Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Neocore Games
System requirements: Windows XP (SP3)/Vista (SP2)/Win 7, 2 GHz Core 2 Duo or equivalent CPU, 1.5 GB RAM (XP)/2 GB (Vista, Win7), 512 MB Nvidia 8800 GT/ATI 3850 or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c or better, 16 GB hard-drive space
Genre: RTS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Neocore Games has returned to their flagship title with a sequel. It’s time to return to Britannia and continue the adventures of King Arthur and his knights. This time, the player doesn’t rule as Arthur, but as Arthur’s son, desperately trying to heal the land and his father, and save the realm from demonic hordes. With plenty of combat to go around, and plenty of story with which to engage, Neocore is very ambitious with their new offering, attempting to capture and meld both strategy and role-playing genres.

To understand King Arthur II, you have to understand how the game tries to be both a strategy game and a role-playing game. As an RTS, you move your armies around the map and engage in real-time battles, complete with formations, special attacks and weather modifiers. As an RPG, you use your avatar (one of the main characters in the story) to interact with adventures and pre-battle role-playing sequences. These sections change the course of the game by providing you with strategic and moral choices. Sometimes you ally with one faction. Other times, you slaughter helpless villagers to prevent demonic infestation from taking root. And still other times, you end up changing your religious outlook by backing the Old Faith or Christianity. It’s really an eclectic setup.

In the strategy side, you manage both your lands and armies. Various provinces you own generate either lore (tech research) or special buffs for your armies. Acquiring new units or repairing damaged units requires gold, which can only be obtained by winning battles, solving adventures, and selling magical items that you don’t want or need. This means you can’t gain anything by spending time doing nothing, as you earn no gold for standing around in your armor looking handsome. You must constantly seek out new battles or adventures to continue your advancement.

The real-time battles involve a number of interesting battlefields, with terrain, weather, and supernatural effects. Since the game has a significant amount of supernatural stuff, armies can be composed of good ol’ fashioned spearmen, exotic shape-changers, religious zealots, and even flying monsters. The standard spears-versus-cavalry-versus-archers motif is complicated by these other tactical considerations, since flying units are only vulnerable to certain enemies, spellcasters gain certain benefits from certain combat conditions, and magical items modify the abilities of your leader. Add to this the fact that your own hero might have different abilities based on your class and moral choices, and you end up with satisfying battles that present you with interesting options.