Historical ‘What Ifs’ fascinate me. What if the fog had never descended over Brooklyn in 1776? What if the Mongols decided that it was time to head home mid-way through the 13th Century? What if the Christian Crusaders managed to take Jerusalem? Well I’m glad you asked and so are Neocore as the answer to that very question is coming out in just a few weeks time in the form of Lionheart: Kings’ Crusade.

Now, let’s deal with the ‘War Elephant’ in the room before this sneak peak gets any further: Kings’ Crusade shares much of its appearance, design and gameplay with the forerunner of the Tactical Historical RTS genre, Creative Assembly’s Total War franchise. It would be pretty difficult to argue that there has been no impact from the UK based outfit on Kings’ Crusade, with the game sharing a faithful replication of the series’ UI and control scheme, along with a more subtle feeling that the games mechanics work in much the same way.

Having been treated to the first few hours of play, I can’t really offer any argument to the contrary. Whilst waiting for my copy of the manual to download into my inbox, I got a little impatient and thought I’d dive right in with a ‘quick’ scenario. On first impressions, there’s very little to distinguish the menu from my last encounter with Rome: Total War (my last experience in this unique brand of RTS) and I felt right at home selecting myself a custom army, choosing a landscape and launching straight into a game. Some 45 minutes later, I’m standing victorious in the field (save for a cavalry unit who insisted on spoiling this image by chasing the fleeing Saracen Horde from the area) and wondering to myself if I’m going to even need to flick back to my desktop to give the manual the once over. I probably could have played on without any further regard but, in doing so, I’d have completely overlooked what it is that makes Kings’ Crusade unique.

Kings’ Crusade is set during the time of the Holy Crusades and for those not up on their Medieval history, don’t worry – Lionheart has you covered. Whether reading it direct from the game’s detailed manual or having it explained to you on launch of the Crusaders campaign, you can look forward to a rundown on the state of European affairs at the turn of the twelfth century just to get you in the mood. Gameplay is set out in the style of any RTS game, offering the player a god-like command over a fully 3D field of battle, with no need to focus on resource gathering or base building and just allowing you to focus purely on the strategy. In preparation for these set-pieces, the battles are preceeded by a Risk style over-world map which allows you the time you need to recruit, train, equip and form your armies.  I can hear some mumbling at the back from Total War fans but don’t complain too much because here comes the twist…

Where Lionheart takes charge is in the planning stage. Whilst Total War gives you a ‘Sid Meir’ state of global control, asking you to micro-manage your territories and establish multiple war machines, Kings’ Crusade’s main campaigns focus solely on the chieftains of the respective factions, with Richard the Lionheart, unsurprisingly, heading up the Crusader campaign and Salah ad-Din Yusuf commanding the Saracen forces. At no point are you going to find yourself switching from one end of the continent to check how your Aqueduct is coming along whilst trying to quell a civil uprising on another, instead you’re free to focus solely on where your Titan Army is now and where you’re going next.

During this stage you are offered the opportunity to grant your General unique, special powers for use on the field, along with the ability to spend attribute points to upgrade your Commander along with the rest of your troops. Furthermore, each unit is upgradeable through equipment, gained both on the field and, occasionally, in diplomatic encounters which precede each battle.  Upgrades do, however, come at the expense of Ducats (Gold) earned in the field or available more readily from the bank of the Vatican, via Loan, whilst ability points are earned when units rank up during combat, making it all the more important to keep them alive, rather than just sacrificing waves of them in order to get the job done.

Just playing with the two available factions in scenario mode, you’ll find only minor differences, mainly cosmetic ones, but in the main campaign modes, things get a little spicier. Playing as the Crusaders, you’ll take a more civilised approach to getting the task of Holy Land domination done, with diplomatic choices being offered immediately before the battles. Each of the campaigns’ four sub-factions (The Holy Roman Empire, The Papal Court, The French King and The Templars) will be on hand to provide bonuses for the battle ahead, providing that certain conditions are met and asking you to give serious consideration to how you want to play out each fight. Completing these tasks grants you not only in-battle bonuses, but also provide you with yet another form of currency in ‘Fame’ which can be spent on further enhancements to your army and grant you even more benefits in your fight against the Saracens.

The Saracens, on the other hand, have little need for diplomacy and forgo all of that in favour of a tech-tree system of advancement, requiring a combination of Gold and Skill Points (earned in Battle) to acquire it. Just to make the system that little bit more exciting, the Saracens’ skill-tree is divided into 3 categories, with one providing new units to train that are otherwise unavailable in the preparatory stage, another supplying dangerous new in-battle leader powers and a third, general mish-mash of upgrade opportunities. As is the norm for tech-trees these days (thank you World of Warcraft), the best of the best are tucked away at the top end, requiring you to decide early on just how much you’re willing to invest in each tree in order to get at the good stuff.

It may sound fairly straightforward and in practice it’s not exactly difficult to bat your way through all of the on-screen planning tasks to lead you into your next battle encounter, however, to ignore the complexity of Neocore’s system will only cause you to suffer on the field. While it is entirely possible to take an ill-equipped, poorly trained army out into battle and still win the day, it’s not a sustainable tactic that will see you through each of the game’s two campaigns. Careful planning will save your troops’ lives and develop their skills, not to mention protecting your bank balance in the long run, leaving open the multitude of doors in Kings’ Crusades advancement systems for the harder fights to come.

The battles themselves are a joy to see, with beautifully rendered landscapes and fantastically simple camera control that allows you to direct from up high and then flit down into the fray to watch the action up-close. Units are well rendered and there’s a true sense of the chaos of battle provided with the game’s sound effects, with every sword swing, clash and crunch catered for. If that isn’t enough to draw you in then let the soundtrack do the rest, with the music dynamically shifting in tempo to match the pace of the action on screen. As is apparent in the screenshots, there’s little deviation from the norm set by the Creative Assembly with Total War but, for a studio that’s probably operating on a mere fraction of the budget, that’s nothing short of a major compliment for the impressive visuals and high sound quality on offer here.

I realise that it’s strange for any game developer to enter into a niche market within a genre by way of CTRL+X, CTRL+V from the market leader but Neocore appear to have what they want to bring with them to this fight clearly in mind. With multiplayer modes available, skirmish modes present and two campaign modes to work through, Kings’ Crusade is on course to make a respectable entry into the historical RTS field by updating the genre to support achievements, character progression and unit customisation – things that are certainly a welcome addition to the genre, forcing the Napoleons and Genghis Kahns amongst us to take a fresh look at wide-scale military simulation.

Ideally, the game could prove successful enough to warrant adding in a few more factions after release, again copying Creative Assembly perhaps by releasing post-launch DLC. While the Saracens have the support of the four sub-factions, there’s nothing really unique to differentiate between them and, with the Saracens being the spots to the Crusaders’ stripe, I worry that without extra content, the game may not have the legs to keep you coming back to it.

Better yet, the addition of a separate, larger, less driven and more open campaign mode could also prove to benefit Kings’ Crusade by giving you something else to do when you’ve beaten the game. With the main campaign only focusing on territories in the Middle East, a general ‘conquer all’ mode wouldn’t prove difficult to work in and could help persuade those who are still undecided in what is such a selective RTS market.

With the game nearing completion, I’m personally looking forward to getting back to my medieval gaming roots and I’m not sure if my copy of Rome: Total War is enough to tide me over until October 8th.  I really got a kick out of re-writing history but if that still doesn’t tickle your tingly bits, there’s a great deal of comfort to be found in borrowing all of the Pope’s money, safe in the knowledge that you never intend to give any of it back. Stupid Pope.

Last five articles by Adam

• Party Pooper
• Battlefield 3 - Review
• Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad - Review
• Burnout CRASH! - Review
• Dead Island - Review