King Arthur: Knight's Tale

This game is an excellent combination of tactical / turn-based combat, CRPG style character development and castle management. Hero management could also be added, if this is really a category. All these wrapped in a stylish fantasy / medieval environment, dark and moody. The game does not focus on things like narrating a deep story or picturing memorable characters. This is a strategy, combat oriented game. Comparing, in this sense, with several turn-based fantasy CRPGs I have played (DOS I & II, the two Owlcat – Pathfinder games, Solasta, BG3 and more) I believe this game stands really high. First of all, the combat system and the character development options are solid, well-structured and very interesting. The ruleset is custom but little effort is needed to learn it. The encounters are well balanced and remain exciting throughout the campaign. Castle management also serves its purpose. Overall, the game is well polished, with no bugs, showing high quality and maturity in every aspect. So, I believe, it definitely is a great choice for people who like this kind of games.

Update after completing the Story and i'm now in the Endgame (70hours to get there) ..: Huh, THIS is mental. Thats for people who really like a challenge - or suicide missions - or both. I managed to not get a single Knight killed in the Campaign (Hard, "Ironmen") ... but the first Mission in the Endgame was a near fatal blow to my whole team - very lucky only 2 needed a visit to the Hospital. The second Mission killed them all. Wow. Its not so easy, when you have only 4 Heroes but 16-20 Enemys, with HP ranging from 180 to 500 with 8-20 Armor each. All with "Mass Bless, Mass Resistance, Immunity to: Bleeding, Poison, Fire" aka Godmode. Ah and it was "The Lost", means you have to kill them twice (you have 3 Rounds, or they get back up 100% Armor & Life). I still recommend the game, even with this abnomination of an endgame - just make sure not to play your first as "Ironmen", because your run will end otherwise. --- Original Review --- Yeah, playing since Early Access here and there for about 10-20hrs, waited for a next big updated, restarted fresh ... that was several times until the EA was Done and i'm now again restarting and counting in 120+ Hours total. As a "Fulltime Turn-Based-Player" i can give my thumbs up. Good: Animation, GFX, SFX, Combat, Skills, Gameplay, Story Other: The size of the game is high (but who doesn't have TB's of storage nowadays) so its only half bad. But install it on a SSD anyway! The Voice-Acting is hit & miss The loot you find can only be used after your mission is done, in Camelot. The whole "Camelot"-Base Build is kinda meh - or: It could have been much better. Bad: Remember how you skilled your heroes, because on a mission map, you won't get that information. If your Hero Ranks are full and you want to fill in some guy/gal from the Bench, you have to kiss him goodbye and never see them again (unless you have a very rare ittem to bench someone) - in case that really doesn't click with you: Visit Nexusmods, there are solutions for that. My current campaign is 33hours long - and i think i'm half thru in the story. There is also a moral-system, means the replayability is high enough for over 100-200hours to make different choices with different Heroes and tactics. Soooo... long lives the King! :)

On paper, this is an outstanding game: moral choices, hero progression, party building, skill trees for both your base and your companions – everything tactical-RPG fans usually adore. The atmosphere and storyline are solid. The turn-based combat is decent but rather toothless. Even on Very Hard, very little strategic thinking is actually required. A “Really Hard – Please Think” mode would be welcome. However, there is one flaw that overshadows all of its virtues: the game crashes. Constantly. Randomly, without any apparent trigger. After three years on the market, this is hard to overlook. Performance and optimisation are so poor that calling it “optimisation” feels like a stretch. The official advice is essentially to “dance around your PC”: disable CPU cores, OneDrive syncing, vertical sync, cap your FPS – anything to stop the game from crashing every x minutes (where x can be anything from 1 to 30, regardless of what’s happening in-game). My system is a high-end 2025 rig, so hardware is not the issue. Verdict: a brilliant concept crippled by stability problems. Until the crashing is resolved, it’s impossible to recommend wholeheartedly.

[h1]Им снова предстоит собраться на руинах Камелота. И попытаться вновь.[/h1] [quote=Сэр Диллонрий]Тьма пришла ко мне. Тьма коснулась моего разума и повела куда-то за собой. Я даже не смотрел, куда мы направляемся, это не имело никакого значения. Где-то глубоко внутри, перекликаясь, спорили какие-то чувства, но я уже не мог их слышать, глаза застилала тьма, а растянутые струны моей души больше не вызывали никакой боли, даже когда рвались. Тьма пришла ко мне и стала мной.[/quote] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3596849561 Здесь, в густом тумане мира мёртвых, куда вас привело любопытство, а меня судьба, однажды мы и встретимся. Скорее всего так и не узнаем друг друга, и даже не поймём произошедшего: всё это будет уже не важно. Авалон забирает всё. Славу, счастье, любовь и боль – все страдания станут пылью на костях, все радости затеряются в пустоте. Мало кто помнит здесь самих себя, только самые сильные духом способны это помнить. Иные наделяют себя новыми иллюзиями, прочие бесцельно перетаскивают свои кости с места на место, провожая жизнь пустыми глазницами. Да и можно ли это назвать жизнью – скитаться вечно по иссохшему, безжизненному миру, среди таких же гниющих полутрупов, где лишь туман способен укрыть от смрада и разложения, которым пропитана сама земля, где смерть вокруг, одна только смерть. Однако же прежние герои, что испили славы в далёком прошлом, ощущают некое подобие жизни, но по-прежнему не видят цели, а значит, и самого смысла. Безликое существование в забвении – их удел, они давно потеряли себя, а все их деяния не стоят доброго слова, их пребывание здесь – насмешка над природой. Могильный камень – их последний ориентир, сырой склеп станет им последним пристанищем. Но они не согласны принять такую судьбу. И продолжают искать другие возможности. Некоторые из них ввязываются в авантюры с духами этих мест, некоторые пытаются познать окружающий мир в надежде на изменения, некоторые истребляют поганую нечисть, несущую только зло, а некоторые продолжают поиски священного Грааля: не найденный при жизни, он вполне мог бы оказаться здесь. Но Авалон меняет суть вещей, любой предмет здесь может быть Граалем. Сюжет этой истории, как вы уже догадались, неотрывно связан с рыцарями Круглого стола, загробная жизнь которых продолжается множество веков, добро пожаловать на остров павших рыцарей, где разрозненные герои скитаются в тумане, ничего не зная друг о друге. Здесь легенда оживает вновь и наполняет историю новым смыслом – события приводят вас к месту, где Владычица Озера вверяет эту историю Мордреду, предателю короля Артура, воскрешённому по её воле, чтобы убить короля ещё раз. Не правда ли интригует? А какие же там волнующие сердце диалоги! Они поэтичны и мрачны, мы с Байроном всё это оценили. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3596264407 Но к чему это всё, будучи внимательными покупателями, вы конечно же прочитали это в описании на странице игры. И скорее всего не нуждались в ещё одном описании. Вас ждут жестокие испытания на пути к величию, а также захватывающий сюжет и бесконечный мрак, из которого не выбраться… но поговорим о механике. В этой пошаговой игре вам предстоит бороться с собственным желанием послать всё по неверному адресу. Поначалу сражения окажутся увлекательными, но непривычными: если вы знакомы с d&d механиками и знаете, как обычно протекают сражения, вы не сможете сразу привыкнуть к происходящему здесь, где завершение хода для одного является завершением хода для всех персонажей. Получив ход, вы ходите всеми героями, причём, в каком угодно порядке, и это очень удобно, довольно интересно, позволяет комбинировать действия, и повышает шансы на успех, что очень понадобится по ходу развития сюжета. Основная проблема, с которой вы обязательно столкнётесь – ранения и смерти. Обычно, в какой-нибудь другой игре, в случае успешного завершения миссии, вы возвращаетесь в свой лагерь, где можно восстановить здоровье всех персонажей, а иногда оно восстанавливается вообще само, ну а погибшего героя обычно можно воскресить, и можно смело двигаться дальше. Здесь ничего подобного нет: если вы перешли в локацию задания, вы можете лечить героя только двумя заблаговременно экипированными флаконами, инвентарь недоступен (даже если у вас там куплено их 100), а передавать зелья герои друг другу не могут. Если он умрёт – можете с ним попрощаться. Но и это ещё не всё. Раненый герой восстанавливает только “шкалу ударов”, которая идёт сразу за шкалой здоровья, и которую вы восстановить не сможете в боевой локации никак. Т.е. у вас есть 3 героя с 1 хп, которые выпили все свои зелья, и вы молитесь всем богам, чтобы оранжевой шкалы хватило, иначе все они помрут. Восстановить здоровье не помогут и костры, и алтари, и ничего. Только шкала ударов, привыкайте. Здесь вы вообще забудете, что такое полоска здоровья. Кроме того, в процессе боя герой получает травмы, серьёзно влияющие на его статы и боевые возможности. Скажем, лучник с парой таких ран будет промахиваться по врагу с вероятностью в 25% (а то и больше, и это только один дебафф!!!), и сделать с этим ничего нельзя, лечение только в замке! Но и в замке всё не так просто с лечением, если у вас есть чем заплатить, вы лишаетесь героя на одну миссию. Если заплатить нечем – оставляете его на целых 5 миссий. И как долго вы без него продержитесь, если это ваш единственный танк, например? А у вас есть 850 монет? Но восстановят там только здоровье, а раны – в отдельном доме! Думаете, меня это остановило? Заставило злиться? Негодовать? А вот и нет, но я скажу вам, что меня сердит – этот вот бесполезный кусок железа! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3595862477 Правильно, четвёртый сверху, второй снизу. Вы думаете, он хоть раз сделал что-нибудь полезное? У него 4 ОД, 4!!! Угадайте, сколько стоит один его удар? Правильно, ровно 4 ОД. Но ему же нужно подойти к цели, иначе как же он ударит? А знаете, сколько шагов он может сделать, на свои 4 ОД? Догадаться легко! Ну а как вы думаете, сколько он получит урона, когда подойдёт к врагам на весь свой ход вплотную и встанет как дурак, потому что ОД кончились? Правильно! Он сдохнет, потому что потому. Его по сути вообще можно было не брать никуда, потому что на каждый свой ход он просто убегал, чтобы его не убили. А мне принципиально хочется не потерять ни одного героя (пока получается), поэтому приходится переигрывать и думать заново, поэтому некоторым приходится отдуваться за троих, пока сэр Балан изволит спасаться бегством. Столько букв – и все ему, а ведь можно было сказать много приятного про леди Диндрейн, которая в который уж раз вытаскивает всю команду наравне с Мордредом, или о славном рыцаре Пеллеасе, который, будучи танком, однако же никогда не пойдёт в бой, если его здоровье ниже 100%, даже если не хватает всего 1 хп! И одним этим он заставлял мои глаза дёргаться! :D И много тут знакомых лиц, но далеко не все становятся союзниками, они встречаются при очень разных обстоятельствах, и многое не предугадать. Здесь часто приходится принимать решения, от которых напрямую зависит многое, что касается игровых возможностей, например, завербовать некоторых рыцарей, которые иначе с вами просто не пойдут, на ваши плечи ляжет тяжким грузом ответственность за их жизни и за судьбу Камелота. 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the world building is amazing, story looks promising and interesting specially with the morality choices and so, but the game is waaaaay to repetitive (and slow) for its own good, hell even music (while actually not bad) is too repetitive too graphics are bland as well ...

A perfect example of undercooked game. The game plays relatively good, the story is interesting, but small and frequent F-ups (almost) ruin the experience. Q: Would I recommend? A: Yes, but on a discount. [+] 1) Cool intro cinematic 2) Interesting story 3) Overall good FPS My PC could run the game on native 4K 90-120 FPS (usually 120 FPS, but depends on the scene). Though, the 1% Lows are abysmally low, which causes micro-stutters. 4) Infamous characters 5) Good story progression 6) Good gameplay 7) Good Endgame This is both a good and a bad part. The Endgame is the most boss-loaded, challenging part of the game that is not an actual main story! [-] 1) Abysmal 1% Lows The 1% Lows are very low and there are noticeable micro-stutters. 2) Texture glitches 3) No consistency in VA pronunciation Every VA pronounces names differently, no consistency or QA whatsoever. 4) Madman designed camera rotation Rotate left-right buttons are reversed… Whoever put this as default keybinds needs to be locked away into a loony bin. 5) Particle effects ruin performance The more particle effect or environment effects, the more stutters and FPS drops happen. 6) Low FPS in menus Hero menus (or other menus) destroy FPS… 7) Lame VA There are 2-3 VAs who are really trying their best, but others just came to read some text and do goofy voices… 8) Lady’s face animations are scary Lady of the Lake appears in some cutscenes, and her facial animations (and the face itself) are ugly and even scary. 9) In-game cutscenes have huge FPS drops and stutters 10) Some cheap and awkward animations 11) Some text is not VAed Text in Events is not voiced for some reason. Huge disappointment. 12) Morality impact is visible Huge missed opportunity. It would be much interesting, if the choices did not show how they would affect Morality. 13) Stupid character monologs Characters sometimes speak monologs during the gameplay. That’s not a bad thing by itself. The bad (and stupid) thing is the composition of these monologs. Characters sometimes ask questions to another characters, as if speaking to them, but without getting an answer. What a stupid decision to add something like this…. 14) Buggy V-Sync The tooltip says that I will get camera stutters if I turn ON V-Sync, but that is what actually fixes camera stutters and not causing them! 15) Endgame is better than the Main Story More boss fights, more brutal and challenging fights, more unexpected encounters… How did this happen?! 16) More boss fights in Endgame than in actual story Undercooked game with bad QA and questionable development decisions. It barely passes the recommendation mark. Conclusion: 5/10

[h2]King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is a solid tactical RPG that struggles a bit with telling a cohesive story but impresses with a solid gameplay loop between combat and kingdom management that is seldom executed properly in similar titles.[/h2] [h3]Story and Setting[/h3] KA:KT takes place right after the events of the original legend wherein Arthur established his fantastic rule over Britannia until his Round Table splinters on his son Mordred’s treachery, falling into civil war until he and Arthur slay each other. In KA:KT, Arthur’s dying body is brought to the mystical island of Avalon, where the other prominent figures of the legend also find themselves in their undeath. However, not all is as it should be, and there is a deep corruption that has taken place during the effort of healing King Arthur, culminating in Mordred being conscripted by the enigmatic Lady of the Lake to hunt down the shards of King Arthur and bring an end to his nightmarish conquest of Avalon. The overall story of KA:KT is fine if viewed in a vacuum, though it struggles to represent itself in the context of the original legend. A big issue with that is portraying Mordred as an anti-hero protagonist that manages to convince Arthur’s previous companions to fight for his cause. One egregious example of this is early interactions with Kay, your first companion and Arthur’s foster brother. It is incredibly jarring to recruit Kay, who is initially antagonistic towards Mordred, as he should be, only for him to entirely change his attitude within just a few missions and accept Mordred as the new head of the newly formed Camelot in Avalon. But it is not just the believability of Mordred’s companions that is hard to buy into, but also a total lack of interactivity among the companions towards each other—virtually all dialogue is written with Mordred at its center, and companions keep talking to Mordred when there should be plenty of friction among them instead. Two constant members of my late-game party were Guinevere, Arthur’s wife, and Lancelot, Arthur’s best friend and who has had an affair with Guinevere, which allowed Mordred to begin his coup against Arthur in the first place. Not a single sentence is ever spoken between the pair, and the most such companions interact with each other is only within their original recruitment, such as Tristan’s quest to save his wife Isolde, who likewise has no interactions with the former afterwards. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3558479782 Altogether, this is a difficult criticism to voice, as the game clearly does not expect its players to know the original legend, nor to sell itself on those merits. However, this ultimately still results in a very shaky narrative that entirely relies on its unique story around Arthur’s corruption rather than any meaningful development within the cast past Mordred himself. [h3]Gameplay[/h3] KA:KT features two major branches of gameplay, the first being its tactical combat, which is executed very well. Any map can be freely explored, though the environments look relatively stagnant throughout the game. Players are then encouraged to pursue any main objective, among with some light exploration—usually rewarding gear or some gold—and an occasional secondary objective. Within any mission, you are able to bring up to four heroes of a variety of classes, which all play distinctly from one another and even feature unique skill trees for every character. For example, Merlin, an Arcanist, plays differently from Morgana the Arcanist with the former focusing on raw fire damage and the latter on debuffing and battlefield control via her ice magic. The flow of combat is dictated, as turn-based RPGs often are, by action economy—each character has a designated amount of action points that can be spent between moving and acting, with more powerful abilities being naturally more costly. Positioning is wildly important due to the game's lingering injury system and the emphasis on backstab damage as well as area-of-effect abilities. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3558479901 Overall, there is a solid amount of build variety for every class that can be further specialized via the fantastic equipment system. It also immediately connects to the second major branch of gameplay, which is your kingdom management. Any Vitality damage sustained in combat is permanent and may even incur injuries, which represent permanent stat penalties that need to be healed via buildings that can be developed in Camelot. This both encourages active participation in Camelot’s building segments, even necessitates it, but also further encourages constantly swapping out your active party and keeping secondary characters in mind in case your main party is caught off-guard. The lifeblood of this, naturally, is the difficulty of your campaign, which I found to be adequate throughout the game, though noticeably dipping a little bit towards the final chapter. It is worth mentioning that the game also features a postgame with harder challenges upon completion, which is wildly appreciated. Camelot itself is effectively a game of resource management; you will be able to build structures focused around healing those aforementioned injuries or to train idle units and to enhance your gear. All buildings felt relevant throughout the game and likewise feature a soft skill tree for each of them. There is a lot of flexibility here too, with easier difficulties naturally allowing players to be even more experimental with buildings that enhance combat performance, and vice versa, harder difficulties requiring tighter management to be able to maintain a healthy party. [h3]Graphics and Sound[/h3] Regrettably, KA:KT looks and sounds rather poor. Some character designs feel almost cartoonish, such as Mordred’s Sauron-esque armor and the very stilted animations. While the sound design within the missions was fine, the voice performance is equally rather poor due to a general lack of emotion for many characters. I struggle to remember any standout music tracks, which further speaks to the rather bland presentation of what is otherwise a fantastic setting for a fantasy title. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3561034972 [h3]Technical Issues and Performance[/h3] KA:KT ran reasonably well. I have experienced no bugs, glitches, or stutters of any kind. However, I did experience a single crash after a prolonged session. A very minor complaint would be that the shop menu can be a bit sensitive, as it almost felt like I was double-clicking at times selling items. [h3]Final Thoughts[/h3] I enjoyed my time with KA:KT. It is probably one of the best XCOM-inspired tactical RPGs I have played, and for that alone I can comfortably recommend it. I cannot recommend it as an RPG, however. The roleplaying elements are simply too thin due to a lack of actual roleplaying choices, as the only meaningful element of such is via the Morality system, which is effectively only a selection of which optional characters you want to unlock. Curiously, I feel like having been a fan of the original legend and reading such works like T.H. White’s [i]The Once and Future King[/i], or Bradley’s [i]The Mists of Avalon[/i] actively hampered my enjoyment of the game simply by how removed all the characters felt from what I knew and read about them prior to playing the game. All of this means that KA:KT is an experience that heavily tilts towards the merits of its gameplay—but it is a game that can confidently do so. [quote]Follow our Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/] Summit Reviews [/url], to see more high-quality reviews regularly.[/quote]

While the battles can be interesting (at the beginning), I can't like this game no matter how hard I try. The crafting is complete c**p. The main story isn't too bad, but it's not worth 60 hours. You have too many champions, and in fact you can play with 5 champions from the very beginning of the first act. The loot system is no better than c**ppy crafting. You start getting bored after 20 hours because all aspects are boring and the same after act 2. 4/10