Seven Kingdoms 2 HD

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 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.

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

Most Seven Kingdoms fans will tell you that the original game is the superior one. As someone who has consistently played both games since the very day of their release (see my Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries review) I can see why they would think so but I disagree. Let me explain. There is no doubt at all that Seven Kingdoms II was rushed. Like with the original game I still have the manual and it was basically copy and pasted from the first meaning that it was totally irrelevant to the game at hand. I remember as a kid being confused by the manual telling me that villages could hold a maximum of sixty people when in fact, Seven Kingdoms II allows a maximum of one hundred. There was a proper manual making the rounds online a few years back but I haven't seen it in a long time. The gameplay itself also suffered as a result of this rushed development with their being no balance at all between the fryhtan races and the human ones. Perhaps this was intentional but I doubt it because it's very possible to begin a game and have literally no hope against the fryhtan opponent deciding to rush you immediately. There are also a number of grammatical errors scattered throughout the game which struck me as clumsy even as a kid. All that aside though, I still say that this patched Seven Kingdoms II is easily on par with the original and in fact contains some new features which make it essential for any Seven Kingdoms fan. I wonder if Trevor Chan regretted titling his original game Seven Kingdoms because it kind of put him in something of a corner. In this game there are in fact twelve human kingdoms to play as, however a new addition is the ability to play as one of seven fryhtan (monster) races. Ah I guess the "Seven Kingdoms" thing works out after all. The fryhtan races play in the exact opposite manner as the human kingdoms with large scale destruction for resources, and indeed survival, being the order of the day. This offers a refreshing new slant on the Seven Kingdoms formula which remains largely the same as in the first game just with a few enhancements which make all the difference. For example rather than extracting peasants from their villages one by one which was always a tedius process in the original game, you can now remove caravans of ten at a time with no significant loss of loyalty. The human kingdoms themselves offer more than in the first game with each having a peasant unit, a regular soldier and an elite unit. Research now goes beyond war machines and into all kinds of areas such as military methodology, production, farming and espionage with your spies now having the ability to cause wars between two kingdoms. Something that is truly devastating. The random events have also been vastly improved. No longer are they always natural disasters. Sometimes a peasant might dig up some gold or some artifacts. Maybe a powerful hero will join your cause. These events can also be brought about by prayer which is an excellent idea because you don't always have a use for your God every time your prayer reaches its peak. There are some silly additions like the campaign which is pointless. The fun is still with the randomly generated maps. There is also the option to have large buildings which is so ridiculous it should have been removed from the game. With large buildings enabled the maps because too crowded too quickly. Actually if there is one complaint I have about Seven Kingdoms II it's that the maps are too small even with the building size set to small (which they will be anyway if you're sane). Aside from that, the host of enhancements I've already mentioned and all the rest I haven't often have me reaching for my Seven Kingdoms II CD instead of the original game. Yes it was rushed and there are a few rough edges, but it's still Seven Kingdoms as we know and love it, just with some great new features. Buy it.

An HD Remake of one of a definitive 4x RTS games, it holds up well today and if you can ever suffer through the learning curve (for which there is now a tutorial) the skirmish maps are great fun to play and the game can be very challenging.