King Arthur: Knight's Tale

Dark Fantasy in an Arthurian Legend backdrop with tactical strategy, AND you play as the bad guy trying to stop an apocalypse. This game checks all the boxes for me. I imagine its probably not for everyone but honestly the best games aren't made for everyone and that's something we're sorely lacking these days. My one complaint could be lack of visual customization on the characters but there's enough here so that can be overlooked. Highly recommend.

Overall great game that took a surprising chunk of my time. Finally started to lose interest in the post-game, where encounters became mathematically bloated due to large amounts of overstatted enemies. Unfortunately, this was the only way for the devs to significantly raise the game's difficulty, as the enemy variety is on the low end and their moves and tactics never change.

So why did I spend so much time on this game? One big reason is the sheer variety of playable characters. Despite some overlapping skills, most of them are varied enough, and leveling them up with the intent to carve each niche was a joy. The coolest or most "well-known" characters are also gated by diverging story choices, which force you to experiment with different playthroughs. That being said, characters are far from equal; it will become clear that some are just flat-out better than others.

It's also worth mentioning that the game is huge. There is a wealth of missions, possibly an excessive number, and those who genuinely enjoy turn-based tactical combat will be well served.

Not very memorable experience, but if you want just good tactic gameplay without irritating quirks(like restriction of action order) and very little randomness in combat (no xcom-like misess with 99% hit chanse) - hard recommend. Very solid core gameplay, fairly straightforward, but engaging system. Decent selection of heroes with distinct enough kit and bonuses on equipment, so you can approach combat in many ways.

Best word i would use to describe it - comfortable. Except voice acting, which surprisingly terrible in most cases and better toward end for some reason, game make almost nothing bad. But i cant call it memorable either.

Progression felt too slow early the game, you can play several mission without upgrades because amount of experiense is about 1/3 of level per mission, building/buying capability raises slowly and randomness of loot can drag it down. I have a little gripe about gear - you cant meaningfully upgrade existent one, both increasing of level and rarity via forge reroll bonuses completely.

Graphics is better than it have to be, and few existed cutscenes make you wish there was more of them. Music is okay, but nothing memorable. Art is solid, but also not flavorous enough to make it truly distinct. Story is just functional at best.

It's a good TRPG game, with plenty of variety in enemies and your own characters as well as managing Camelot's rehabilitation.

Just got too Love ya

I really like this game. Play it for 200 hours and game is fantastic.

Wonderful game, very enjoyable combat, good simple story line. I love, love love the art style. Beautifully and darkly rendered characters and settings. Very intuitive systems!

Fun game, but unfortunately it crashes often. I've had 3 crashes thus far with 22 hrs played.

Good game.

I like the setting very much + I really love cool knights, the more the better, and this game has a lot of heroes to choose from, dozens of them. Too pity there is stupid hero cap by 12 active heroes, game forces you to kick some "less useful" knights/heroes to get the others into active pool. Gladly, there is mod which increases heroes pool up to 18 characters. I wish there was an option to increase the heroes cap for a squad, because at some point it becomes very difficult to choose only 4 heroes for a mission when you have so many cool characters.

This game has some castle managment and I like it, maybe it's not great, but it's good enough to get my interest (it's kinda similar to the Darkest Dungeon 1). I appreciate the variety of enemies. Story seems more or less okay to me. Game has some RPG elements and gives you some choices to make during your journey. Voice acting is good enough. Music is really nice here, just a pure joy to my ears and some tracks are truly epic. Cinematics are good.

I have some questions regarding balance of battles/missions, because even side missions have a lot of fights (and enemies) and combat is... just average. Thanks gods I can speed up enemy's turn, because too often there is hordes of them.

Game is quite challenging even on normal. While exploring it for the first time I started playing it on normal difficulty, but lately switched to easy just to enjoy slicing/shredding/chopping up all sorts of bastards with my cool looking knights (and ladies). Now I'm open to the challenge.

Despite some flaws here and there it's still a solid game.

It's a mystery to me why devs decided not to invest more time for patching/polishing some weak parts of the game to make it as cool as possible. Still I enjoyed it very much.

After completing the main story and defeating King Arthur, you can also unlock additional side missions, but they are kind of filler/waste of time. There is also Skirmish mode where you can take control of Sir Tewelyn and his undead minions and so on, but it's very bare-bones, even no voice acting here. However there is additional fully voiced demonic mini-campaign which offers some refreshing experience: you're taking control of two demons and going to free demon-god Balor.

It's a shame there's no proper DLC with new characters or anything really interesting. Although soundtrack and supporter packs are good, but they don't add anything new to the campaign.

Don't start on moderate (hard) if your not familiar with the game, injuries will cripple you for later missions , although you can change difficulty in main menu. Has a few flaws, takes awhile to get into, the combat maps aren't particularly clear, it's relatively easy to move the wrong character (so save often), you can't skip missions to heal or rest, you often have a lot of action points left but attack once and then can't do anything with the rest, apart from move. Game improves with a larger roster and more perk options. The vanguards (rogues) are fun with interesting abilities. I'd still wait for a sale, as indeed I did!

Medieval XCOM with gorgeous graphics and units that zealously chatter like Warhammer castoffs. Love it.

I must say I didn't expect much but I'm loving it. Hearing the familiar names from Arthurian mythology is cool. I like the gritty and dark fantasy setting. The game runs smooth and not to overly complicated. My only minor issue is that the game become choppy and is shuttering after I minimize the game but that's on me.

This is a good tactical RPG with interesting combat and character development. The story also is a somewhat interesting twist of the Arthurian legends, and I was wowed by quality of some cutscenes (for a relatively small team, they're very, very good). I also liked the narrative voice of the main character - he's a bastard, and the game allows you to be that bastard quite well.

Thing to be aware of: the game limits all your resource, including time. Healing vitality and injuries happens only during missions, so you can only tolerate so many encounters where you "barely won", or your heroes would be too wounded to win the next mission, and you will not be able to heal them. Having "B team" helps, but it's something to keep in mind, always. There is no way to grind, so if you find a particular mission too hard, you have to try different tactics. you cannot just over-level it (there are side missions in addition to the main questline, but I can barely call them optional - you will need to complete most of them to at least get your main team to the required level for the next main mission).

Also, be aware that the game crashes. A lot. First, try not to switch it to the background - sometimes it can tolerate it, but more often than no it will crash silently after some minutes. Also, it crashes during battles sometimes. Since you cannot save inside battle, that means replaying it from the beginning, but fortunately, the battles are not very long, and the game always makes an auto save before entering combat.

you have to figure out optimize the game for your rig if its choppy. but once you get that done - its awesome fun. cool take on the entire mythos

Very good SLG game.

Fun game. The story is pretty linear and predictable, but if you like D&D mechanics then you will like this game.

Fantastic game! Difficult and dark with some great tactical elements. My only criticism is I'd love a way to have extra missions to grind gold or resources rather than the linear feeling side-quest timing.

Overall its a pretty rad game and would suggest it to anyone who likes turn based RPGs.

I only really have 1 criticism of the game and that the enemy scaling can be weird at times. I think i did every single side mission besides maybe 2 of them in act 4 and still would end up randomly under leveled at times by a couple levels throughout the campaign.

Another criticism i have even its the smallest of them is that the voice acting was a little cringe at times.

interesting take on the tale of King Arthur. Fun turn based combat.

Voice acting is horrible. No options for custom character. Dialog system is very poor. Battle system is very primitive. Music is out of the context, does not make any sense, no atmosphere of true dark fantasy.

crashes randomly, full screen setup on 2nd monitor cumbersome and not fully supported

Great visuals, poor gameplay. Combat is a chore. Not worth your money and your time.

A true turn-base game with a great story. All the elements I enjoy with no rushed forced play and more of a strategic hard learning curve that I am here for.

It is very fun

It's a shame that you can't try all the knights in a single playthrough, but anyway the game is really good

KA:KT is a "tactical RPG" with a medieval dark fantasy setting. You play as Mordred, who returns from the dead to confront a revenant King Arthur.

The game features a fixed series of main missions and semi-optional side missions. You take up to four knights on every mission. Your heroes gain experience from the missions at a rate that increases when under-leveled, so it's possible to skip some missions or rotate heroes without getting too far behind. This is important, as there's no opportunity to grind for experience, and recovery from injuries requires the passage of time... which only passes as a result of completing a mission.

The turn-based combat is straightforward but well executed, with melee, ranged, and spell attacks. RNG plays a very minor role, usually in the form of damage spread. Percentages are usually applied to the effects rather than the success rate, e.g. a "stun" effect will always work, but if you're resistant then the action point loss is proportionately reduced. Information is presented very nicely on screen.

Your home base, Camelot, can be upgraded with the gold and building supplies you receive from missions. Most of the upgrades aren't very important. There are vendors for goods, but aside from a few consumables I didn't find myself buying all that much. The gear you buy and find in missions have randomized attributes, and most of what I found was kind of useless. For example, I found a lot of stuff that boosted effectiveness in duels, which are special 1-on-1 fights you encounter very rarely (maybe half a dozen in the game).

There are some light RPG elements, in the form of a two-axis morality / religion chart. Your current position on the chart unlocks certain features, like bonuses or additional heroes, and affects hero loyalty. There are other ways to influence loyalty; I was the polar opposite from one of my heroes, but was able to keep him in positive territory through events and titles.

Events will pop up between missions. These take two forms: spend money or face a loyalty penalty, and "pick a hero". For the latter, you're given some hints as to what characteristics the hero should have, and if you make a reasonable choice you get a reward.

It took me 54 hours to play through the full game with all side missions on "normal" difficulty. There is some end-game content that I haven't tried. I had one CTD, during a fight; the game auto-saves before missions and after every combat encounter, so I didn't really lose anything.

Overall this is a well-constructed turn-based tactical RPG that I had a lot of fun playing.

Finished the main campaign. This a great game. I enjoyed the dark story line cause I also play a board game called Tainted Grail.
If you're into Arthurian mythology and would like a darker twist on it this is a good game to go with.

Cool game, with cool concept. The previous 2 games in the franchise were pretty cool too if my memory serves me right, though King Arthur 2 is no longer on steam for whatever reason.
I'll definintely buy legio IX if it's on sale at some point in the future.

61 hours is what it took me to beat the main story on moderate difficulty, some post game quests and content remain. The difficulty isn't so hard as some reviews tell you, true like halfway through the game you will encounter some new foes with more hp and various skills who will force you to rethink your tactics, but nothing that you can't handle if you know what you're doing.

A well crafted, good looking turn-based RPG...

It does get a bit repetitive however IMHO and it is painfully linear. But some effort has been made to link together a story and combat is generally fun. Well worth it on a Steam sale.

Use Overwatch!

If you into games like X-COM, you should definitely check this one out. Played it twice in a raw =)
Pros:
- Nice medieval setting, pleasant graphics and animations.
- You can't change your character's outlook, but all of them have nice unique outfit. So everyone can be easily recognised.
- Even side quests are voiced!
- Plenty of game mechanics. Base building, loyalty system, resource (health, trauma, money, building materials) management, loot, unique loot, loot level/upgrades.
- Combat animations are also nice.
- None of these "60% chance to hit", with 3 misses in a raw. There're some chance mechanics, but as part or special abilities/skills. Basically you don't feel screwed by quasi-RNG.
Cons (devs should pay attention in the future products):
- Difficulty. Normal difficulty is more like "story style". If you have any experience in X-COM type games, you should pick at least HARD. Also no true "hardcode" mode. And I usually play on normal and it's fine for me.
- Arcanist type character is one of the most important assets in your party, tactically, DMG wise. Game gives you plenty of loot for Arcanists at the same time you might finish the game and having only one in your team, which you get at the begging of the game. And because of it's loyalty predisposition, you are kinda limited with your loyalty options during the game. Basically some balance is missing here.

This game quet interesting, not without flaws and the biggest one is a voice acting and dialoge sounds in general. Sometimes VA is abysmal sometimes its just "meh". Animations not as good as could be.
That being said, the game mechanichs, setting and averall tone of a game is great. I percieve it as a mix of Divinity original sin and Darkest Dungeon. I really anjoyed combat annd overall gameplay feel of the game.
In conclusion: solid gameplay foundation, great setting and RPG progression of heroes, but in need of polish and, I guess, budget
7\10

Great game, really enjoyed it and the game keep it intersting by adding new characters throughout the game

This a great game! Challenging but not impossible. Good graphics and sound effects...

game crashes !!

Very interesting game, get's repetitive after a while but it's worth i. Would destroy King Arthur again.

Wish there was a 'meh?' option and not just a thumbs up / down. This has a lot of good going for it, but the combat is so boooooooring... it just feels like a chore.

Smart game. The charters are unique. The strory need some background knowledge but it's even funnier if you know the Monthy Python version :) There could be a easter egg for that... anyway I didn't like when we get the feeling of rushed game and a bit... how should I say? Crappy. For example: Here is the end game boss oh you killed it? Now kill it 3 more times to finish the story... And the whole graphic is kinda with the same feeling that it came from an Indi studio. Anyway I highly recommend to anyone who like to play tactical RPGs like Third Age, FF etc... It's good for one for sure. Oh and the atmosphere with the foggy everything dead and cold is really nicely present GB :D Jk

I enjoyed this more than expected. The game is essentially a dark fantasy medieval XCOM-like with RPG elements. The game is broken up into missions of killing several packs of enemies with a small amount of exploration rather than a free roam open world. I have only completed the main story (including all side missions) and 1 end game mission so far. The main story missions were relatively easy, but the difficulty seems to ramp up significantly in the end game.

Things that I liked:
+ Art style and setting (dark fantasy, medieval Arthurian, serious tone)
+ Tactical combat system
+ Character progression, builds, and synergies between characters
+ Large roster of uniquely-voiced playable characters
+ Voice actor quality, especially Mordred, Brunor, Balin, Black Knight, Morgana. Voiced monologues by Mordred to set up each mission. "Power and Glory". Pre-mission monologues somewhat remind me of Myth: The Fallen Lords (that was such an awesome game back in the day)
+ Morality system adds flavor to the game and it was cool going full blown Tyrant route
+ Cut scenes - intro and act 4 ending were cool. Cut scenes between acts were ok, but not as good and lady of the lake facial animations were a little weird.
+ Music - not many different tracks, but the limited ones available were enjoyable and not annoying/repetitive after many hours of playing
+ Does not pander to the "modern audience," just cool knights going to battle. Does not overuse purple and teal.
+ Writing/dialogue was well written and not millenial/quippy/Marvel/reddit tier

What could have been better:
- More enemy variety
- Tactical combat is 2D, could be cooler if it was 3D (verticality)
- Add an option for Tyrant Mordred to overthrow Lady of the Lake and seize ultimate power for himself
- I think the game uses forced TAA and there can be ghosting visible if zoomed all the way in. This might be more visible at lower framerates. It wasn't noticeable when zoomed out (the normal view distance), so I don't think this is a major issue, but should be noted. Performance was pretty good on a 1080 ti (120+ fps at max settings, but it will be running close to max pwr).

Hoping for a full sequel to this. I never heard of this developer before, but they have caught my attention for future developments.

This is a good tactical RPG. It starts slow, and progression is slow, but there's a lot to enjoy here.

The main draw is the tactical combat, which is excellent. Positioning and facing are very important. Characters take extra damage when flanked, so maneuvering to block enemies from slipping past you is critical. The combat scenarios are varied and interesting with multiple enemy types and you'll never have a duplicate encounter twice in a row.

The setting and characters are great. The knights are complete badasses and deliver wicked lines of dialog from some excellent voice actors. I was surprised how much I liked these guys as I played the game. I loved seeing Mordred face off with some hulking abomination of a knight and demanding they kneel or meet their end. If you're into macho medieval dark fantasy, you will love it.

Each encounter has some story elements as you discover what each knight has been up to after the cataclysm. Even the smallest plotlines kept my interest as they fleshed out each knight's story.

The RPG elements are really good as well. There are two morality dimensions you act on: Rightful/Tyrannical and Christian/Old Faith. Each combination unlocks different knights and abilities as you play the game. Do you execute traitors or give them a second chance?

Each knight can be leveled up and change equipment as well. New skills give your knights a definite power/utility increase.

The main downside of the game is the UI. It's rather unintuitive and has too many slow animations. It takes a while to get the hang of where everything is on the kingdom management screen. I'd have preferred something snappier and cleaner. The UI elements and art are beautiful, however.

Some of the maps can be a little mazelike, and the minimap can't be zoomed out very far, making navigation frustrating in certain areas.

I recommend this game to people who like tactical RPGs (XCOM, Battle Brothers) and who want to follow a linear story.

I love the campaine of the game, It is so good, but god damn it the end game is absolute shit, they ruin the balance to an insane level where they just throw more of the same enemy at you whilst also multeplying their hit points by two at the least

An RPG with very solid tactical gameplay, and enough strategic decisions to keep things interesting.

Do I recommend this game? Yes and no. If you like tactical turn based RPGs you will probably like this one, but there are certainly better titles out there (Wasteland, Pillars of Eternity to some extent). If you are new to this genre I suggest you try those other games first and only come here if you really *really* like it and have already finished your third playthrough of those games and want more.

What it comes down to is that the voice acting and plot is ok at best, and I wasn't a big fan of the whole idea where the timer of everything in Camelot runs how many missions you do. So if all your knights are wounded you might not be able to continue because you need to finish a mission for them to heal up. If never locked the game to me but it could happen and losing a 30+ hour save to that ain't fun. Some heroes and abilities are also just not very good, the difference is quite large.

In the end I did finish it, but I'm not going to replay it. Get it on a sale, 45€ is way too much for this game imo.

King Arthur: Knight's Tale by Neocore Games.

Release Year: 2022
Genre: Squad based tactics w/RPG elements
First playthrough length: 80hrs

King Arthur: Knight's Tale is a post-apocalyptic take on Arthurian legend, where you play as Mordred hunting down a corrupted version of Arthur


Positives:

Great Atmosphere - The game sells a dark vision of Avalon while keeping its locations varied

Variety - You have many different knights to chose from, all with their own strengths and weaknesses

Engaging Combat - Combat is fun and occasionally hair raising with (optional) permadeath


Negatives:

Levelling: The game is miserly with levelling points, stopping the combat being as fun as it could be

Pacing: The game feels stretched, it didn't need to be 80hrs (60hrs would be perfect)

Lack of RPG Mechanics: Aside from your morality alignment, the options to role-play are limited


Final Thoughts:

King Arthur: Knight's Tale is a classic Neocore Game, in that it's clearly the result of the dev's plans oustripping their available resources. What works really works, but it's maybe 80% of the way to being a true cult classic.

Also Mordred's voice actor is incredible.

Final Score: 7/10

I'm still not a turn-base game veteran but starting to like more and more. This game is a good boost of love to this genre! Still unfinished but I recommend. Love the fact that the game pushes you toward maliciousness.

King Arthur: Knight's Tale has just about everything I like in a game and I enjoyed it immensely on my first playthrough for 22 hours on normal difficulty. The religion and morality choices are interesting and the obviously the story and setting are both top-notch.

It was all undone in one mission, though, when the gameplay, which had been almost too easy with no real danger until I got to level 10 missions, suddenly became impossible. I think it was punishment for expanding my roster to the maximum as soon as possible and being left under-levelled, but recruiting new heroes is a larger part of the fun.

It was partly my fault for overconfidence (the overconfidence was perfectly justified for twenty-two hours) and choosing the permanent choice mode with no reloading, but I don't think I will be restarting this game for a while. In games like Darkest Dungeon, I have no problem with failing and restarting, but that game doesn't have the RPG and 'choice' element that King Arthur has, so restarting becomes a much bigger chore. Only buy this game if you are happy to enjoy replaying the same missions over and over again and choosing the same dialogue options.

I really wanted to like this game. The premise is really interesting... but then as far as tactical RGPs go, it's really bland... every battle is a rush to the enemy ranged units that will obliterate your troops while your ranged take out the melee adversaries. Runs woefully on Steam Deck (no reason tbh... it's not that graphically demanding) and even on a decent PC, the graphics feel bland...

Gave um 10 hours in... really couldn't justify continuing to play this one.

Great ass game. I spent waaaay too many hours on it. The base building is good, the unique characters are great. The plot is ok. I say get it on sale

Way better that i expected, also you can get hit more often that in other tactics games, remember focus on two moralities from the start of a run

Some may enjoy this rogue-like game but it is too drab for me. Very little scenery variety. And combat is lack lustre.
I have been thoroughly spoilt by BG3 ;(

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