A couple of questions concerning AI and story/gameplay and multiplayer.

[unmerged(82704)]

Hello guys.

I haven't played King Arthur 1 and I actually wanted to ask a question about that game when I saw King Arthur 2 was released.
To me the timespan seems rather short and could speak of lacking quality and complexity.
But this is not necessarily the case as it could simply have had a good foundation to build on (King Arthur 1?)

My first question is straightforward:
The AI.
Is it good?
More importantly...does it have very stupid moments where it does very stupid things that ruin the game and that you must consider all the time as not to exploit for them being "gamey"?


My second question is about the story and complexity of the game:
Do I need to buy King Arthur 1 to understand / follow in KA2?
Is the story good? Is there alot of depth to it?
Does the game run smoothly?

Some of you may know the game "Elemental war of Magic". An extremely interesting concept that fell flat of its promises and became a buggy and sluggish adventure instead.



My last question is about Multiplayer.
You guys like it?
Does it exist?




That's all Cheers.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

My first question is straightforward:
The AI.
Is it good?
More importantly...does it have very stupid moments where it does very stupid things that ruin the game and that you must consider all the time as not to exploit for them being "gamey"?

Call it run of the mill in the tactical battles and for all practical purposes non-existent in the paper-thin strategic layer. It is capable of occasionally performing tactical maneouvers that will catch inexperienced players off guard.

My second question is about the story and complexity of the game:
Do I need to buy King Arthur 1 to understand / follow in KA2?

No.

Is the story good? Is there alot of depth to it?

The story gets points for originality.

Does the game run smoothly?

On my computer, yes. However, my computer is a state of the art gaming computer. Some players with older computers near or above the recommended specs have reported serious problems.

Some of you may know the game "Elemental war of Magic". An extremely interesting concept that fell flat of its promises and became a buggy and sluggish adventure instead.

KA2 is quite buggy but it is nowhere near the bug-infested misery that was E:WoM, and unlike E:WoM, it does not fall flat on its promises.

KA2 is a disappointment to many KA1 fans because the aspects that made it stand out from the crowd, for good and bad, have been significantly reduced in scope or killed off. What is left is a much more conventional game that pretends to be open (huge campaign map, free movement, choose-your-own adventures!) but in practice hedges the player with restrictions to prevent him from making any mistakes or, indeed, making any meaningful choices apart from choosing which army to bring to the next tactical battle and which items to equip, while goosestepping him through objectives to fit the narrative. (On the other hand, it must be mentioned that there were also many players of the first game that were frustrated by their ability to commit strategic mistakes and having to make choices rather than be told exactly what to do at every stage of the game; it is possible that the new format appeals to them.)

Overall, this is a good but rather buggy game; Bugs aside, it is solid craftsmanship coupled with an innovative setting, and a lot of work has gone into delivering a strong singleplayer campaign storyline, something that is so seldom seen in games these days.

My last question is about Multiplayer.
You guys like it?
Does it exist?

No multiplayer that I have noticed. (But I wasn't looking.)

 

[frenchfrank]

Don't have much more to say that Peter Ebbesen didn't.

Regarding how the game runs though... I use a laptop and game runs fine. Yet most technical complaints were from people owning high powered rigs apparently, so make of that what you will.

 

[unmerged(82704)]

Thanks for the reply. Basically I should buy King Arthur 1 then?
I love making mistakes and paying for them.

One of my all-time favourite games is the ancient classic "Warhammer: Dark Omen".
Not only was the AI for the time state of the art and the physics engine something you had never seen before but you could actually CONTINUE battling on if you lost a battle. In most cases turning a loss into a string of victories is near impossible; you either don't have the money to reinforce your army or you've lost some serious possibilities thanks to loosing the battle like artifacts and rewards.
But in some cases, especially late-game and early-game you can actually do it. Heck, there are a few battles worth "surrendering" on if you want to play around a bit.

Still hoping for a game like that.
Anyway it seems King Arthur 1 also got far better reviews than King Arthur 2 and I'm really looking for a substitute to E:WoM that I bought on a whim...and well you know the rest ;-) "Whyyyyyyyyy..."

 

[frenchfrank]

Warhammer Dark Omen you say?

You want King Arthur 2 then. I've been reccomending it to my friends on the basis that it is warhammer dark omen's spiritual successor in the feel of its campaign (for its AI though... Mmm, well I found challenging difficulty in ka2 just right for me but im not the best wargamer so not best person to gauge ai effectiveness at all)
Although I don't remember being able to surrender or lose battles o0 Granted I played the ps1 version so might have been different or I simply missed the option.

Ka1 leans more towards total war.

I don't feel E:WoM can be compared to either king arthur games though, civilization series seems closest but well tbh I'd be hard pressed to think of any game that comes close to what E:WoM was trying to do (if such a game exists I'd love to try it though)

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Warhammer Dark Omen you say?

You want King Arthur 2 then. I've been reccomending it to my friends on the basis that it is warhammer dark omen's spiritual successor in the feel of its campaign (for its AI though... Mmm, well I found challenging difficulty in ka2 just right for me but im not the best wargamer so not best person to gauge ai effectiveness at all)
Although I don't remember being able to surrender or lose battles o0 Granted I played the ps1 version so might have been different or I simply missed the option.

That was how you got the most awesome ending battle! For every key objective you failed to achieve (defeating the vampire lord, destroying the undead grail knights etc.) the last battle got harder as they were present.

Overall, I feel that KA2 is closer to the later Warhammer: Battle March than to Warhammer: Dark Omen due in part to the multiple heroes pursuing independent tactical battles in an ordered sequence and also due in part to Dark Omen having, well, more character - in particular a strongly characterized main character, Morgan Bernhardt while KA2s and Battle March's characters have little character, so to speak.

 

[frenchfrank]

^Seriously? Well you've given me a great reason to replay dark omen Still have the disk somewhere around...
I knew that end of act battles were affected by how much time you took getting there (as klaus kept "gently" reminding you), but not that you could actually fail them...
I'm guessing that if you also lost the steam tank too then you really were screwed for it xP

I never played Battle March so can't comment on that. Whilst we are on the topic you think it's worth tracking down?

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

^Seriously?

Yes, seriously. IIRC it was only the key quests (vampire lord, black grail, hand of Nagash), but adding in all those to the final battle by deliberately failing would presumably make the final battle very, very, hard with or without the steam tank.

I never played Battle March so can't comment on that. Whilst we are on the topic you think it's worth tracking down?

Hmm.. The campaigns are definitely not up to Dark Omen quality, but they are solid and the game mechanics are mostly well implemented. If you can find it with a discount, I would say it is definitely worth snapping up for any lover of Dark Omen.

 

[frenchfrank]

^Allrighties, cheers for the input