Medieval Conquest Review

The middle ages of Europe were a time that was clouded in mystery, and not a little confusion. As the ancient empires fell, barbarian tribes rose to take their places, and brought with them their own gods, ways, language and traditions. It was as if Europe was basically starting over, and as such, this freshness seems to make it a popular time period for games. One such game is Medieval Conquest, but its not quite what one would expect.

The is game isn't based on history, but more on historic fantasy elements, heroes, monsters and the like. In it, you will have to build an effective economy, or your adventure goes nowhere, so don't expect it to Age Of Empires II with orcs, it doesn't work that way. This game is more like a role playing, where you must battle evil, and make a few coins along the way, and unlike many of these types of games, you won't just resource gather and build huge armies.

You begin as a simple adventurer, hired by your lord with one mission, kill off the monsters that are terrorizing his Kingdom. To help you in this quest, you will have to hire a few other adventurers, of the types role players know so well, fighting men, mages and rangers. Once you hire your stalwarts, you send them out, and as they kill monsters, the king will pay you for them. But your people have needs, and you must use your gold to provide for them.

You will have to build inns for them to recover in, taverns to relax, carnivals to entertain, as well as an assortment of weapons and armor shops. They will also need places to train, and places to learn new skills to improve their fighting abilities, and all of this costs gold. If you don't provide for them, and spend wisely, your merry band may simply wander off, looking for better work elsewhere.

The usual RPG elements are seen in this game, as they kill creatures, the characters increase in skill, strength, and ability. The characters aern't actually controlled by you, but if you pay them and take care of them, they will remain loyal, and you will see them use the things you provide, the weapons, armor, and town facilities.

Once you have your main town, with all the buildings, you can concentrate on expansion. Even though your men must return for weapons and armor, you can provide inns and taverns all over the kingdom, and develop hamlets so they won't have to waste time in travel, and can instead concentrate on staying happy and slaying monsters. The Kingdom is quite large, so it is in your best interest to build roads, and stables, so your men can buy horses and mules for travel. As you establish each outpost, the road net will increase, revealing more of the kingdom.

This game is more like a humorous romp than a serious role playing game, the monsters are tougne in cheek, and their are many sight gags and bad puns in the game, which make it a lot of fun, actually. The characters spout oaths and proclamations, the monsters do also, and die in comical ways at times. It certainly is quite a change of pace from the norm, and a good change I think.

The look of the game is different from conventional RPG games, the characters have huge heads and small bodies, but this just adds to the whimsical nature of the game. The campaign map of the kingdom and the towns are well down, and quite colorful. There are some AI problems however, but these aern't really severe, and don't distract much from the game.

This is a fun game, but be warned, it isn't easy to get into at first, the tutorial could be a lot better. But for what its meant to be, a comical look at the world of monster hunting and fantasy town building, it does well, quite well actually. If you are looking for something different, you should certainly pick this game up.