King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame

King Arthur II, a turn-based/real-time hybrid in the Total War vein, is a seriously impressive piece of software that covers at least a half dozen ultimate fantasy wargame concepts I’ve held since childhood.

King Arthur II is a fantasy role-playing game that got confused and decided it wanted to be a wargame instead. The turn-based campaign map is reminiscent of Total War, except with fantasy role-playing scenarios instead of hard-nosed diplomacy (though there are diplomatic elements here as well). As an embattled King Arthur trying to hold England together in the face of invasions by supernatural creatures, the player has a lot of choices to make: Who to ally with, who to invade, which heroes to hire, which to ignore, and more. Beyond the 4X-style gameplay, you’ll also encounter text-based quests that force you to make explicit choices like a choose-your-own-adventure minigame, all of which have ramifications of your own. Whichever paths you take, you’ll have to back up your decisions on the battlefield.

When armies clash in the field, the game switches to real-time battle mode. I saw a force of pikemen and archers led by a sorcerous hero being attacked by a mixed force of Fomorians (unnatural orc-like humanoids), bestial wargs, and fire-breathing dragons. Beyond being visually stunning, the battle was tactically fascinating. Mystic locations give their owners magical boosts, from a cooldown-limited lightning spell to a slowly stacking magic resistance aura. The weather itself was a point of conflict, as the sorcerer on the human side fought to disperse the clouds and rain to let the sun shine down, which naturally made the humans fight better while demoralizing the demonic Fomorians. Walls of sorcerous flame sprang up in the middle of the battlefield, wreaking havoc among even disciplined infantry. As the enemy hero attempted to complete a ritual, the human magic-user boomed out words of torture to interrupt her opponent’s concentration and scuttle the spell. All the while, traditional battlefield tactics played out as infantry formed up into lines to withstand the charge of feral wargs, archers harried dragons to prevent them from burninating the humans en masse, and mounted knights crashed through the Fomorian lines in an attempt to reach the enemy conjuror only to be swallowed up by the dragons when they ventured too far from their longbowmen.

Does that sound awesome? Because it was freaking awesome. I cannot wait to get my hands on King Arthur II, which is scheduled to come out exclusively on PC in early 2012.