There’s something about strategy games that have always been wildly intimidating to me. Most of it usually stems from the fact that most games in the genre aren’t exactly tailored to be accessible by everyone, rather opting to pack in as much depth as possible for the sake of a deep strategic experience.
When Paradox Interactive sent over the preview copy of Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade, I fully expected to go into the game feeling confused and possibly unable to complete even the first mission (at least on my first try). Much to my surprise, I beat the game’s first and second Crusader missions after having only briefly glanced over at the game’s tutorial.
Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade is not a particularly well known game, so allow me to give you a little background before moving on. The game takes place during the Third Crusade period in the Middle East, specifically the conquest of Richard the Lionheart (otherwise known as Richard I) in the Holy Land circa 1191 AD.
Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade is a real-time strategy game, but more akin to games like Rome: Total War than your StarCraft brand of RTS. Rather than building up your base and ascending through the tech trees, all you have at your disposal in a mission are your ground units, siege units and your brain.
Like I mentioned earlier in the preview, I was honestly surprised by just how easy the game was to get into. Don’t take that to mean that the game is overly simple, hardcore RTS fans; it’s certainly not. The accessibility comes solely from how well the game’s mechanics are laid out in the game’s UI and tutorials.
I decided to go with the Crusaders for my look at the game, the other option being the Saracen, led by Salah ad-Din (or Saladin to us westerners). When you start up a campaign you’re given a brief cinematic and then launched straight into the world map, where you’re instantly met with tutorials to get you prepared for your first battle — and the world map is where much of the game’s depth lies.
You don’t simply just pick a battle and go into it. Sure, you could do that, but I can assure you that you wouldn’t get very far. You’re given a number of options on the world map to get you amply prepared for battle, such as purchasing new units, upgrading existing units and equipping items; all of which can be essential to winning a battle.
Adding even more depth, before you head into battle, you’re given various strategies from your military advisers. One adviser may suggest you storm a city from the north, while another will suggest that you storm it from the south. These decisions don’t simply just decide where on a map you’ll begin the battle; you’re given bonuses such as increased damage to city walls by your siege units and increasing the effectiveness of certain units based on whose strategy you decide to go into battle with.
The rest of the game’s depth comes from the battles themselves. Certain units will be more effective on certain terrain, while other units may be more effective at night. I quickly learned that making sure that your units are grouped up so as not to be caught off guard is important, as you never know when the AI might creep up on your sides without your knowing. In other words, strategy is important. Who’d have thought?
Minimalizing casualties and maximizing the effectiveness of your attacks gets more and more important the further into the game you go, and the satisfaction you get out of coming out of a skirmish with an overwhelming victory can feel pretty damn good. Having strategic options at your disposal that are both deep and accessible makes the game stand out nicely in a genre that can be scary to the casual player.
Graphically, the game looks nice. Each individual unit is rendered with high resolution textures and shader/lighting effects, and the cities and towns you’ll be doing battle in have just about as much detail in them. As such the game isn’t particularly friendly towards older PCs such as mine, so you should probably take the game’s recommended system requirements pretty seriously. This is a preview build however, so this may or may not addressed to some extent by the time the game is released.
I must say, I enjoyed the preview build of Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade much more than I expected to considering my lack of a background in RTS games that aren’t StarCraft. I can’t personally attest to how well it stands up to other games in the hardcore RTS niche, but I can safely say that it seems to stand up pretty well on its own merits. Intermediate and hardcore RTS fans alike may want to add this to their watch list.
Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade releases for the PC on October 8 for $39.99 and will be available both at retailers and through all leading digital distribution platforms.
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