Kingdom Wars 2: Battles

I tried to play it, really tried, but, bugs from first one game + additional bugs they made. They have changed idea of the Kingdom Wars, it is not KW anymore, it is like some very old strategy with a LOOOOTs of bugs which present since 2013 in the first game. The concept of KW is really cool, freash and attractive, this is why I played first game about 50 hours.

Why you should NOT buy it:
1 - bugs, just too many. It is unfinished game, it requires at least one more year just to debug everything.
I love to play Stronghold Crusaders it is 2D 2001 year strategy, even that game has less bugs.
2 - game just died, no support, team busy with other project and creating new bugs.
3 - game focused on single match, pvp / pve, but noone plays it. It is like buy World of Warcraft, when there is no players. How you gonna raid or do pvp?
4 - mechanics is really very bad, still issues from 2013, first KW. You say units stand and dont move, they run to enemy. You say archers stop fighting, regroup and go here, they stop fighting for a while, run to close enemy heavy unit = rip all.
5 - Zombie DLC? Just to attract more ppl here. They one shot everyone
6 - You may say, ok, lvl up your units! Ok, rised 20 lvl spent 10 hours, next mission, everything from scratch...


DO NOT buy it, unless you dont want to support laziness of this game studio.

From the hours i played u can see i really wanted to like this game.
The idea is good, but the coding is just so bad. Bugs...and really unoptimized (had massive stutters as the game progressed even though i have a decent rig).
Please only buy if u wanna be frustrated like me.

The devs did so much with the game to end up dumping it for another project. Its very sad. I really enjoyed the game when it first released and was excited to see where they would take it. If I had the option, I would get a refund.

Kingdom Wars 2: Battles has a great premise, yet results in quite shoddy execution. While the mechanic of sieges hasn't been looked at in this kind of way since the golden days of Stronghold, it is quite lackluster regarding complexity and will end up being a zerg-fest about who can push more bazillion troops to suicide against enemy walls than the defender being able to mass produce defenses and bowmen alike.

The gameplay being a bit on the simple side could have been overlooked if it wasn't for pseudo-MMO crafting grinds which are desperately required to unlock even the most basic of building progressions for multiplayer battles. There's a little diehard community, but masses wise, Kingdom Wars 2: Battles could soon be considered abandoned.

I'm not going to lie, I did have fun times with this together with a friend, but for every hour of fun I was frustrated by random crafting drops, not finding any matches or just plain slow progression that can even put JRPGs to shame.

All in all, this product is stitched together from ideas of many other games, all of them greater than this result of mashed up ideas.

While I did spend a lot of time in this, there's no way I can recommend it to anyone. Play Stronghold instead. Any of them, really.

Don't be fooled by the videos. The graphics for this game are terrible, the game crashe repeatedly, has loads of stupid bugs, a really poor interface and looks fairly abandoned by the developers in favour of their new 'clone' of this trash in a medieval setting.

Do not even waste £2 if it is on sale!

This game is truly terrible. I gave it a decent chance, I really did but this game does nothing for me.

1) You cant save for yourselfin the campaign. It auto saves at check points. Thats it. I had to do the second level a couple times because of that. How can i not be able to save in a modern game.

2) The engine on this game is terrible. I run BF1 no prob and then this game comes around and makes my machine chug. The Fuck is up with that.

3) Voice acting in campaign is just straight terrible.

I won't be finishing this game, which makes me angry. I would recommend not buying this game

I was really excited for a nice rts style game, almost reminding me of BFME2 from years ago. Read the reviews, everyone seemed pleased with their purchase, and it's not a bad a game per say. But... if you are interested in multiplayer games, there is a wretched desyncing issue. But it doesn't inform you of an issue. So while I was in discord with a few friends, playing a match against one another. One person was laughing that they were burning peoples cities down, while... On the defenders screen, literally no battle was occuring. Eventually we were not even playing the same game. Pretty disappointed.

A very fun, addicting, unique, challenging RTS game, the campaign is good but for me i played mostly the skirimish because that is where the real challenge is. Facing 4 AI in a free for all along with zombies is truly brutal. I would train thousands along with all the ai training thousands marching them to attack me and the other AI causing tens of thousands to die throughout the game. What did the zombies do? all those tens of thousands of troops got up and became a zombie. Talk about hardcore, not only fighting AI in extremely massive battles but also having to worry about all the massive armies that die become zombies?

Let me tell you it didnt end well for me or the ai since thousands were dead infront of everyones castle. Having to worry about the enemy along with zombies is no simple task which makes it more challenging. When you fight there are 3 parties fighting which is you, the ai, and zombies ah and some random ogres and dragons every so often. This game is a very unique RTS game that has tons of replay value and content along with the weird crafting system which i personally am not into but it does add something most RTS games dont have.

To answer if the game is worth it i would say yes and would very much suggest gettng it, sure you can find other good rts games but definitely not as unique as this. I mean, you not only fight AI you also fight zombies all at the same time. Pretty dang unique if you ask me and definitely not something you will find in another game.

Reading through the reviews, and with the hindsight of now playing the game... i think people are giving this game more credit than it deserves due to the small but responsive dev team. The actual gameplay is a VERY dumbed down age of empires meets a VERY dumbed down Stronghold. Tactics consists of smashing piles of units together or hiding behind premade fortifications you can click on to "build". No designing here.

I won't pretend this is a comprehensive review, but I was so bored so quickly with the gameplay, I couldn't be bothered to see if there was more deeper somewhere.

It feels like an older fashioned rts, almost like the age of empires series but with orcs and elves. The battles can be pretty epic with a fair amount of unique units for each class. Campain's decent and does a proper job at teaching you how to play, though still giving enough challange to keep you on your toes when fighting the ai.

My biggest complaint is the massive lag I get when selecting and moving large armies, maybe it's the graphics card I use (I have a AMD Radeon) it's almost game beaking with the screen freezing up and trying to maneuver your troops. I've heard the devs say they're working on this and hopfully it'll get fixed soon, but if you're someone who likes his fps at its highest then i would recomend waiting until this is patched, otherwise it's genuinly fun.

Also big points for the undead that can be used to your advantage, never played an rts where you can kill your amries off next to the enemy base just to have them raised as undead to finish them off.

I bought this game for the single player campaign and was not at all disappointed. It has a great story and each of the episodes are long and challenging (sometimes TOO challenging). They are also adding to the game constantly. I can't wait to see where the saga goes.

(Original Review)

Still a bit sparse and kind of dull to play. Not sure what I'm missing here, but it doesn't seem like a very intriguing game as it stands. Will check back regularly to see improvements, patches, and addons, but I don't find it keeping my interest in it's current state.

(/Original Review)

HOWEVER

I WILL recommend either buying this game, or keeping your eye on this game, purely based on the fact these developers go way above and beyond to try and get everyone to enjoy it. Publicly, my old review was not agreed upon and I don't mind that. But that didn't even stop these devs from contacting me to let me know they're making changes and improvements, and even personally informing me of a new expansion coming. I'm definitely going to put this on my regular checklist of perpetually updated games.

I may not enjoy the game like I do for others, but the developers are top notch - something you don't see more often enough with vidya these days. I hope you guys keep the professional attitude and personal touch in the future. It puts you way above a lot of other devs, and it's something we game enthusiasts really need.

Thanks, guys! Can't wait to see what's to come.

You want a mix between total war siege battles, battle of the middle earth, starcraft and age of empires, and here you go ! definitely recommending it for anyone liking rts ! and as if it wasn't even enough, ton of content is scheduled to come freely thanks to those amazing devs !

once again another title rushed to full release when it is really in early BETA.this game is full of gambreaking bugs atm.that being said it is a very cool game with lots of potential.but at this time i regret getting it on "release".this is a BETA!im sure things will continue to improve.will update review in the future,but at this time dont spend more than 10$ on it or you may find out the hard way what they are calling "full realease" these days :)EDIT: many of the mentioned bugs and more have been fixed since this review.that being said,this game is far from finished.i run arma 3 at 60fps no prob.this game starts stuttering and badly lagging 20 min in.this unfortunatly for me leaves this game labeled as still very broken but atleast they are making progress.a perfect example of what happens when you decide to "release"an unfinished product.Be real with us guys we are signing your checks lol.

This game has all of the feastures it needs to make a great game and I have had fun in the short amount of time I have played it already. I really like that the more you play the more units you can unlock through the mission rewards, and the trade centre is a great idea. However, I do believe there are a significant number of bugs to fix as I have experienced a great deal.

Pros:
* Fun - Probably the most fun rts I have played in some time
* Interesting buidling mechanics - I love that you can extend the outer walls and how you can go quite defensive to start
* All races play very differently - I really like how different the Orcs are, it really feels like you can make a horde
* The maps are large and well balanced - They feel large at first, but it means you have to move and attack
* Its hard - Im probably just rubbish at it (although I play alot of RTS), but I died on the first mission which is basically a tutorial. Thats never happened to me in a game before and I like the challenge (that was on normal mode)
* Very active devs - You can see this within minutes of looking on steam and the ingame chat, its very good to see

Cons:
* Bugs - there are alot, but looking on steam they update frequently)
* Visuals - I dont mean the gfx (which arent great), buit its quite hard to tell units apart. I think this is made slightly worse on the first campaign level as there are so many bodies, but it does get easier on the single player maps
* Units AI - The units seem to work great in smaller groups, but when you select the enmasse several dont move at all without help

TLDR; Buy it now, but it needs future support from the developers (who look super active)

Highly recommended for the gamer interested in Tolkein-esque lore and castle/town building. Good attention to detail. CON: Can't build a castle of my own floor-plan. Your castle kinda "grows" out of the ground in a pre-programmed design. Thought it was kinda lame, but this game grew on me real quick. 8.5/10

what i once thought XD:

the game crashes on start up often and once in a single player game against 1 AI Orc, the game will %100 crash everytime...

but then..

something happened..

the developer of KW2B actually spoke out to me saying that "we are sorry and it has been fixed"
I LOVE THAT !!!!! a developer actually talked to a unhappy customer (BTW great customer service 1+)

(Dev Konstantin [developer] 22 hours ago
Panzer,

I invite you to try the game again, as last night we have fixed all of the issues you`ve experienced, and sorry to hear about this terrible experience.

And to explain what happened - we`ve released a massive patch on Thursday, and due to a lot of new features, a few crushing bugs appeared. But by Sunday evening we had all of these crashes fixed. I know it`s not a good excuse, but for a small team we couldn`t catch all the crashes ourselves before releasing this massive update.

I hope to see you come back to give the game another chance, and sorry that your first experience with the game was during the two days that we had all these crashing problems.)

ive seen so many games that i have backed only to be left to rot in page 2358 on the steam store and this one AINT one.

so the dev team left a few bugs, but their small and that is to be expected! and the repair patch came out moments later so im left happy! :D

You like strategy ? massive battles ? So this game is for you.

It's only early access - there're some mistakes and flaws but it remains a great one.
A lot of opportunities to get your enemy down or defense your own city. You can earn some * extra * out-of-battles resources to make your race stronger in the next battles. It also allows you to call a dragon ( but would be very expensive and hard to take ).

Basically I wanted to buy the new game or additional to it * stronghold - crusaders 2 * but when I * suddenly * stumbled upon this I found it much better. IT HAS strategy possibilities. You can play alone, everyone against everyone (4v4) or 1v1 or 2v2 united.

Shortly say: a good game with strong prospects

Kingdom Wars 2: Battles is an incredibly interesting concept in todays view of rts strategy games. It takes mechanics from all over, with resource nodes from games like age of empires or empire earth; huge scale combat from the total war games including the batallions of x amount of units per squad. It's so nostalgic and at the same time thrilling to play a game like this. As much as I'd like to praise it up to the stars and call it the new messiah, I can't do that fairly. So let's look at some of the negatives I've noticed during gameplay.
- Archers: These guys are useful, but good god can they not aim at times. If you stick them on a wall, sure they'll aim as well as they can, but when you have about 3 orcish marauders (orc archers) left in a squad firing at your 5 squads on a wall, and killing them like flies while hundreds of arrows rain down upon the orcish invaders, and not a single one is hitting them, it's a little bit shitty. It's not even a case of them having godly luck by dodging, the archers just don't aim at them. They aim a bit to the left, or a bit to the right, and every single arrow aims in that spot instead of where the enemy is actually standing! It's infuriating! The siege is the same too, missing countless shots and wasting ammunition to try and flatten the ground next to the invader. AGH!
- Terrain: This is a little bugbear of mine, but it still counts in this. On some maps you play singleplayer, I've found that if I try to play humans, and have stone walls defending the core of my city, I can't place anyone on the outer layer. By outer layer I mean the humans have a kind of bastion style design. If intruders break through the outer walls, they have to break through the inner gates. But the inner gates are broken into two parts. I won't fully explain it since I'd sound like an utter moron trying to explain something I don't know about, but look it up. I'm sure there are a few images flying around of the human castles by now.
- Balance: As of the current release of the game, I've found that the elves are insanely overpowered. Now, in a lot of games I've played over the years, elves can be quite dangerous, but if you try enough, they'll fall over flat on their pretty little faces. In this game? Good god. They're the same as all others, don't get me wrong. Push enough and they'll still die. But in terms of resources, they will outlast you. How? They get a building called a symbiosis tree, which allows them to CREATE resources. Yup, I really mean that. They can create gold mines, stone mines, even more berries if they so fancy. This means they can keep pumping out entire armies of powerful troops, while you're scrounging around the map desperately trying to find some gold for another squad of knights.
- Walls: Useful, correct? well, not when the wall is blocking all your arrows trying to murder a single zombie battering down your damn gate, and you can't open that gate because the zombie is hitting it. Infuriating, especially as an orc, since you only get one exit out of your plateau. Truly infuriating. It's made even worse when you watch your archers arrows hit thin air way above the barricades and the enemy on the other side is perfectly safe. Worst bugbear ever.

Now, I know that a lot of these problems should be solved during the next couple updates, and admittedly they'll take a while. I'm an impatient person so I want them as soon as possible, so I can enjoy this game even more. But on the whole, for the feel this game gives you when you play this, it's totally worth it in my opinion. Especially for the price right now. £10.99? I'd pay £20 for this game, just because it's brilliant, and brings back the main thing I love in games like this; strategic options. Rush them, or defend. It's your choice.

This is a very fun little game. The single player is lacking, Needs a proper skirmish mode. Hopefully we get one. Other then that its similar to stronghold crusader, but with fantasy elements similiar to lord of the rings. Are the graphics amazing? no, not really, but its fun and its not taking itself too seriously. I play total war games when i want complete realism on the battlefield. The game is large scale, and i cant stress enough, just fun. You start with a town or whatever from which you build peasents. 1 squad of peasents is like 15 guys. So you build some squads and then you task them out to do things like..work mines for stone, kill pigs for food, loot corpses for gold and stuff, etc etc you get the idea. Each race is different, for example the elves do not chop down trees like humans do. they are nature lovers or whatever so, they work with the earth. You build houses to increase population cap. Each house adds 10 squads, each squad can have 15ish men in them. I dont know the max population...i havent hit one yet. But you can see from the video up top on the store page that the battles can be big. Theres upgrades and tech trees, things mostly make sense, like if you have catapults on your wall, they fire stones but in doing so they deplete them from your stock pile. Makes sense to me, Stones arent infinite and free to just toss around. Theres alot of detail in the maps, The huge cities and towns are really pretty and well thought out. In closing....I dont know how popular this game is, there are clearly more of them, and this is the most recent, but i had never heard of these games before this one. so i cant compare the rest or anything, but man i feel like i stumbled across a little gem. This is true old school rts. Build a barracks get infantry. I compare this most with the lord of the rings rts battle for middle earth. Basically if Battle for middle earth and stronghold had a baby, this would be its offspring. Also reminds me ALOT of warcraft 3 so maybe battle for middle earth cheated with warcraft 3, and stronghold never found out, so stronghold helped raise the kid as his own. LOL