Questions to those who own the game

[Jinxinx]

Greetings people! I just played the demo and have some questions. I've always been interested in King Arthur since I'd love a fantasy themed Total War'ish game. However I skipped the first one because somehow the demo felt lacking, and sadly that's what I feel here too.

1. Is everything you do in the game in the demo? A text quest, a fight, some upgrades. Is that really all? Do the text quests get more at least more choice than the tutorial one? I read about removal of kingdom management, but I didn't play the first game so that doesn't tell me all that much. Is that gorgeous campaign map really just for show?

2. Is the performance of the demo what I can expect from the full product? I have i7 2600k and gtx560ti, I'm fairly certain that I should be getting more than 15 fps in the battles.

3. Does the game feel more involving than the demo? The demo battle felt somehow very bland (guess that's why I didn't play the first one either). The audio didn't really sound like there'd be much fighting happening. I didn't really know what was happening either, dudes swung with swords and trees covered most of it. I tried casting the crystal shards spell everytime the cooldown allowed, but never saw anything happen. I didn't get a clue how my units performed really. Part of the blandess is surely from the low performance but did any of you try the demo, feel the same, buy the game and feel better about it?

4. Is there more options in the full game? Mainly I'd love to have borderless window mode.

5. How does the campaign play out? Are there moving enemies? Are there factions? Does the AI fight back or is the game just about moving forward questing or what? The demo didn't make any of this clear.

6. Finally, what's the best thing in the game for you? Why do you love it (or play it at least)?

Thanks in advance for helping, I've become more cautious in purchases after some bad investments.

 

[DrakenLord]

1. Yes those are the main things. The game is about 50% text quests and 50% battles, even though i am having to skip battles (auto resolve) because i am getting 15 fps like you.

2. I didn't play the demo. But performance seems to be better on smaller maps like the DLC, and slower on the big main campaign map. (For me DLC gets 30fps and main game 15fps.)

3. I didn't play the demo, I played the DLC which was free with preorders. The main game is immersive, but the roman DLC was a lot more immersive imo.

4. No need for window mode. You can alt tab easily between the full screen game and other applications. I even alt tab when the game is loading the map or battles.

5. I am currently at chapter 3 (there are 5 of them), and so far everything seem scripted. As in the AI will wait and only attack you when you reach certein points. Ofc there are many provinces and many "factions" so each triggers at some point.

6. I play games because I enjoy the story telling in them (I also read a lot of books). King arthur is somewhat the closest game you can get to reading a book, since the text adventures put you in many situations that other games won't or can't. I guess the short answer is the uniqueness of it.

If money is not an issue for you i recommend you buy the DLC first for $10 and see how you like it. I feel like the DLC shows what kind of game this is, and it also shows it at its best. If you like what you see then get the main game, if you don't you would have spent 10$ only. Also even if you don't like the genre i think you will enjoy the DLC as a standalone since it is short and well done.

 

[Jinxinx]

If money is not an issue for you i recommend you buy the DLC first for $10 and see how you like it. I feel like the DLC shows what kind of game this is, and it also shows it at its best. If you like what you see then get the main game, if you don't you would have spent 10$ only. Also even if you don't like the genre i think you will enjoy the DLC as a standalone since it is short and well done.

This was a great idea but it actually requires the base game to play. Thanks for the answers, waiting for some more input because so far I'm thinking it's not worth full price for me

 

[unmerged(411739)]

The demo's representative in all respects. Battles will probably improve as you work out what's happening. But the game is not Total War: Camelot. As DL says, things progress by offering you choices of scripted quests, not really by your plotting your military advance over ancient Britain.

 

[agentmsn]

Hello tlvs,

I didn't play the demo, or even the prologue, as I did not pre-order. I had never played KA1, and while I enjoyed Shogun back when that was new I never got into the Total War series that followed.

That said while I am/was waiting for my AHD and CK2 Fix, I took some time to watch the 40-50 minute long play through of the prologue (dead legions), on the official Paradox Stream.

Which you can find here, http://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive/b/304521250

I thought it looked different and interesting, and I had some extra cash so I took the chance and bought it. And I have to say I think it was worth it. While the battle camera troubles me (grr), I otherwise have been having a great deal of fun with the game and would recommend it to a friend, and thus to a total stranger like you.

At the very least if you have a few minutes to check out the vid you can see for yourself what the actual game play is like and make a reasonably informed choice.

Enjoy, and best regards.

 

[unmerged(433050)]

Greetings people! I just played the demo and have some questions. I've always been interested in King Arthur since I'd love a fantasy themed Total War'ish game. However I skipped the first one because somehow the demo felt lacking, and sadly that's what I feel here too.

1. Is everything you do in the game in the demo? A text quest, a fight, some upgrades. Is that really all? Do the text quests get more at least more choice than the tutorial one? I read about removal of kingdom management, but I didn't play the first game so that doesn't tell me all that much. Is that gorgeous campaign map really just for show?

Not sure which quest was in the demo, but some of the text quests can get quite long with many options.

2. Is the performance of the demo what I can expect from the full product? I have i7 2600k and gtx560ti, I'm fairly certain that I should be getting more than 15 fps in the battles.

I can't say other than check the performance thread in the bug section, some people have differing ideas what settings make it run better, but it's just too individual a question. I can run it pretty darn good on my old laptop with integrated graphics.

3. Does the game feel more involving than the demo? The demo battle felt somehow very bland (guess that's why I didn't play the first one either). The audio didn't really sound like there'd be much fighting happening. I didn't really know what was happening either, dudes swung with swords and trees covered most of it. I tried casting the crystal shards spell everytime the cooldown allowed, but never saw anything happen. I didn't get a clue how my units performed really. Part of the blandess is surely from the low performance but did any of you try the demo, feel the same, buy the game and feel better about it?

I pre-ordered, so didn't do the demo. The new graphics for crystal shards are inferior to the first game in my opinion. The sounds are not great, no. So, I can see your point. But, there are more impressive spells and effects out there.

4. Is there more options in the full game? Mainly I'd love to have borderless window mode.

Honestly don't know...

5. How does the campaign play out? Are there moving enemies? Are there factions? Does the AI fight back or is the game just about moving forward questing or what? The demo didn't make any of this clear.

As Drakenlord said, it seems scripted to attack at specific intervals based on your actions. At least thus far, I'm only in chapter 2 and haven't really been going on a rampage, though.

6. Finally, what's the best thing in the game for you? Why do you love it (or play it at least)?

Thanks in advance for helping, I've become more cautious in purchases after some bad investments.

I'm a sucker for King Arthur. I've read virtually everything on it, and I loved the details they put into the first game. As such, the text choose your own adventures are easily the best part of this game, and I enjoy the lore and storyline. Second would be the RPG elements of the individual knights, though that part was stronger in the first game...

 

[DrakenLord]

This was a great idea but it actually requires the base game to play. Thanks for the answers, waiting for some more input because so far I'm thinking it's not worth full price for me

I think the DLC is stand alone. At least i think i remember someone on the forums who only bought the DLC and not the main game and was able to play just fine.

 

[unmerged(411739)]

 

[Jinxinx]

Thanks for the replies, the video link was especially informative and helpful. Game isn't what I thought it was, but it was interesting in it's own right. However I must wait for some patching to be done because the demo performance isn't acceptable and the fps issues thread seems pretty dire. I'll check back later with my wallet to see if you get the performance right Neocore, good luck.

 

[DrakenLord]

The guy who bought the DLC said it also granted him the main game. I don't know if that issue is still valid, but i know for a fact that he said he was able to PLAY the dlc without buying the full game.

 

[unmerged(433483)]

This is true I beat Dead Legions before the main game was available so theres no need to buy it, unless fall in love with the prologue like most of us have this was a must buy for me.

 

[Susana]

The guy who bought the DLC said it also granted him the main game. I don't know if that issue is still valid, but i know for a fact that he said he was able to PLAY the dlc without buying the full game.

That was a pre-order deal that ran before the game was released. The DLC is not stand alone.

Kind regards
Susana

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Based on my experiences with previous Neocore titles, three questions to those who have played or tested it extensively:

1. Is the game unstable on release? Previous titles were known for being crash prone, especially during tactical combat, and, in some cases, never having crashes fixed despite the best and earnest efforts of Neocore to address this issue.
2. Are unit/champion/item abilities actually working upon release or mostly working? Previous games had several abilities that either did not work at all or did not work as intended, which any observant player would notice with only a little playing. Has Neocore improved in this respect?
3. Do quests terminate as intended? King Arthur launched with a few dangling quests that frequently wouldn't terminate and with a handful of choose-your-own-adventures that didn't have a terminating point returning control to the main map, requiring you to quit the game and reload. In short, are there any real issues with quests?

This may seem a negative approach for a person who liked KA:TRPWG a lot despite its crashes, bugs, and lockups, for it was a welcome breeze in strategyland, but after I suffered with Neocore's subsequent Lionheart game, that used the same underlying game engine with several known bugs afflicting KA not fixed and a bunch of new ones added, I am a bit leery about investing time and effort in KA2 at this point in time if they (or Paradox) haven't significantly improved their QA process.

 

[ComRed85]

Based on my experiences with previous Neocore titles, three questions to those who have played or tested it extensively...

1. It didn't crash for me once in my 30h played (as stated by steam). Mind that a lot of that time was spent changing video options and alt-tabing. As always with pc it will depend on your rig config. and keeping your machine clean (driver sweeper FTW). Preformance tho is propably the worst i had on this rig. FPS araound 20 is just unacceptable for me and changing the gfx options does nothing to help imprpve that (3-4 fps gain at lowest posible). It feels like you never left the turn based game on the combat map
2. Mostly working for unit/heroes with some exceptions. Some of the bonuses are very small and hard to spot tho.
3 I didn't have any quest bugs personaly (I'm about 3/5 done with the game). As a general rule keeping 5 rotating saves before each quest can save a lot of pain in any game.