Do you dream of conquering the world? To raise your flag from one end of your kingdom to the other, after crushing your rivals? If yes, Wars of the Renaissance Kingdom It could be right for you… provided you get used to its many mechanisms.
Developed by Independent Studio Fantasy worldThe game is honest from the beginning: “This is not an attempt at imitation Total war or Crusader Kings“, referring to the two main titles in real-time strategy and management combined with a good dose of role-playing.
And if we value such transparency, especially for a game in Early Access, there's reason to question whether it's really necessary: yes, it might be interesting to encourage smaller studios; Yes, diversifying one's pleasures and testing new ways of doing things, new methods of achieving one's goals, can bring a breath of fresh air to a genre dominated by certain titles…
But this sword is double-edged. Because while there is no doubt about it Wars of the Renaissance Kingdom It will be cheaper than the newer one Total waror Crusader Kings IIIwe must admit that the functionality will also be less developed.
After all, the game we care about aims high… very high. From a small group of landless mercenaries, it will be necessary to establish dominance over one fiefdom, and then several fiefdoms, to then develop this territory into a true kingdom. While ensuring, of course, that she does not run out of resources, raises enough money to pay the bills, and maintains fairly good relations with her lordship and neighbors.
In short, there will be a lot to do, even during battles. Because instead of clearly separating the management of the “grand strategy” type, with the construction of buildings, sending ambassadors and recruiting units, from the “realistic” management similar to the management of real-time strategy games, the developers chose to partially combine these two aspects.
If you capture a village by storm, for example, you will not only have your own base, which may seem a bit strange, but it will also be possible to construct buildings that will allow you to obtain resources, or recruit additional units. . With this sort of thing the title seems to have gone wrong.
Errors and problems
So, during the first part, by activating the tutorial, we had to face the facts right away: the developers were thinking too big. We can excuse the strange design flaw that means that in French, part of the information displayed on the screen is “eaten up” by the interface, but why are we offered, in the middle of a fight, to ask our peasants to slaughter chickens for this? To feed our troops? Even when the enemy starts rushing towards our forces…
Fundamentally, we must applaud ambition and boldness Wars of the Renaissance Kingdom, with its stadium on the dimensions of the ancient continent, and its tangible complexity. But in terms of appearance, many of the features are strange, even ridiculous. It is not necessary to have it everyone The advantages inherent in this type of game, especially since alternatives already exist. Alternatives that are usually refined for many years.
Furthermore it, Wars of the Renaissance Kingdom Not equivalent Total war or Crusader Kings:We are closer to a formula Mount and Blade: Warband. Which can be fun in a way. but Mount and blade It's also a game that has benefited from over a decade of improvements and tweaks… and a remake some time ago.
If you're really passionate about games that combine grand strategy and real-time, and want to explore something other than the big names already known, Wars of the Renaissance Kingdom It could be an interesting option. But other than that, more successful titles already abound.
Wars of the Renaissance Kingdom
Developer: Reverie World Studios
editor: Freedom Games
platform: Windows (tested on Steam)
The game is available in French (interface and translation)
