King Arthur: Knight’s Tale – Review

We have so many different versions of the story of King Arthur, Excalibur, and the knights of the Round Table. Many will remember the 1995 movie, First Knight, while others may immediately think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and some may even remember the fairly recent King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. The story has been told in many different ways, but one thing is always a key element: King Arthur is a valiant knight who is on a holy quest. In more recent years, creative minds are trying to tell the story differently or give an original spin to it. The Green Knight was such an interesting tale, but now with its full release, King Arthur: Knight’s Tale tries to do things differently as well. In this story of epic proportions, King Arthur is actually the evil entity that needs to be slain. Last year we tried the early build of the game, and we were quite impressed. We couldn’t wait to see how the full game turned out to be.

Story

As a whole, King Arthur: Knight’s Tale’s story is actually quite simple. You’ll be playing as Sir Mordred who has taken up arms against the fabled King Arthur. After a battle that has left many casualties on each warring faction, you and Arthur both perish. Sadly, something went horribly wrong and you both rise from the dead. This time, however, instead of overthrowing the righteous King Arthur, you’ll have to kill the monster he has become. It is now you who is summoned by the Lady of the Lake to rebuild Camelot and protect Avalon.

The game allows you to make choices that alter a few of the game’s events, but the main story will pretty much still play out the same way no matter what you choose. Your choices will mainly affect the loyalty of the knights who serve under you. Certain choices may unlock side missions that allow you to recruit different knights with different affiliations. This system is quite fun, and it does create a certain replay value for those wanting to tackle the game a second time.

Graphics

Graphically the game left us with mixed feelings. At times we were treated to very impressive character models, breathtaking backdrops, and ghoulish enemies, but at other times, we saw very janky animations, assets that were copied all over the place, and very bland environments. The latter was more apparent as we progressed through the game and found ourselves revisiting areas that looked oddly familiar to those we saw in earlier missions. It didn’t help that certain effects then felt less polished and that there was a lack of enemy variety. We very much loved the diverse cast of knights that are able to join your Round Table.

Sound

The sound design of King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is quite good. You’ll be treated to a very cinematic backdrop with very satisfying sound effects when you hack and slash your opponents into tiny chunks. The voice acting is also quite good, but some characters really ham things up, making their performances a bit less convincing. Nonetheless, the voice cast is varied, and a lot of smaller characters also have a few voiced lines.

Gameplay

King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is a strategy RPG very much akin to the XCOM series. This means you’ll be going through short missions with a small party of knights and warriors, to slowly level up your characters and progress through the story. The game offers a lot of side missions, that allow you to collect more resources and recruit new characters. These resources are then used for new gear but also to rebuild Camelot. The offset is quite simple, and you’ll get to grips with the mechanics after only a mission or two. The combat is presented in a turn-based format, in a similar fashion as the aforementioned XCOM games. You’ll have several action points per character per turn, and with these, you can move, attack, and use skills or items.

The game is very accessible to newcomers and veterans alike, as you have several different difficulty options to choose from. You can choose to play the game via the normal difficulties, meaning your knights can die when you’re not careful. Those who do not enjoy having the constant threat of permadeath hanging over their head can play on the easier difficulty and just enjoy the story. Playing on easy will make the combat very easy, and you might actually find yourself having too many knights under your service. In this case, you may have to dismiss one or two in order to have the knights you prefer the most.

Finding a proper party balance is actually not extremely hard, as the game only offers a handful of different character classes. You’ll have bulkier attackers and defenders, but also ranged classes and support characters. After a while, you might even find yourself ignoring the newer additions to your Round Table, as these new knights often offer the same stats and perks as your already battle-hardened ones. Of course, new characters often come with slight variations of the base class, but even so, you will probably end up sticking with the party that has worked well for you over the course of many missions, or you might simply go for the characters you prefer, be it because of their fancy armor or their personality.

The gear system sometimes feels a bit like a hassle, but stats are clearly depicted on the items. Nonetheless, some effects may have you guessing what they actually do in the heat of battle. The same can be said about Camelot, where the system of expanding your city is quite pleasant, albeit barebones. Building and upgrading structures often grant you a few passive bonuses, such as faster healing, more merchandise at the merchant, loyalty boosts for your heroes, and so on. This is certainly helpful during your long and arduous quest, but it did feel like a lot more could have been done with the base-building aspect of the game.

Conclusion

King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is a very enjoyable strategy RPG that puts an interesting spin on the Arthurian legend. We loved the diverse cast of characters and the overall story, and we did find ourselves spending a lot of time on the game during each session. Even though the combat grows a bit stale after a while, we did have a lot of fun playing through the game. We can also see ourselves picking up this title again in the future to approach things differently when it comes to the morality system. Even though a lot of fun is to be had with this one, we do suggest perhaps waiting for a sale to add this one to your collection.

Ibuki

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Aspiring ninja.

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