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KingMania

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Developer: Rake In Grass
Publisher: Rake In Grass
Genre: Strategy > Real-Time Strategy
Released: Oct 08, 2007
Players: 1

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- King Mania Review

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King Mania is a real-time strategy game that puts you in the shoes of a king hell-bent on world domination in order to accrue more land to grow potatoes with. Yes, you read that right: it's all for potatoes. In reality, there really isn't much of a storyline to go with the game, and the developers make no apologies for that. However, do not let this apparent lack of story-telling detract you from the actual gameplay, which is actually pretty engaging.

The overall presentation is highly polished, which sets it apart from a lot of other indie games with lower production values. The 3-D graphics of buildings, castles and spell effects are beautifully rendered with a cartoony feel to them, and the attention to visual styles extends to the menus and various in-game icons. The obvious efforts that have gone into the aesthetics greatly boost the overall atmosphere of the game.

The single-player campaign consists of over 30 missions and maps to play through, though some missions can be skipped on the way to the final map. Actual gameplay lies on the casual side of the fence as opposed to the traditional hardcore RTS that emphasizes base building, resource collection and hotkey spamming. Each map begins with a set number of structures, some of which are neutral while the rest are occupied by you and your enemies' forces. The aim is to take over the entire map by annexing all of the buildings. While there isn't a choice to construct new buildings, you do get to upgrade existing ones through a multitude of improvements. There are 5 different building types with 31 different upgrades in total, though this figure feels somewhat insufficient towards the end of the game as all of it is unlocked barely halfway through the campaign. This results in very little variation in the end-game since the maps only vaguely differ from one another.

Of the 5 building types, the castle acts as your base and produces knights. Farms produce peasants who aren't as combat-proficient and also generates food, one of the two resources in this game. The other is gold, mined from gold mines, with the scout tower and mage tower rounding off the list of buildings. Scout towers allows you to know the exact troop levels in enemy and neutral buildings, while mage towers launch fireballs whose potency can be improved through upgrades. Other special powers also exist in the game, including the ability to invoke a dragon from your castle which is a top tier upgrade that you obtain about midway through the campaign. The dragon attack is pretty anti-climactic though. Instead of a badass-looking dragon that unleashes the fury of hell on thy enemies, all you get is a cutesy little green dragon that looks more at home in a children's book than in a medieval firefight.

Players anticipating battles of mayhem between clashing armies will be disappointed. King Mania does not involve open fighting between troops and you gain control of buildings simply by sending your desired number of troops to it. They then �"disappear' into the buildings and slug it out with the defenders, and the building reverts to your control if the defenses can be overcome. This does throw up a flaw in the AI coding. Many times you can simply sit back and let the computer wear down a neutral building's defenses before sending your own occupying forces when it is ready to fall.

As mentioned, King Mania has a casual leaning and this is reflected in the difficulty level. As you progress through the campaign, individual missions get harder as you square off against tougher AI, but even the final few missions rated as "Ultra Hard" are pretty straightforward affairs. Most of the time, the AI is simply not aggressive enough and will leave you to tend to your own affairs without exerting too much pressure on you.

Graphics:
The game utilizes the Torque game engine and is played out in an isometric, 3D view. Landscape and buildings are well designed with good use of the color palette. Overall, the game world seemed vibrant and full of colors, creating a cheery atmosphere.

Sound:

Music and sound is also very well done, and complements the lighthearted mood of the game. The various sound effects accompanying spells and charging enemies are not over abundant, but is sufficient to wrap up the whole package nicely.

Gameplay:
The overall gameplay experience is a positive one. The learning curve is shallow allowing players to cut to the chase without having to spend too much time grasping the basics. The only gripe here is the somewhat toned down difficulty levels. Had the AI been more robust, aggressive and adaptive to your actions, it would certainly have provided for more intense action.

Concept:
There are no breakthrough concepts in this game, and most of it is tried and tested stuff. One possible improvement is an enlargement of the maps, especially towards the end of the campaign, which will certainly produce more protracted battles for control of the map and made things a little more interesting.

Value:

Once you complete the single-player campaign, there really isn't much to replay. The multiplayer component allows for 1v1 battles, but there aren't any games going on in the lobbies so you'll have to grab a buddy for LAN or direct IP connection.

Overall:
The overall presentation of King Mania is polished and emanates flair which really sets itself apart from the average indie development. Graphics have a cartoony feel to them and the music and sound round off an excellent package. If the AI had been ramped up, maps made larger and a map editor included, it would have been almost perfect. But as it stands, King Mania is still a fun, engaging strategy game worthy of your attention.

By: Freddy Lim
Posted: Friday February 01, 2008