Rising Kingdoms

Невероятное ностальжи с нотками имбалансов

OG !

This is a hard one… Rising Kingdoms was, at time of review, released 20 years ago. I played it back then and still have the game box with me to this day. I was not particularly good at it back then, but a memory of it caused me to check Steam and sure enough it was there. All of this being said, there is a bias which I wanted to indicate here at the start. I will attempt to remain impartial, but there is a risk so please do keep that in mind. Rising Kingdom is a classic old-school Real-Time Strategy Game (RTS), the likes of Command and Conquer and Warcraft. It follows the classic setup of 3 factions competing against each other, each with strengths and weaknesses. The campaign, for which this review is based, is split into 3 parts, each following one of these factions. As was the norm at the time, while there is an intended play order, the game does not lock factions behind previous ones, meaning that you can play the campaign in reverse order if you choose. The story follows these factions – Human, Foresters, and Darkling’s – as each one kingdom rise (I see what they did there) to prominence in each one’s own section. That being said, without spoiling the actual overall plot, the campaign managers to ensure that, regardless of play order, the story makes sense and playing it as intended does result in a “Oh ♥♥♥♥” moment when one realises the connection between the campaigns. From a gameplay perspective the most direct parallel would be Warcraft 3. Rising Kingdoms does have its own hero mechanics, and neutral camps which attempt to differentiate it, but the inspiration is still apparent. The one thing I want to focus on for this section, however, is the idea of resources. In most old RTS’s factions needed to collect 2 different resources, to build and develop. These resources where often limited to ensure inevitable conflict between the players and ensure matching ending. When I first played these games, all those years ago, it was also annoying to run out of resources and be unable to progress from my turtled position – I was not the brightest kid – and so I would wish that resources where infinite. Rising Kingdoms, does all the same things as normal, exact its resources are indeed infinite. Having now got my wish, I have realised how foolish this truly is. While you can indeed turtle indefinitely, so can your opponent and it is way more frustrating to have to sit and slowly push through a staggered retreat than just “GG, go next”. Being an old game at this point the visualize have aged, but with its cartoony shading and art style it has helped it hold up still. That being said the voice acting and music is limited making the game feel rather stunted. The game is not without its bugs either, the fact that no DLC or other content is available for the game means pathfinding issues and the like never got an opportunity to get fixed. While these specific bugs are not game breaking it does lead to some annoyance while playing. The true game breaking issue, however, is that the last canonical campaign – The Darkling campaign - is bugged to the point of unplayability. It apparently has to do with the faction’s defence towers on the first mission interacting weirdly on modern systems. It is impossible to complete the mission before the issue occurs, crashing you to desktop, unable to progress. There are apparent workarounds, but a game having 1/3 of its content not playable without modding or adjusting game files is a series issue that most people will not bother with. I do love this game. Even after being unable to complete, it due to the last campaign bug, the 2/3 I did play was largely enjoyable and scratched that nostalgic itch that I had. I cannot in good faith however recommend it to anyone who does not have nostalgia for it though. If you are looking for an old school RTS there are many options out there with far more polish than this. If you really want to give it a shot, you have my blessing, just know what you are getting yourself into first. Pro’s: • Unique hero system • Classic look and feel • Cheap Con’s: • Buggy • Dated audio