Warrior Kings

"Warriors Kings: Why Guns Are The Ultimate Weapon"

Warrior Kings is a rather bland and uninspired RTS made by some company ostentibly based in Montreal. First off, I would like to say this game likely is unsupported. I was compelled to search the internet for a patch for this game, as the link at the -official- site was nonfunctional. With this grim tidings, onward to the review.

Graphics:

The graphics of this game are simple. Units have some sense of scale, as one cannot mistake a horse mounted unit for one on foot; assuming a decent level of zoom. At a certain level, all but the largest pagan war machines look the same. However, none of the units made me feel inspired. Armies were built upon practicality, not on aesthetics.

As the graphics were utilitarian, they receive a 5 out of 10.

Gameplay:

Gameplay is not a shining point of this game. It is cumbersome and thoroughly annoying. Had I not been cheating, I likely would not have gotten as far as I had in the game. Units in your army are content to sit and be picked off by enemy archers. They are content to attack the first thing they run into; ignoring all orders to the contrary. Placing units in formation is equally useless: many times I had to disband the formation to get the units to move, even in column; a formation -intended- for speedy movement.

Trying to built certain vital structures, such as those that produce military units, is a chore at best. They all must be built around a manor, and searching for the shadow of the building to turn green is irksome. Oh, and you didn't know you had to right click to build something? Congratulations, you've unselected your peasant. Did I mention that the hotkeys are not printed in the manual? Lovely.

Balance is non-existant. Even the use of the tough mode cheat was insufficient to prevent ten enemy archers from slaughtering 45 of my squires (who were travelling downhill, which the game asserts is the best way for them to attack). Archers rules. In one level, I was reduced to churning out mangonel after mangonel in order to level towers which no other units could deal with, and casualties remained high.

Mission objectives had some variety, however, they fell into three categories: go somewhere, bring someone somewhere, and destroy something. I gave up when I found my 3/4s finished a map, and missing the main character, and thus unable to complete the level. Despite my most careful searching, I found myself without Arthos. I had just wasted 3 tediously spent hours of gameplay.

Gameplay receives 0.

Ultimately, this game is excellent to teach anyone claiming a swordsman can defeat a gunman the error of his ways. 100 heavy infantry on flat ground is insufficient to defeat 10 archers.

In all honesty, I did not pay the 10 dollars the other reviewer did. No, gentle readers, I did not steal the game (Though I would have been doing the store a favor); it was free with the expansion set for Warcraft 3. That is correct, gentle readers, I got this game for free. Unless you've done the same, you've wasted money.

In all likelyhood, spending that ten dollars on a meal at McDonald's would have given you more long and short term enjoyment.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/03, Updated 07/20/03