Throne: Kingdom at War Review

Overview:

I’m a sucker for games set in the middle ages. There is something strangely attractive to this era, and judging from the popularity of Game of Thrones, I’m not the only one feeling this way. “Throne: Kingdom at War” is a real-time strategy game located in a medieval setting of powerful castles, violent assailants, and a horde of enemy players trying to get their hands on your resources. And let me tell you: Plarium created a real hit with this one! In line with their other releases, the graphics in Throne are excellent and highly realistic, which really adds to the attractiveness of the game.

In Kingdom at War, a player takes on the role of Lord whose purpose it is to build up his castle’s defense and prepare his army to fight a host of different opponents, ultimately striving to take the throne of the Kingdom of Amaria, which has been vacant since the death of the king. Like in any other game, you cannot excel and take a real shot at climbing the throne without putting in some hard work. It all starts with building up your resources and keeping them on a good level. To do that, and build up strength and power, you need to fulfill a range of different tasks: complete quests, plunder enemy resources, infiltrate keeps, research new technologies, train your hero, and more.

While fighting battles solo is an option, teaming up with allies to create or join an Order and participate in clan-based combat adds a very attractive social component to the game – one that enables you to participate in bigger battles and raids than you are able to on your own. Leadership qualities come in handy: if you feel the desire to bring those to the table, you can front your allies and lead your armies to victory!

Key features:

• Medieval town construction: build your castle from the ground up and make it a source of military reserves, allowing you to create new units, technologies, etc.
• Hero customization: develop your hero with skills that match your playing style, equip him with the best gear and earn bonuses to better your war efforts.
• Train & command an army: recruit a variety of units (knights, spearmen, scouts, cavalry, et cetera) to train and lead into battle.
• Join an order: create your own clan or combine forces with the armies of fellow Lords to work as a team when marching into battle.
• Global tournaments: playing tournaments can achieve players the King title, allowing them to issue other Lords reputation bonuses and collect tribute in silver.
• Free to play: no credit card required.

Deep-dive:

In “Throne: Kingdom at War”, set in the kingdom of Amaria, players fight each other for the vacant throne. For an experienced gamer, the basic elements of Kingdom at War will be very familiar: you’re starting off by bringing a struggling, small kingdom up to strength, helping its citizens to construct buildings. Not only does the kingdom need storage space to store its resources (food, lumber, stone, iron), but it also requires buildings for administrative purposes, necessary to improve resource gains, train and accommodate army units, modify equipment, and other supporting activities.

The game follows a well-known looping pattern of fighting, collecting and upgrading, with players attempting to increase their overall capacities up to the point of becoming the strongest kingdom in the game. While this pattern is similar to that of many other games in the genre, “Throne: Kingdom at War” has a few extras up its sleeve that make the game stand out from other games.

First of all, the graphics are of a quality level rarely matched – which seems to be the prerogative of Plarium games – giving the game a welcome touch of realism. Secondly, when your kingdom is on the rise and resources are growing, you can shift focus to the customization of your hero character. You can level up in different ways, but the logical place to start is to collect and create as much gear as possible to equip your hero with, so he or she can improve individual abilities as well as those of other units’ skills and strengths.

With your hero and your units up to strength, you’re ready to dive into the battle fighting part of the game. You can face opponents alone, or embrace the social aspect of the game and find others in your Order so you can play the game on a larger scale by taking part in bigger battles and raids and discover everything the combat system has to offer. After going through the initial setup of building your first resources, you’ll be looping through this pattern countless times: fight, collect, upgrade, fight, collect, upgrade, and so forth, trying to become the strongest kingdom of all and to take the vacant throne.

Standout features

Overall rating

“Throne: Kingdom at War” doesn’t set new trends for strategy games, but it does stand out for its fantastically detailed graphical quality. Besides that fact, which definitely enhances your gaming experience, the game offers a lot of different aspects and hides all kinds of cool features and options that make exploring a lot of fun. It also prioritizes the social element of gaming, keeping players tied to the game for a longer period of time, which is an accomplishment with the continuous flow of new releases. The way the social aspect of Kingdom at War has been set up, enabling players to really help each other and progress together by forming alliances, is a great way to keep players motivated to invest time in the game. Join an order yourself and go for the throne!