King Arthur II Review

Some interesting but poorly realized ideas make King Arthur II the poster child for wasted potential

Posted by Tim Reid on February 13, 2012 - 9:41pm EST

While it comes to conflict, you have the choice of either fighting the enemy in a real-time battle, or using the auto-battle function to let the computer decide who wins. It is with these battles that King Arthur II's biggest flaw is exposed. They are too easy, and the enemy AI is utterly brain dead. On the normal difficulty, in the first half of the game, you can probably get through most real time battles by selecting your entire army, right clicking on the main enemy blob of units, and watch your army move in and destroy your foes. Later on there are a few battles that are paradoxically difficult where the enemy will use flying or special units which are incredibly hard to counter, since archers get destroyed quickly and you are only given access to a couple of flying units yourself. Most of the time however, you will not be challenged in the least.

Battles have a tendency to descend into anarchic brawls

This is a huge shame, because in these battles you are provided with a good number of different magical abilities that are very fun to use. Scattered across the maps are different outposts that if captured will grant your army some kind of bonus or ability. Some are passive, giving your army health or damage bonuses, or slowly draining the enemies 'magic shield' which absorbs any spells you cast. Other outposts provide active abilities, such as a lightning bolt that comes from the sky and satisfyingly sends enemy units flying. However, the game tends to place most of these outposts near the enemy army, so they are usually being used against you rather than by you. Despite this advantage, the enemy units generally provide no challenge whatsoever. Your hero units also add have a few abilities that can be used in battles, some of which bolster your units, others which damage or slow enemy units, but again, they are moot when the battles are as easy as they are here. At least the battles provide an impressive spectacle as hordes of troops charge towards each other, a spectacle that can be replicated through the only non-campaign mode, scenario, where you can create custom battles.

Landscapes in the game are varied and imposing

So, since the real time battles are so easy, shouldn't the auto-battle function serve as a more balanced option? Sadly, this button might as well be called the auto-win button, as I never lost a battle whenever I used it. I never even lost a single unit. To cap it all off, you are rewarded with obscene amounts of money after most battles. By half way through the game, I had more money than I could possibly spend. Since the game's entire strategic element is focused around your army and these battles, their uneven and usually pathetic difficulty practically breaks the game. There are other elements you can use, such as magic shards and artifacts that strengthen your army and give you interesting abilities, or individual weapons and pieces of armour that you can equip your heroes with to improve either their magical or combat abilities, but in reality, these are all superfluous since the battles are so one-sided. While the game does offer difficulty settings that slightly increase the challenge, the poor enemy AI remains unchanged, as does the outcome of most battles.