Seven Kingdoms 2

E-mail a friend about this product:

To:

Message:

Addresses will be only used to send this message

Send me a copy

Your message is on its way

Thank you for spreading the word. Do you want to send another e-mail?

Share it on the web:

Twitter

del.icio.us

Facebook

...or search in:

News

Support

genre

download size

avg. user rating

release date

compatible with

developer / publisher

available lang.

strategy / real-time / fantasy

111 MB

based on 122 customer votes.

July 31, 1999

Windows XP & Windows Vista (32 & 64 bit)

Enlight Software / Enlight Software

English

buy for $5.99

or add to cart to buy more with one order

manual (90 pages)

soundtrack

click on selected thumbnail to enlarge

Welcome to the world of Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars, a world of intrigue and diplomacy, of trade and industry, of betrayal, espionage and conquest...
Take control of any of twelve emerging Human civilizations: Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, Mongol, Greek, Roman, Carthaginian, Norman, Viking or Celt.
Or you may choose to play as one of seven Fryhtan races and experience a completely different type of gameplay. A style of play where fair dealing and mercy count for little.

Seven Kingdoms II gives you heroes, 3D rolling terrain, a Random Campaign Generator, an incredible number of fighting units and weapons, more beautiful and detailed buildings than you will know what to do with, expanded espionage and research capabilities and numerous other new features.

Age requirements: ESRB Rating: TEEN with Blood, Violence.

Minimum system requirements: Windows XP or Windows Vista, 1.8 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM (1 GB recommended), 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended), 2GB HDD, Mouse, Keyboard.

ALIEN NATIONS

strategy, real-time

EARTH 2150 TRILOGY

strategy, real-time

EVIL GENIUS

strategy, real-time

Knights and Merchants: THE PEASANTS...

strategy, real-time

SEVEN KINGDOMS: ANCIENT...

strategy, real-time

Average customer rating 4.0 out of 5.0

Incredible Strategic Depth in Here :) (by downloadmunkey

downloadmunkey)

On first look, the graphics in Seven Kingdoms 2 may seem rather unappealing due to the empty and lifeless maps (the unit and building graphics are beautifully painted though). Beneath those simple and functional graphics however, lies a very deep strategic core. Like any other RTS, the military option to eliminate your opponents is always available but there're more indirect, subtle... full review and equally viable ways to win in Seven Kingdoms 2 via diplomatic intrigues, espionage or economic warfare.

Players who are accustomed to conventional RTSes might find Seven Kindgoms 2 a refreshing change from the usual routine of gathering resources, building an overwhelming superiority in units before steamrolling over the enemy.

Money in Seven Kingdoms 2 can be earned from trade, tributes, taxes and war. With this money, you train troops, research new nation-specific units, build war machines like catapults and ballistae or hire powerful mercenaries and heroes to gain a military edge over your opponents, which can be one of 12 mighty human nations from Carthaginian to Viking or one of 7 monstrous Fryhtan races out to enslave humans.

While building up your armies in Seven Kingdoms 2, it's essential to keep a close eye on the amount of money flowing in and out of your treasury. Though it makes sense to haev a large and better trained army than you enemy, a large standing army incurs substantial upkeep costs while not being fruitfully engaged in war and the spiralling costs can easily wreck the economy. An empty treasury of course means that troops start losing morale or desert due to unpaid wages and buildings like forts, mines and buildings start falling to bits. Killing enemy troops and sacking buildings does help to offset the costs of maintaining armies though.

Each nation trains a different infantry unit by default, from Japanese samurai to Roman legionnaires. Another special unit for each nation can be trained upon further research from magic-blasting Celtic druids to Egyptian chariots which will determine the tactics in battle. Conquering enemy or neutral towns of other nationalities grants you access to different units to complement and provide more well-rounded and flexible armies.

Other than the troop types, the special abilities of the greater being for each nation will affect the choice of nation to lead. Some players may prefer fearsome offensively-oriented gods like Thor of the Vikings who hurls lighting bolts at the enemies while others might be more interested in Isis of the Egyptians who grants population bonuses to your towns allowing more troops and workers to be trained. The sheer variety of nations makes Seven Kingdoms 2 an exceedingly replayable game. And that's excluding the Frythans (unfortunately only available in skirmish and not the campaign) which require vastly different strategies to win.

As mentioned earlier, diplomacy and espionage play an important role in Seven Kingdom 2. While the AI is sneaky enough to infiltrates spies into your forts or towns in the heat of battle and turn the loyalties of your generals and troops and provoke dissent and rebellion, I believe that these options would be better experienced in multiplayer games with humans rather than the AI.

In summary excellent for gamers who crave a game with more strategic depth than conventional games of the genre.

0 comments

Was this review helpful to you?

(34 users agree with this review)

Another seven kingdoms, does that make fourteen? (by lesslucid

lesslucid)

It's difficult to know quite how to rate this game. In many ways, it is an improvement over its predecessor, the excellent SK1, with new buildings, new units, new civilisations, and a whole new way to play (when using the dreaded Frythans). For someone who's experienced everything the first game had to offer, this maintains the same foundations while building all kinds of cool stuff... full review

0 comments

Was this review helpful to you?

(9 users agree with this review)

Great gameplay, not a great game (by frostcircus

frostcircus)

Seven Kingdoms II is an interesting game. It also doesn't really work.... full review

Its claim to fame is its blend of classic RTS gameplay and deep strategy. It does this well; the game has some great mechanics and some clever approaches to the genre. Personally I think it has a few -too many- clever approaches to the genre, often leading to analysis paralysis, but it's not terribly overwhelming. Besides, the action can be paused at any time to allow for more relaxed decision-making. The basic gameplay is well-balanced, intelligent, intuitive and unique.

So where does it go wrong? Well, the campaign is awful, for one thing. It's a series of random events, resulting in random levels to play in. A good idea in theory, but the results are such a mixed bag that it makes the whole campaign unsatisfying to play. A memorable example had an enemy kingdom trespassing on my land, with the briefing warning me to hold back and take my time to build an army large enough to crush the invaders. Then I saw that right next to where the game had placed the enemy army, it had also placed an army of my own, with numbers far outweighing the opposition. I won that level without doing anything. This is not good design.

The game has a steep learning curve, but this is alleviated by a decent set of tutorials. However, there are a few clarity issues - for instance, the trading/economy tutorial tasks you with increasing your Economy and Population scores to a certain amount. Neither the tutorial nor the manual explain in any way how these scores relate to your in-game performance, leaving the player totally blind. Overall though, the tutorials do a good job of teaching a newcomer how the game works.

Graphics are a bit ugly. They definitely haven't aged as gracefully as those of the original. Over-detailed, show-offy, but also crudely-animated; the overall result is a cluttered mess. Higher resolutions would help alleviate this, but sadly aren't available. The game's maximum of 1024x768 is usually enough for a 2D strategy game, but the buildings and units are all quite large (even on 'small' mode), and I always find myself wishing I could zoom out further. And the sound effects are terrible.

You'll be noticing a lot of negativity here, and wondering why I still gave this a 3. It's because the mechanics of the game are good. Really, really good. If you stick to the custom single game option, you'll have enormous fun. But I can't give a high score based on this one mode of the game. The bad campaign and overly-specific single missions are too disappointing to ignore.

This is a game with a lot of great ideas and some brilliant mechanics - but they've largely gone to waste. If only Trevor had hired some level designers, we'd have had a classic on our hands. As it is, I can recommend the game to any RTS fan or people looking for a solid strategy game - just know that you'll be playing single, custom missions.