Kingdom: New Lands

I am in awe! Whoever coded this was a true genius! If I've had played this game as 3-4 years old like I did 8-bit games back in the days this game would give me every possible stimuli to utilize my imagination fully! It has so much love and intelligence within. So much spirit! I'd bet you won't find anything as inordinarily combined as this masterpiece. On one side the most simplest concept of 2D horizontally exclusive scrolling, pixel graphic style, zero dialogue, where you need only 3(!) control keys to fully play the whole game and only 2 UI elements. Just as simple as back in the 8-bit times. On the other side such remarkable deeply thought complex system of gameplay which feels so natural and beautiful. Very fluid learning curve, forced practice after each failed game, steady unlocks of further bonuses which makes the hard game doable after a failure. And it is all composed in such natural elegant and believable way that makes perfect sense! And tons of small details. I would never think you can put so many detailed animations and effects, day-night cycle, weather, 4-season year and little things... all this in simple 2D horizontally exclusive scrolling, pixel graphic style harmonized with very pretty music score... This is the true evolution of the true game spirit. This here is the evidence you don't really need that much of graphical technologies and overly complex menus and whatnot to make a WONDERFUL GAME with top playability, beauty and spirit that stimulates your imagination.

Kingdom: New Lands is a superb 2d stategy game with rich retro graphics, but this version is outdated, missing "Skull Island" DLC. The good - very nice retro gfx - nice art, music - unique gameplay The bad - short (5 islands only) - GOG version is missing the plus DLC island level.

The biggest problem with this game is the way the maps are generated, they have a bit of randomness to them, sadly this can completely fuck you over and doom your playthrough. I once had a start without bunny's, without deer, without a merchant, with only a single farm that was a ways out and on top of all that the trees were placed in such a way that it hampered rapid expansion. I also had not yet unlocked any gold generating mounts so I was just plain fucked over. The other problem is you have to start over from the very first island every time you die. You have to play the useless first island every time. The game also always starts with the tutorial enabled, and while the tutorial messages are skippable you can't disable them. The game also gives no options to change the sex of your character and the colours of your kingdom, you just get what the RGN gods give you and if you don't like it you have to start a new game, which makes you sit through a loading screen every time. It's just annoying and sad that something so simple to implement isn't in the game. It has some cool looking shield emblems and colour combinations but also a lot of shitty ones, it's so disappointing you can't even choose your gender. The AI of your people has improved over the first game, which is nice to see, still not perfect but it helps a lot. You can still get into these spirals of losing everything you worked for with but a single wrongly spent coin, this game really needs a way to undo spent coins so you can at least correct mistakes. It's also nice that your own catapults can no longer harm you. But the archers are as poor shots as ever, I've seen whole waves of arrows from 20+ archers hit nothing but your own wall multiple times in a row. All problems aside this can be a fun game if luck is on your side and you don't mind having to figure out everything by trial and error. It is very a beautiful game with amazing pixel art that has a great atmosphere.

I don't get it. I've even tried watching some let's plays of this game. I still don't get it.

Beautiful, but mostly frustrating.