centric RTS that had tower defense elements with upgrades and individual soldiers, then ditch the vagrants and make my units immediately spawn. Make it so my upgrades stay upon defeat, and that I actually understand what I'm upgrading and why. I can't make tactical decisions with so much noise, inprecision, and tedious waiting.

If you wanted to make a chill RTS about exploration and kingdom building with lots of interactivity, massively downplay the combat or cut it entirely. Make the kingdom simulation more rich, and give me a breathing room to explore and build at my leisure.

Marrying both together creates this counter-intuitive game state where the mechanics are constantly fighting amongst themselves for dominance. Each mechanic detracts from another, resulting in a tug of war of conflicting design and player goals.


Kingdom New Lands' hails itself as "frustrating" and "it wont hold your hand". This much is true, its beautiful facade hides an unforgiving ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of gameplay pitfalls. You'll fight an uphill battle against its obtuse mechanics and unwieldy AI. Its random chance only multiplies the tediousness, making any sort of progress a laborious affair. Besides the graphics, there isn't really much in terms of redeeming quality. Save yourself the frustration, as there is little fun to be had here.


Steam Curator

[b]Kingdoms New Lands is a rogue-like RTS where you play as a monarch attempting to personally colonize a scattered chain of islands. While the game touts its minimalistic appeal and great atmosphere, it fails consistently in the game design department. Obtuse mechanics, random upgrades you lose upon defeat, dysfunctional AI, and questionable balancing make it a chore to play. It's constantly at war with itself in terms of design, creating mechanics that undermine each other at every turn. It's largely tedious and frustrating to play, and therefore isn't particularly enjoyable in any capacity.[/b] Kingdoms New Lands is a one-dimensional RTS in a vaguely similar vein to something like Reus, Settlers, or Majesty. You control a singular character, a displaced royal who hops from island to island building up very small encampments and eventually escaping via a longboat. Your kingdom runs solely on money, which is dropped by various activities like hunting or farming. In order to hunt or farm, you need peasants and tools. You recruit your peasants from vagrant camps, which are randomly scattered across the map. You purchase tools from tool vendors present in your kingdom proper. You also build up a military, primarily from your hunters, which helps fend off the invaders that wish to steal your crown and end your reign. The only other thing of note would be its graphics, which are superb. I don't generally care to talk about graphics in reviews, as the images on the store page will speak for themselves. That's about all the good I can say about this. Kingdoms New Lands considers itself "beautiful" and "tranquil" while also being "frantic" and "stressful". If all those statements sound strange to you, that's because those concepts can't really coexist. Much of the experience relies on trial and error. There is almost no feedback on a lot of your actions. For example, you'll encounter a random statue to dump your gold into with no obvious outcome. You'll change mounts only to observe no visible changes to your character. You'll pick up hermits that ride on your mount, but be unable to discern their function. The game then expects you to figure those mechanics out while also being assaulting by increasingly difficult waves of attackers. If you fail, all of those upgrades you purchased are lost entirely, meaning you'll have to "rediscover" them if you want to take a second shot at figuring out what they do. Ultimately, I had to resort to using guides and the wiki to understand what was going on. I did not have the luxury of losing a bunch of times to get the privilege of figuring out what some random structure or upgrade does. In a regular sandbox-style game where I'm not constantly fending off invasion, this kind of inquisitive game design might be interesting. If I have to choose between experimenting with an extremely vague upgrade that I lose when I die, or not dying, I'm going to choose not dying more often than not. Then there is the non-persistent random upgrades. All upgrades are randomized, meaning you're unlikely to encounter the same upgrade each run. Upgrades must also be unlocked via a signpost before they even appear in the upgrade rotation. These upgrades are also island dependent, meaning certain islands will never offer particular upgrades. You'll arrive on a new island where there is nothing of interest. You must pay a signpost to unlock the chance at a random upgrade. Then you must beat the island, which might take an hour or two. Then you must return to that island. After that, the upgrade you discovered could be available for pickup IF it randomly spawns. It's also possible that you'll end up never seeing a vital upgrade. In my particular case, I did not see a hermit until the 15th hour of play, despite most guides saying I'd see it in the 4-5th hour. I had no idea hermits existed and what upgrades they conferred, and therefore felt ill equipped to fight certain foes later in the game. When I finally found said hermit, I immediately lost him because I did not know how he worked and the game didn't feel the need to teach me. I then had to repeat the island three more times to get another hermit. Since upgrades are lost upon defeat, this means farming out a particular set of upgrades could take many hours of your time. If you lose at any point, or if an upgrade gets stolen by attackers, they're just gone. If you want them again, you have to roll the dice on a random upgrade and also beat the island to keep it. It's like a roulette wheel made of one-round revolvers. Still not frustrating enough? Your kingdom is manned by your peasants, which take their roles based on the tools you give them. They are rather slow and stupid, and have a penchant for getting themselves robbed by the enemy. In order to recruit a peasant, you need to pay a vagrant. It might take between a few seconds to several minutes to reach a vagrant camp. Once you recruit them, they WALK back to your kingdom, at a pace that could best be described as "excruciating". It might take them several in-game days to return to your keep. All the while, the enemy is constantly sending out waves of attackers at night, which inadvertently encounter your newly recruited peasants and shake them down for their money, returning them back to their vagrant state. Your hunters huddle by the walls at night and arc poorly aimed arrows over the wall at enemy attackers. These arrows are literally hit and miss, and don't deliver enough DPS to stave off large attacks. Once the attackers knock the wall down, the hunters simply stand there and get overwhelmed, rather than fleeing back to a safe position. Subsequently, all the gold you invested in them is immediately wiped out. Thus, your constantly trying to keep these idiotic lemmings alive and equipped while you shore up your kingdom with increasingly sparse vagrant population that are miles away and take several days to utilize. Kingdoms New Lands is the sum of its faults, and I think part of the problem is with its presentation. The game wants to paint itself as some kind of serene exploration-based town building experience, and then it proceeds to beat the crap out of you with cryptic mechanics, unbalanced difficulty, and shoddy AI. I was expecting something chill, but got something that was tedious and rage-inducing. If you wanted to make an combat-centric RTS that had tower defense elements with upgrades and individual soldiers, then ditch the vagrants and make my units immediately spawn. Make it so my upgrades stay upon defeat, and that I actually understand what I'm upgrading and why. I can't make tactical decisions with so much noise, inprecision, and tedious waiting. If you wanted to make a chill RTS about exploration and kingdom building with lots of interactivity, massively downplay the combat or cut it entirely. Make the kingdom simulation more rich, and give me a breathing room to explore and build at my leisure. Marrying both together creates this counter-intuitive game state where the mechanics are constantly fighting amongst themselves for dominance. Each mechanic detracts from another, resulting in a tug of war of conflicting design and player goals. Kingdom New Lands' hails itself as "frustrating" and "it wont hold your hand". This much is true, its beautiful facade hides an unforgiving clusterfuck of gameplay pitfalls. You'll fight an uphill battle against its obtuse mechanics and unwieldy AI. Its random chance only multiplies the tediousness, making any sort of progress a laborious affair. Besides the graphics, there isn't really much in terms of redeeming quality. Save yourself the frustration, as there is little fun to be had here. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33370076/]Steam Curator[/url]