If you've played a Spiderweb Software game before, you know what you're looking at. Low-budget art assets, tile-based maps, not much in the way of sound or music. But what you do get is story and text, and a lot of it. Continuing later from the first game, and letting you import some of your decisions from it, you're thrust into another 'get this unruly province under control' mission. If you liked the first game, you'll like this one too. The game has been streamlined, however, in good ways. The fort-building mechanic returns, where every upgrade you set either gives you an upgrade or upgrades the equipment you can acquire at your base, which is important because the best non-accessory equipment is bought, not found. It's easier to manage theft this time around, if you're careful. The biggest change, and improvement in my mind, is that rather than supporting one of two factions in each region, you're managing respect and opinion on three axes. What do the natives think of you, what does the Royal Family think of you, and are you seen as violent or quiescent? All of them will have major effects in the game; and oftentimes making the "morally right" choice will hamstring you. You're royalty, you have to play politics to get ahead. You have to make the choice between doing the right thing for a couple of people, or being effective at changing the course of an entire nation. There's a new weight to the feeling of what you do. If you're interested in a game with intrigue, where you can make decisions that have both long- and short-term consequences, even if you can't see them from the start. If you don't mind lower-quality art assets, and walls of text explaining what is occurring instead of long cutscenes, this might be for you.
