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Knights of Honor 
Release date: 10 May 2005
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Mygamer review
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Knights of Honor
In Paradox Interactive’s Knights of Honor, the player takes control of a kingdom in the Middle Ages and attempts to lead them to total domination of ancient Europe. This goal can be accomplished with military might, espionage, trade and commerce, and a handful of other power grabbing methods.
The player can choose to start in one of three eras of the Middle Ages: Early, High, and Late. The layout of Europe and which countries are available for the player to choose will change dependent upon which era you are playing in. There are over one hundred different kingdoms available, allowing the player to choose virtually any nation that was around during the Middle Ages. They have even included some Arabic kingdoms to add a bit of variety to the mostly European visual style.
After choosing which kingdom to control, you’re ready to venture into the world and begin the game. You start out with just one province, which includes a few villages along with your main town/headquarters. This is where your royal family will reside, as well. It is important to make sure you protect this town, because once it is defeated the game ends. The title is Knights of Honor due to the fact that your kingdom’s knights do most of the important functions needed to keep your kingdom powerful and ever-expanding. They act as the leaders of your armies and cities, as well as your commerce, foreign relations, and religious ambassadors. The knights gain experience as they progress through the game and can learn new abilities, like Leadership for example, that will improve their performance and that of their armies.
You start out with one knight, but as money permits, you can hire many more, and as mentioned above, you can assign different jobs to your knights. There are six different types of knights: Marshal, Spy, Merchant, Landlord, Builder, and Cleric. The types of Knights you choose to have in your kingdom will determine the type of game you will be playing. If you hire a bunch of Marshals, you will have a military driven kingdom that expands through brute force. If you have a lot of Merchant knights, on the other hand, you can develop a trade based empire. The game has an impressive amount of gameplay styles that you can adopt. Knights cost money, though, so you must keep the gold flowing into your vaults. You can do this through taxing your citizens, conquering other nations, and trading. You need to be careful, however, because too much tax, war, and other unpleasantries can lead your citizens to hate and rebel against you.
The game has over sixty different structures you can build and upgrade, as well as fifty unique military units. Some of these are usually only available to certain countries, but for the right price any kingdom can build these special units. These are impressive numbers, and many of the units have interesting qualities, but these are all just features. This crux of this review really comes down to how this game plays, and to be honest it feels a bit dated. In fact, while it is an RTS game, it is reminiscent of a board game. For some people, this may actually be a good thing. For most, though, probably not so much. You give commands to your knights, and they carry them out. Most actions, however, are executed through onscreen messages that pop up, with very little graphical representation. Many of the structures you can “build” are just shown as icons when you click on the main town in each province.
In addition, the movement of troops to new areas can take a long time. Slightly faster movement would have been a plus. The trade agreements, treaties, etc that you set up with distant nations happens instantly, and yet your troops take three days to get to the same nation you were just dealing with. Inconsistencies like this really put a damper on the gameplay. It is difficult to figure out where you are being attacked, as well. You will get a message saying that you’re being invaded, but since you don’t have militias in your towns, you will need to deploy your closest troops as reinforcements and hope that they get there in time. Add to this the fact that it is sometimes difficult to locate all of your towns, and you are faced with an inability to successfully defend your kingdom.
On the upside, the multiple types of knights you can hire are a positive aspect of the game, as they add a lot of variety to the way one plays. Creating military might by using the Marshal knights is the obvious way to play, but the other various types are just as much fun. With the Spy knights, you can actually send a knight to another kingdom and have him offer his services to that country. If accepted, you will have someone on the inside of that kingdom who can influence the ruler to your advantage, or even incite rebellion. Through the Merchant knights, you can create trade agreements with countless nations, thus gaining influence, monetary profit, and allies without even raising a sword. The influence you gain through these means can then be used when you choose to expand your borders. You simply request an audience with your allies, and ask them to aid you in your attack on whichever enemy nation you want to take out.
There are many different ways to play, and you will even find yourself switching styles throughout the game. Depending on which types of knights you use, you will have either a game heavy on combat and warfare, a political simulation, or a nice mix of both. In this respect, the game is well done. Unfortunately, the dated feel and its lack of the spark that is present in the graphics and the gameplay of its contemporaries really neutralizes the positive aspects of the gameplay to the point at which only the most die-hard strategy fans will be able to appreciate the game.
The board game aesthetic is accentuated by the graphics, which look like they are several years old. Some of the buildings look pretty nice, and the environmental elements like the mountains and forests look good, but the characters are not rendered well at all. At times, clothing colors and flags are the only accurate way to differentiate between the various units. Fortunately, when battles take place, you get to control your troops and see the action from a closer perspective. You can choose formations and which types of units attack where. There are environmental obstacles, as well. With such dated graphics, however, when compared to many of the RTS games currently released, this one just doesn’t compete with the grandeur and detail that some of those games have. The animations of the troops are average at best, and the troops are not individual units, but armies. You don’t get the benefit and comfort of seeing each soldier’s health, like in many of Knights of Honor’s contemporaries; there is just one health bar for each squad.
The sound is decent enough, with good voice acting that adds character to your knights. The sound effects for the battles are what you would expect from a medieval battle, with clanking swords and screams of death. The sound is well done but not innovative. The music is a decent selection of medieval numbers. However, while it does add to the ancient medieval aesthetic of the game, the epic cinematic feeling that it should produce is only barely present. The music sounds fine overall, but it is missing the duende that would have created a more immerse experience for the reader .
While this game offers a variety of ways to play through its different types of knights, and therefore has a lot of replay value, in today’s game market that alone may not be enough. Knights of Honor will have a difficult time standing up to the flashier competition. There will no doubt be some gamers out there that enjoy this type of no nonsense, pure strategy game, regardless of what the graphics look like. For most of us, however, variety of play and replay value is not enough to make us overlook the aspects that are problematic, like the difficulties in locating and defending some of your cities; add in the dated graphics, and you have enough issues to steer the average gamer away.
Review by Brandon Whipple on 9 May 2005
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