King Athur : the Druid

The DrThe developers at Neocore Games have delivered yet another point of view to the story of King Arthur, this one more concerned to the Old Faith and the old customs that seem to be dying under the assault of Christianity, Saxon rulers and a new order, where mysticism is banished and the heroes of old times are overcome by rigorously trained newcomers.

uids is significant because it allows the gamer to enjoy playing as some of the toughest enemies he faced in the original King Arthur campaign and because they manage to add some new features that, once used at least one, seem crucial to the whole system, like the new diplomatic relations and the extended interactions with non-factional characters.

With Neocore Games and their publisher, Paradox Interactive, already announcing that they are working on King Arthur II, it's clear that campaign offered in The Druids is the best for this first incarnation of the strategy franchise so all those who picked up the original and liked it should be interested in it.

Gameplay

Largely, the formula in The Druids is the same as that of the original and The Saxons expansion, with season-based turns defining the strategic layer while battles between two armies are delivered via real time strategy mechanics that are similar to those of Total War.

The battles are thoroughly enjoyable and engaging from a tactical standpoint. Survivability is still the key in the battle design of the people at Neocore Games, meaning that I often threw inexperienced troops en masse at an enemy in order to conserve my more upgraded veterans, who had endured the most difficult part of the battle earlier. The battle system often leads to situations where casualty tables are pretty close, but where one side gains a significant advantage because of the forces it manages to conserve for another day.

It's nice to use the sometimes too capable warriors of the Welsh, like the Springborn and the very good archers, but make sure to play at least on Normal and, better yet, on Hard, in order to get a sense of challenge, especially if you are a veteran of this subgenre of the strategy world.

Also, the fact that the player gets access to the Welsh is a good reason for actually not checking the “Weaker Archers” box in the Gameplay options tab, because the awesome tools of destruction that are faction specific longbowmen can now be unleashed on enemies with impressive results.

The biggest addition to the campaign map is the diplomacy tab, which allows the player to interact with the other kingdoms that are fighting for control other than through sharp blades and magical devastation, allowing for peace treaties, alliances and threats.

The most important and interesting interactions are not with the kings themselves, even if threats can bring in some nice food and gold in the mid-game, but with independent organizations like the Sidhe or a thieves consortium, which at the least need to be bribed in order to protect the gamer's kingdom but can also be used as effective offensive weapons in the late game.

There are also heroes that can be recruited through diplomacy and princesses that can be vowed until they accept a marriage proposal from the king.
When setting the player-controlled objectives of the campaign, make sure that you set them as far ahead into the future as possible, so that you don't actually win before the The Druids shows off everything it has hidden under the hood.

Even if players can now control their victory conditions, Neocore Games has also offered their story-based objective in game, on a separate track, guiding the player through the experience and managing to tell an interesting story without intruding too much into the experience of the gamer.

One knock against The Druids is that I felt less of a connection to anything that happened to my characters and my heroes than when playing with Arthur himself and with the Knights of the Round Table in the initial campaign. There's a smaller connection to the lore that many gamers are familiar with and, even if the developers have taken every effort to explain things and deliver backstory, this leads to less interest and I could see a lot of people quitting before completing all of the objectives.

Graphics and audio

King Arthur – The Role Playing Wargame is a good looking game even if it doesn't aim for the huge diversity that has become the calling card for the Total War series with Empire and Napoleon. The units that fight it out on the battlefield offer details where variety is lacking and the animations might be a bit crude at times, but the player will spend most of its battle time zoomed out and directing wide tactical moves, not zoomed in and watching two heroes slug it out for a few minutes.

There are some areas that are truly impressive, like the effects for some of the spells, with Storm of Avalon the real highlight (although it can make actually directing the battle a bit harder), and the strategic map is lush and alive, able to make the player at home in this fantastic version of Britannia.

The game could benefit from a better control system for adjusting the angle of the camera and from more visual cues to help the gamer distinguish units when zoomed out completely.

The developers at Neocore Games get bonus points for their attention to detail, especially the big amounts of flavor text that are linked to locations, spells, characters and side quests. Be warned that some of the longer texts can be a bit tough to read because they sometimes need to be cramped in small screen spaces.

The sounds are also adequate for the task at hand, except for the phrases that the generals say when moving around the map, which can get very old very quickly. The battle soundtrack is especially nice, rousing and well suited for the clash of giant magic and steel wielding armies.