PC Gamer - January 2012

PREVIEWS
PLAYED IT The once and future king returns next year
KING ARTHUR 2

Scotland: a lawless, barren wasteland populated by giants and wolves… at least according to King Arthur 2. The game’s

15-hour prologue campaign is set on

England’s northern border and has you uniting tribes of settled Roman soldiers to defend Hadrian’s Wall against hordes of savages that periodically attempt to cross it.

The first King Arthur was a game of great ideas that weren’t fully realized. It fused

Total War’s combination of turn-based and real-time strategy with RPG-style characters, spells, and quests. The second game isn’t about changing that formula, it’s about refining it. Neocore has paid careful attention to criticism of the first game, and at every stage they’ve fixed,

upgraded, and expanded on what went before.

The monstrous units are a big part of King

Arthur’s appeal. Drawing on Celtic mythology to deploy an army of giants, wargs, and fairy soldiers

was one of the best parts of the first game, the sequel looks set to build on that.

I was facing off against entire armies of giants by my second battle, and while I didn’t get to see the high-tier units in action, Neocore assured me that there were many more monsters to come.

Included among them are flying units, which could add an extra dimension to the classic archer/infantry/cavalry system.

People power

Don’t count out the humble humans though, especially when you can bring up to 4,000 of them to a fight. Your Knights— the upgradable, spellcasting generals that lead your armies—remain your most potent weapon. Each one now has his own unique skill tree, full of abilities that can turn the tide of combat, or smash enemies apart with bolts of magical fire.

For example, Septimus Sulla, my starting character in the prologue, had access to a tactically useful “slow” spell, which turned even the most determined cavalry charge into a slow, sullen shuffle. Another knight

could sweep away several enemies with a mighty sword stroke, taking out whole units swiftly and efficiently.

Spells can be real game changers in King

Arthur 2. In my first game I was too slow to capture the important victory locations, so my opponent managed to get my men bogged down with his heavy infantry, then pepper me with devastating lightning bolts. By the second battle I was smarter: I quickly grabbed two shrines that boosted my magical resistance, meaning the enemy’s spells just bounced off my troops as they rapidly closed in for the kill.

In the previous King Arthur, the player with the most victory locations would be the one to capture the win. The idea was to force your army to be mobile, but it didn’t quite work, instead meaning that fast cavalry or teleporting knights could win entire games without really fighting the enemy. Now the locations no longer contribute towards victory, but they do carry more potent spells, that can be used all over the battlefield, as I was unlucky enough to find out.