HOORAY! A new RTS for me to sink my teeth into. The King Arthur Collection was released and Andyb0y suggested I play it, and that is just what I did. Quickly was I reminded that, though I know a decent amount of RTS basics, the FPS arena is truly my home. That doesn’t mean I can’t find the fun in losing, as long as it feels epic.
Dammit…
Its around this time I’m going to have to admit that I am a Paradox Interactive fan. For those who have followed my trend in reviewing games, as Paradox games pop up I tend to come to one conclusion. They are fun. If you have played several Paradox Interactive published games and hate them a lot, then you should probably stop reading right there. This isn’t going to help you make a good decision. When it comes to thinking about games and who makes them, I try to separate the publisher from the product. It keeps me from writing off any new company breaking out into the world simply because I think most of the people at EA and Activision are asses and that a good amount of the staff at THQ have no idea what games are for the most part. Luckily, this separation allowed me to enjoy games from DICE, Relic, and several other studios who otherwise might not have had the ability to get the world their products. But when it comes to Paradox Interactive, I think I have some kind of sense of fanboy-ism forming in the back of my mind. In the case of the King Arthur Collection, it stems from the fact that I’m only so good at it and, because of my current life situation, I can’t seem to put enough attention into it, and yet I keep finding things to love about it.
I Wish I Could Play You
Occasionally a RTS comes around that makes me want to hone my micro skill to a point that would make a Korean acknowledge me, though I never actually get there. As far as that goes, the King Arthur Collection stands at that happy medium of being an intensely scaled RTS for its battles and over-world map function, yet still retaining a level of calm to it. The kind of calm that doesn’t have me breaking my mouse over a miss-click that cost me a game, or smashing my keyboard under my fist because a chain of macro commands I put in failed and my army suffered on the battle front for it. Win or lose, I had enough control over the situation to the point of seeing a loss coming because of a brilliant strategy being played out by the enemy forces. One that overshadowed and controlled the field beyond anything my use of abilities could counter. Seeing as how I’m only so-so at timing and such in RTS games as it is, I ended up losing most of the time, but learning more and more on how to think of the “macro game”. Utilizing terrain and capture points to take the advantage. Knowing what units can counter what and how I can use abilities to further guarantee my success in certain situations. And every inch of this symphony of strategy was at my control. From victory conditions to speed of the game. Anything to make me comfortable with the games parameters. Damn that makes me happy. Now if only I didn’t suck at this game.
Nostalgia Blended With New. Newstalgia?
The really striking part of this game for me is the over-world map. I played a game with my friends a while back called Warlords. We picked it up at a farmer’s market without really thinking about it. We were just insanely bored and willing to try almost anything to ease the mental dullness. We had so much fun playing this extensively simple game. We played for hours, gearing up our champions and saying “screw all” to the idea of an army to back them up as we went from castle to castle, one man killing everything, and then burning that castle to the ground. When I first started up a new game in the King Arthur Collection, it felt like an updated version of that. All the fond memories I had started coming back and I suddenly felt at home. So hell ya I’m biased. Can’t play this game at all but the fault lies with me and I know it. I’d love to put more time in and actually become good but since this came packaged with 2 of the expansions for the original series I would be dedicating a massive portion of my time to this. Maybe one day I will find myself with my friends, bored, and looking to recapture the fun we had as kids.
And fyi: This game is HELLA beautiful.
