Hero of the Kingdom

It does what it is supposed to do: Make the time go away with a nice look, a standard story and not much to think about. Today it was the right game to play and I liked it.

I saw the pictures on this game and it looked pretty nice. I was expecting some kind of Settlers or Age of Empires look-a-like game but in this beautiful world. But what did I get? Some kind of mobile game. It was basically no interactions, no characters moving, you couldn't control anything. It was just clicking on all highlighted places opening up a popup with yes or no. Clicking around everywhere and then stuff just disappeared from the world and you could proceed. If you're a fan of Clash of Clans and similar mobile games, maybe it's for you - but imagine Clash of Clans in single player. This is basically what this is. No no, I wasted my money. To be fair to the game, I played it for 10 minutes, so maaaybe there is a chance it will get better the more time you give the game. If that's the case you can ignore this comment. But those 10 minutes did not catch me even a second.

Looking at the screenshots you would expect this game to be a city construction game, but that's not the case. It's kind of a strange mix between Baldur's Gate, Were's Wally and Minecraft with a very clunky interface that ultimately feels like a mobile game. You never see your character and instead interact with the world through the map screens by clicking on people, flowers, animals, whatever to gather resources, shop at a merchant or progress the plot. The plot is very generic with the typical random boy who suddenly becomes a hero. The story clearly has elements lifted directly from other games and does nothing interesting with the formula. There are a couple of hours of gameplay here, more if you go for all of the achievements (which I have to admit, I did). It's certainly not worth full price and is quite forgettable really.

This is basically an all-ages-appropriate (content wise) browser/mobile adventure (not an RPG) game without the paywalls endemic to the genre. It is pretty middle-of-the-road for that kind of game, but effectively zero stress. No timers, no RNG, no planning builds, etc. I was looking for something to wind down at night with and this fit the bill. Total game length was just over 4 hours, with 90%-95% of the core game done (a very conservative run though). Pros: Effectively stress free. Cons: Some poor UX/UI items; only main questline is tracked (even that tracking is a bit a spotty), can only buy/sell one item at a time (really only matters for grinding cash), etc. Story is very generic and linear. Ending feels rushed like the developer(s) ran out of budget/patience. Re-reviewing cleared ground for new items to pick up can be a bit tedious. Conclusion: If a casual adventure game is the ask, this will do the trick adequately enough. The game almost certainly won't excite or thrill you, but that isn't always a bad thing. Full price is a bit high for what it brings to the table though, so save it for a sale. Gameplay Hint: By the end of the first 1/3rd of the game or so, you can effectively print as much money as you want through making bread and selling it as long as you have at least 35 gold to begin with.