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 Gameplay:
The game includes two detailed tutorial
campaigns to get you used to the
gameplay. These tutorials are extremely
well done and are even worked into
the existing story line of the game.
While seasoned RTS players should
not have any trouble figuring out
how to play, I still advocate playing
through the tutorials for the story
and to have fun. Even without the
tutorials, however, the learning
curve is not bad at all, once you
get used to the fact that the game
breaks a few RTS conventions. The
documentation is well done and seems
to tell you everything you need
to know, and Timegate was even generous
enough to include a printed keyboard
shortcuts card and a technology
tree.
The
first major difference between Kohan
and every other strategy game out
there, is its 'company' based army
system. As opposed to sending an
unending horde of the same few monsters
out, Kohan makes you organize them
into small companies. Each company
consists 4 'front line' fighters,
2 independent support units, and
a leader. The front line choices
can be made from either footmen
or cavalry style units. The support
units can be chosen from a wide
variety of fantasy staples, including
rangers, paladins, wizards, necromancers,
summoners, clercis, and the like.
Each has its own unique abilities
that it brings to the group. Your
leader can either be a generic captain
or one of your Kohan.
 This
company system is quite dynamic,
and provides almost limitless combinations,
especially considering that there
are 4 different factions to play
within the game, each with some
generic units, as well as a generous
helping of faction-specific ones
thrown in. RTS veterans will like
that they can make companies that
enhance their style of play. If
you are the type of player that
rushes out from the beginning, you
can make companies full of fast,
cheap cavalry units, supported by
rangers for better sighting ability.
If you are more of a defensive player,
you can make companies of slow,
but powerful Grenadiers, supported
by a healer or maybe some fireball-tossing
mages. After some time, it becomes
apparent that some combinations
are more effective than others,
but I certainly enjoyed the experimentation.
Another
extremely important concept in Kohan
is 'zones.' Towns have a supply
zone which radiates a certain distance
outward, depending on the size of
the town. These supply zones automatically
regenerate the companies inside
of them, even to the point of restoring
lost units. This is interesting
because it makes retreat a more
valuable tactic. Companies also
have a zone around them (although
it is not displayed in the default
options...you have to turn this
on if you want to see it) which
shows you the area they will defend
if enemy units draw near. Zones
come into play in other areas as
well. Once you play the game, you
will begin to understand their importance.
 I
also really enjoyed the way city
and resource management are handled
in the game. You will not find any
helpless workers mining gold or
cutting trees in this game. For
that matter, you don't have deposits
of wood, stone or metal that will
ever run out. The game lists resources
as either a positive or negative
value, which represents how much
of the particular resource you have
coming in per minute. You can increase
production through various town
upgrades, or by building a mine
on a resource (though they are still
unmanned.) The only resource that
is stockpiled and that you can actually
run out of is gold. The system works
quite well, and lets you concentrate
more on your military and expansion
strategy, rather than worrying about
silly workers and whether or not
they are actually doing something.
Towns
are fully enclosed structures, with
no external buildings that can be
damaged, although you can lose town
upgrades while the town is being
sieged. Town upgrades themselves
are quite interesting. You can never
have every available upgrade in
any one town at the same time. There
are basic structures such as woodmills,
barracks and libraries, and each
of these basic structures has 1-3
possible upgrades that have varying
effects. In addition, towns only
have a certain number of slots available
for improvements depending on the
size of the town. This requires
you to be strategic in your choice
of upgrades, especially in the early
game, and pretty much forces you
to have multiple towns. The other
interesting interdependency is that
the maximum number of companies
you can have at a given time is
limited by the number of towns that
you control. When you expand your
empire, you can either commission
a company of settlers to build a
new settlement, or you can conquer
an enemies town. The nice part of
taking over an enemy town is that
it allows you the opportunity to
build units that your faction would
not normally allow. It is possible
to even have a town from all 4 factions
and to build any unit you want,
although they can not be mixed,
as commissioning a company is done
inside a town.
 Combat
in Kohan is also interestingly different.
Once two or more companies engage
in combat, the computer takes over
and controls the combat. This may
seem like blasphemy to strategy
enthusiasts, but it really is well
done. Support units hang back and
cast spells or launch ranged attacks,
and your front line guys rush in
and wail on the enemy. If you think
of each company as a single unit,
this system makes more sense. You
can still flank your enemy, or overwhelm
him with numbers...you just do it
with multiple companies, instead
of individual units. Multiple formations
are also provided, which offer varying
tradeoffs between speed and combat
effectiveness. Morale also plays
an important role. If your troops
are getting slaughtered, they will
rout, and usually head towards the
closest friendly supply zone to
heal up. This is actually a good
thing, because it saves a lot of
your companies from being utterly
destroyed. Another inclusion into
combat and companies is that your
troops can gain experience and become
stronger. I thought this was a good
touch.
If
you want additional features, this
game has got them too. Not only
does it come with a lengthy single
player campaign, but it has a fully
customizable single player game
as well, where you can choose from
a wide variety of different options
such as starting resources and AI
difficulty. The Multiplayer game
is equally as customizable, with
different modes of play, selectable
maps and all sorts of other settings.
On top of all this, it also comes
with a map editor, so you can make
and share your creations with others.
In addition, it also has something
that I thought was REALLY cool:
you can download customized AI 'Generals'
from the Kohan website to play against.
All of this amounts to a great deal
of replayablity. This is one game
I really felt is worth the cost.
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Graphics/Sound:
 The
graphics are mostly made up of high-resolution
sprites. Although they are a little
small, the units are detailed and
distinct and easy to tell apart.
The attack and spell effects are
appropriate to the unit, and the
movement animations were also well
done. I especially reveled in the
destruction when I had about 6 companies
each with two wizards or magicians.
The screen would be awash with fireballs
and lightning bolts, and the forces
of the enemy would crumple. One
thing that really stood out was
the hand-drawn art that is included
in various places. Even the pictures
that were displayed during installation
were a treat and especially well
done. I don't have any real complaints
about the graphics at all. No graphical
bugs were noted, and everything
seemed crisp and vibrant to me.
One nice inclusion is the little
floating 'shield' that is assigned
to each company. It allows you to
select different companies, even
when you have mass amounts of troops
concentrated in a small place. Nice
touch.
I
also enjoyed the sound of the game
quite a bit. I admit that I am a
sucker for voices, and this game
has plenty of them. The introduction
and all of the mission briefings
have lengthy voice-overs and there
are loads of mid-game voice overs
from the various Kohan you come
in contact with while playing the
single-player campaign (and the
game even automatically pauses itself
while the computer is speaking!)
Fear not, if you don't enjoy them
as much as I do, you can easily
skip them. The unit responses are
appropriate, and the sound effects
are certainly enjoyable as well.
You can hear the crackling of lightning
bolts, the boom of the fireballs
and the angelic sounds of healing
a unit. I actually liked the background
music as well, which is often not
the case for me. It was very fitting
with the mood of the game, and sometimes
even inspirational. I never found
the music or any of the sounds,
for that matter, to be annoying.
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Multiplayer/Devices:
Just
in case I have not said enough good
things about this game yet, the
Multiplayer aspect of it is really
strong as well. Multiplayer games
accept up to 8 people, and just
about every aspect of it is customizable.
You can select things like: starting
gold, starting faction, a slew of
map options, and you can form any
kind of teams that you like. There
are also a few different modes of
play for those who like to mix it
up a bit. The interface is solid,
and the link is a very stable Gamespy
plug-in. I play on a modem connection
which never goes higher than 28.8,
and I was able to play multiple
games without once losing my connection
OR having any noticeable slowdown.
That fact alone impressed the hell
out of me. Also, just to answer
what I know you guys are thinking:
yes, they did a good job of balancing
the different factions in the Multiplayer
game.
 This
next section was added by `Smaug
There
are quite a few advantageous devices
which Kohan will work beautifully
with. Devices used in this review
included Game Commander 2, Sidewinder
Game Voice, and Sidewinder Strategic
Commander.
Game
Commander 2:
GC2 performed as expected and provided
quick and accurate voice commands
to my troops. This also came in
handy for quick orders to troops
and creating buildings. Virtually
no delay in command response and
excellent recognition. The author
of this review actually had some
trouble getting his onboard sound
card to work with Kohan and GC2,
but I had no trouble with my SBLive.
Sidewinder
Game Voice:
Game Voice performed almost as well
as GC2 in response and recognition.
I did find response times about
1.3 seconds slower in GV with the
default settings, but once I tweaked
the command sensitivity a bit I
lowered that about .7 seconds more.
Sidewinder
Strategic Commander:
This game was made for the Strategic
Commander! Talk about having a handy
tool at your fingertips, you can
setup nearly every single command
you would need to use, and the macro
recording feature works wonders
for the on the fly commands you
want to set.
End
Edit
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The
Wrap-up:
 I
simply cannot say enough good things
about this game. It has been one
of those titles that has sucked
me in and has me spending way too
much time playing it to the exclusion
of other games. Kohan even drew
me away from Everquest (AKA EverCrack),
which is no small feat. If I had
to venture a guess, this game was
the result of a lot of intelligent
strategy enthusiasts sitting around
a table and discussing everything
that would make a great strategy
game. Kohan is the sort of game
that makes strategy fans drool.
The most impressive feature, in
my opinion, is that I NEVER once
said to myself, "This game would
have been better if they had included
such and such..." There are all
kinds of little inclusions (example:
being able to save your favorite
company setups, for quick recruitment)
that add up to a game that gives
the player a sense of 'completeness'
that has been sorely lacking in
most strategy games lately. Another
thing worth noting which makes this
game even more impressive, is that
it is the debut project of Timegate
Studios. Kohan is so well done,
it could win gameplay awards if
it had EGA graphics and PC Speaker
beeps. I can not wait to see what
these guys make next, if they can
do something like this on their
first try. (Note: the first expansion
pack has already been announced!
woo hoo!) Kohan is most certainly
"Game of the Year" material.
Bottom
line folks: this game is a winner...go
get it. Now. Don't walk, run! I've
got to stop writing now, and go
back and play.
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Background/Summary:
Jay
"Bahamut" Henningsen