It's been somewhat surprising at how slow the RTS genre has been moving into the three dimensional arena. I know performance is a much bigger issue, but with processors and video cards blazing at ungodly speeds, you would think that more developers would be headed in this direction. The ones that have so far have been fairly successful. But it wasn't until last year that a game solely based on the medieval era was released. Now in 2002, Black Cactus, with the help of Microids looks to tear down the house that Empire Earth started to create with their 3D real-time strategy game, Warrior Kings. With amazing graphics, a very deep unit structure, and some action-packed gameplay to boot, Warrior Kings is a game that may just have what it takes to become legendary.

The story of Warrior Kings takes place in a region called Orbis. A young man named Artos has landed on Angland, only to find that his father, the king, is under attack by a group of dedicated followers of the one god. Upon watching the slaughtering of your father and hometown, Artos must retreat so that he may at some point counter-attack this ruthless force. Now this is where the structure of the single-player campaign begins. Depending on the campaign level that you selected, your path will be pagan, imperial, or renaissance. Each path changes the outcome of the story, as well as the units that you will have at your disposal. The pagans are more into the black magic, so you will have access to demonic spells, as well as other sinister units. The imperials follow the path of light, so you will have control of god's best soldiers, as well as the elements, also known as Acts of God. The renaissance path is more of the technological/scientific path, giving you access to black powder, cannons, catapults, etc. Now this kind of branching system seems as if the story has a lot to offer, but after playing through the entire game, I can say that they only character that you can establish some relationship with is Artos. And that's for the simple fact that while the game introduces new characters throughout the game, but they are instantly removed as an important player by the end of a level. You don't even really build up any type of emotion for the antagonist in the game, because you won't face him until the last level. And even then, his role in the story seems very limited. This mainly has to do with WK's focus on completing objectives, rather than making characters other than Artos an intricate part of the story. Another reason to complete this campaign is for the knowledge of the units and buildings that are revealed in each level. Had they introduced most of the more powerful weapons a little earlier instead of stretching them out all the way to the end of the game, players would have wanted to utilize their arsenal a little better. But by the time you reach the last three levels, you really won't care about using your super weapons, because you don't need them to complete the game.

Gameplay:

Before I get into the gameplay mechanics of Warrior Kings, there are a few things that I feel need to be addressed before we go any further. First and foremost, patch this game to 1.3 immediately. This game hit North America quite buggy, and the 1.3 patch will keep you from experiencing things like watching the long intros without being able to bypass them, an outrageously weak multiplayer, as well as some other critical issues. There are still some issues, which I will cover in the rest of the review, but the latest patch eliminates some of the big problems that should have been eliminated in beta testing. Another issue that I felt needs to be addressed is documentation. Because of the unique branching system that Warrior Kings uses, players need to become familiar with the tech tree. However, in the process of porting the game to the states, that little tech tree map that comes with the majority of RTS games is absent in the US retail box. What's also missing is the keyboard shortcuts document that you need to learn in order to perform some of the advance commands within the game. Neither the retail manual nor the online manual provides any other alternatives to finding out this info. But after some extensive research on the product website, I was able to find downloadable links for these files in the FAQs section. While these documents aren't really valuable tools for most users in other games, Warrior Kings is structured so well, that you need to have these in order to build your army to your liking. It's just a shame that they didn't agree.

Now with that out of the way, let's dive into the gameplay of Warrior Kings. If you are a veteran of the genre, then you will definitely see some elements of the great classic RTS games integrated into this game. But Warrior Kings takes those elements, and multiply it by five. The most obvious strength is the branching system that the game uses. Instead of taking the route of some strategy games by making tons of different races, which have the same functions, they have implemented a system for users to mold your empire into one or a combination of three social paths. As stated earlier, there are three different classes for you to undertake. There are also four construction levels for your class to advance. But I should point out that once you decide to choose a particular path, you would not be able to crossover into another path on the tech tree until you reach the castle (level 3) level. To choose your path, you must build the first structure of that path. Once it is constructed, your manor (homebase) will be converted to reflect the path that you have chosen. Now should you have a change of heart, and wish to travel another path, then destroy that first path building, and you are once again free to choose a path to your liking.

Your empire first begins with your manor, which is enclosed by a wall. This manor will provide you with your basic units to get your unit advancement moving. Most of the important buildings (barracks, stables, universities, cathedrals) must be around a manor at all times. But sometimes, there just isn't enough room to fit all of these buildings within the enclosed. But if you pay attention to the color of the building as you are finding a place for it, it will turn green whenever there is a suitable place to build. And if that happens to be through a wall, they will actually expand/modify the wall so that the new buildings can still remain within the confines of the enclosed environment put in place by the manor. By this formula, you should get a pretty big picture of how your empire will grow. The resources that you have to expand your empire are food, wood (materials), stone, and gold. You acquire these the old fashioned way by farming, lumberjacking, and mining. This process is very slow, and is the only thing that keeps you from building an large army very quick.

While we are on the subject of armies, let's talk about the units. In other games within the genre, most units have a primary function. But in Warrior Kings, not only can the units perform multiple functions, but also even the weakest of units can be just as important as the more advanced units. A perfect example is the peasants. By default, these units are primarily used for building, harvesting, and repairing. But should your buildings come under attack, and there are no military units around to neutralize them, you can temporarily convert the peasants into a militia, which could be all the power that you need to repel an enemy attack. Once the danger has passed, you can convert them back to peasants, and have them return to their regular duties. Another example is the scout. History has shown that the scout really isn't a valuable unit to invest in. But in Warrior Kings, these may be one of your most powerful tools to have in a battle. Not only do they uncover hidden areas due to the fog-of-war, but also when new enemies come into their field of vision, they will blow a horn really loud, grabbing your attention. They really become your eyes and ears of the battlefield, and when properly used, can prevent any surprise attacks. Black Cactus takes unit depth one step further by allowing characters to gain experience. By putting them on training dummies, or sending them out to battle, the units will gain experience. The gain increases there attack and defense stats, making them much more efficient warriors.

When it comes to unit balance, Warrior Kings does this very well. You have light and heavy troops and cavalry as well as naval units, each having advantages and disadvantages against each other. I must say that because the balance is so good, you always can stop a rush with the right units. Which is good because a lot of these units can do massive damage within a short amount of time. The siege units could use a little more balance though. Some of these devastating units have such high defensive stats, that if you can't get a siege weapon of your own to counter it, a single siege unit could take out your critical buildings within minutes.

Now when the time comes where your strongest armies must clash, you have to take advantage of some cool but obvious features that is in Warrior Kings. First, let's look at the terrain. Because it is in full 3D, you have mountains and hills to fight through. Thanks to their unique use of fog-of-war, you can see the entire terrain, without actually knowing where the enemy is. So early on, you can plan out a strategy for a particular map, and not have to make some critical strategic decisions on the fly. With that in mind, you must also learn to take advantage of the height and elevation of the terrain. Units who are firing from a higher elevation will have their projectiles move at a faster rate, while also causing more damage. Fighting uphill is an option that you want to avoid at all costs, as nine times out of ten you will lose the skirmish. And to keep players from just camping units on a hill with no risk of penalty, they have included a system in which units must have their ammo replenished, or else they will not fire as frequently. With a supply cart within their radius, their ammo will be constantly renewed. By now, you should have a pretty big picture on how your empire works as a cohesive unit.

Once you have considered all of these factors, the focus now turns to the fighting. And to be blunt, the action in Warrior Kings is brutal. Armies of massive proportions collide, and the battles can lasts for several minutes, depending on the factors listed above. Don't be surprised if you find yourself zooming out just to watch all of the carnage from a distance. Watching the knights slash the archers, while the rocket launchers are tearing down the buildings, while some gunners are mowing down the infantry is something that you only thought was possible in the movies. It kind of reminds me of the blood and gore that was featured in Shogun: Total War, but with much better action. This game is a much slower-paced kind of strategy game, which helps add a level of realism that may not have been present there otherwise.

Now if there is any major gripe that I have with the gameplay, it has to do with the AI in the single player campaign. Now, for the first 2/3 of a campaign, you may not notice it, but that final 1/3 shows how dumb and unresponsive the AI really are. The units have a tendency not to adhere to your commands, which gets annoying really fast. By default, your ranged units are designed to keep a great distance between them and their targets. So what happens is that when the battle is really getting intense, instead of your ranged units holding their ground despite the advancement of the opposition, they just begin to scatter as far away from the target as possible, trying to maintain that great distance. Now you do have the option of ordering them to stand their ground, but in the last mission for example, with the enemy attacking you from multiple angles from the same time, you just don't have the time to keep making these mundane adjustments. Now the opposition is fairly unintelligent. Again, because of the game's focus on completing ridiculous objectives the first 2/3 of the game, you don't have that much interaction with the opponent. But once you do, you will realize that these have no idea what they are doing. There were many times during the single player campaign where they outnumbered me three to one, and just when I thought that they were going to overrun me, I would send out a scout, and they would end up chasing him to wherever, allotting me more time to provide some defense for that area of attack. They also have a tendency not to build archer units. This may have been the main reason why I was able to pull off this cheap maneuver. I won't spoil it for you, but they do redeem themselves in the last level. Let's just say that they take "ruthless aggression" to a whole new level. It's just a shame that you have to wait until the end just to see the AI at its best.

Graphics:

Without question, the crowing jewel of Warrior Kings is the graphics. Taking advantage of a three-dimensional engine, Black Cactus has made the terrain very realistic in terms of scale and design. There are plenty of mountainous terrains for you to trudge on, as well as hills. Looking at the game from a distance, you can clearly see how well they utilized the textures. Turn on bump mapping, and watch the level of detail increase dramatically. Though I should point out that it gets quite pixilated the more you zoomed in. After thinking about it, I agree with their move to use this method rather than having the terrain look blurry when zoomed in. The effect is much more realistic. And if you pay attention, you will notice that the clouds move in real-time, casting a shadow over the land as you advance. I just wish that they put as much attention in the water textures as they did the terrain. There are different kinds of terrain to fight on, such as desert, snow, and grass. Some nighttime maps really would have set this game on fire, but I guess we'll have to keep dreaming for the time being. When it comes to the units and buildings, they are not the best-looking models that I have seen in a 3d rts game, but they are not so bad that they throw off everything else. The units sport a resolution that is higher than the buildings, but not as great as the terrain. They are finely detailed, so you will never run into an instance in which you cannot tell what the unit looks like. One thing that I did notice is that the most of the units (even the imperial units) have a dark, demonic look to them. Even Artos looks as if he has gone mad. The building textures really stand out because they are not as sharp as the other objects in the game. However, when attacked, they do show damage, and can even catch on fire with the proper weapons. This is just one of the many animations that you will see in this game. The units are also given some animations, but they tend to skip some frames of animation once in a while. The magic effects could have used some sprucing up, as they look as if they were ported from a N64 game.

Warrior Kings does have an Achilles heel, and that is performance. Long load times are ever so present, right from the start of the application. While my system is fairly fast, just getting to the start menu takes about a minute and a half. Then you have to deal with long load times for each level during the campaign, which will make any gamer angry. Then once you are in the game, the framerate can be reduced to single digits. This is especially the case in the final levels of the game, where more than 300 units could be occupying a map. And I thought, maybe it was just my system, but after browsing the site, I discovered many Nvidia users (including myself), were unsuspecting victims to unoptimized code for their graphics chipset. Even Geforce 4 owners have been subject to framerates that really makes that card look as if it belongs in a bargain bin. I switched over to my Radeon 8500/P4 system, and most of the slowdown that I experienced before was reduced significantly. If you decide to play this game, I suggest playing with no less than a 1.3Ghz P3, 512 MB SDRAM, and a Geforce 2 Ultra 64MB video card. Otherwise, you are going to have to compromise a lot of the gorgeous detail that this engine displays.

The sound in Warrior Kings has some high points, but overall you may not even notice it. Its strength relies in the voice acting, and the units that speak. The voice acting is pretty good, with the narrator using that sharp, heavy voice that you used to hear in the Conan the Barbarian movies. It's just a shame that they didn't carry the voice acting over to the tutorials and campaign. Instead, you are subject to lots and lots, and lots and lots of text for you to sift through. As for the units, I have to give kudos to Black Cactus for giving them some funny one-liners. I especially like it when you click on the scout, and he says, "ready to die!" There are a dozens of these one-liners for all of the units, which add some comic relief to a rather aggressive game. As far as the game music is concerned, it's not that it's bad, but it has that effect like when you are riding an elevator. You may not notice it unless you are looking for it.

Multiplayer/Devices:

When players want to really hone their skills in a real-time strategy game, they usually go to the skirmish mode right? Well for some strange reason, these guys felt that Warrior Kings does not need a skirmish mode. I don't know who made that decision, but they need to be slapped upside their head. Real-time strategy games are becoming so complex that having a skirmish mode is an absolute must. And the absence of a single player skirmish mode really hurts the replay value of this game. Of course you can always start a server, and play all by yourself. But we all know that just won't cut it. With the absence of a skirmish mode, players have to turn to the multiplayer portion of the game. Unfortunately, this makes matters even worse for this game. Using Gamespy Arcade, you can meet up with other players and get a match started. Keep in mind that once the game launches, the game doesn't take shortcuts to the multiplayer like other games do, but rather go through all of the long load times as if you were just starting the application. Once you get past all of the load times, instead having you already in a server, the game must detect it before you can enter the server. And detecting the server is 50/50. If you manage to locate the server, then get ready to experience some lag. The game lobby begins to lag considerably, especially when you start chatting. It can take at least a minute for other users to see what you have just typed. Now if you haven't given up at this point, then you may actually enjoy the game. With the ability to increase the population limit to 2000, you my friends have the potential to recreate that battle scene in the beginning of The Mummy Returns.

Because of the fact that you are without the little hotkey inserts, having a voice recognition/ gaming device at your disposal is highly recommended. I used the n50 speed pad, as well as Game Commander 2 and Gamevoice, and both performed quite well. Though in the case of Gamevoice and GC2, you may need to compensate a bit for some high pings that may occur.

The Wrap-up:

This game had instant classic written all over it. With excellent graphics, a very deep unit system, and some kick-ass gameplay, Warrior Kings could have set the standard for future real-time strategy games of this nature. But a lack of important documents, a lackluster storyline, and some serious technical and performance issues keeps this game from reaching the upper echelon of games in this genre. With a planned patch in the works that will address many of the issues mentioned in the review, the torch still burns for Warrior Kings. The game has so much to offer that despite the issues above and the score that it was given, Warrior Kings is still one of the top real-time strategy games of 2002, and it comes highly recommended. This game cannot die. It must not die.