Set in a dark fantasy world based on the Arthurian myth (and developers Neocore's previous King Arthur strategy games), this Tactical / RPG hybrid begins right after the famous battle of Camlann, but with a twist:
You are Sir Mordred, the nemesis of King Arthur, the former black knight of the grim tales. You killed King Arthur, but with his dying breath, he struck you down. You both died – and yet, you both live.
The Lady of the Lake, the ruler of the mystical island of Avalon brought you back to end a true nightmare. She wants you to go on a knightly quest. She wants you to finish what you have begun. Kill King Arthur – or whatever he has become after she took his dying vessel to Avalon.
Yep, that's right, despite the title, in this game you take on the role of the anti-hero Sir Mordred! A very refreshing twist on Arthurian legend. Even more so when you factor in this is dark fantasy, so undead, magic and all manner of beasties come in to play.
I found it great to approach this new tale from an unusual angle. Mordred is exactly the weapons grade bellend you want him to be. A towering defender full of one liners, snappy comebacks and scathing putdowns.
A presence so terrifying, that even the members of the court and table of Camelot quietly accept his contempt as he gathers them under his command.
The game itself plays out in series of missions, that are essentially skirmishes with a goal or parameters that must be met to achieve victory. These missions push along the story as well as providing the necessary XP and loot to progress and build out Mordred and your party.
While loot and XP are gained as you combat and explore the mission locations, neither can be applied to party members until the mission is over and you are preparing for the next.
This "intermission" is also a chance to apply your morality points. A kind of Paragon system based on decisions you make out in the game world. These place you somewhere between Tyrant and Rightful for your actions and Christian and Old gods for your allegiance. Points spent here can be used to unlock modifiers, abilities, buffs and followers. (for example: if you level Righteous to 13 you unlock the Pious Prick Lancelot)
Progression is really well designed, more like an RPG or MMO's set of skills, abilities and modifiers with extensive and varied customization. Loot is likewise diverse and spread among the now obligatory common, uncommon, rare, legendary tiers; some locked to specific classes.
Tooltips are, for the most part, clear and helpful and with a little bit of planning it's relatively easy and extremely satisfying to build out a character that synergizes skills with equipment loadout. This synergy can be further explored between party members and there is a certain Divinity feel during combat when this is exploited.
Combat in Knight's Tale feels more Xcom like than Divinity though however and there is always the risk or permanent injury or death for your party members. I did find myself genuinely invested in my party's welfare. The well scripted back and forth and excellent voice acting had a big part to play in this I'm sure.
The combat is everything you'd expect from a tactical RPG, AP, abilities, situational positioning etc. etc. A tutorial you have played a hundred times no doubt.
But while Knight's Tales doesn't really do anything new in this respect, it does it very well. Combat moves along at a good pace, abilities are well thought out, easy to use and the area of battle is easy to navigate and clear to interpret.
Knights Tale builds atmosphere really well. While it doesn't have the most jaw dropping aesthetics, it does a good job in painting a picture of dark despair and foreboding, a muted colour palette of monotone and grays remind you that this is no Bugsnax adventure, this is "Serious Business".
Environments have been built by using photoscanned environments and complemented by high-quality mocap animation, then rendered inside a modern PBR engine utilizing DirectX 12 to support strong, atmospheric effects.
Audio is again top notch, as I already mentioned the voice acting is on point. Particularly with fantasy games, its very easy to go HAM over the top or conversely fall short and seem like shy nerd mumblings. Here however the voices, dialogue and conversations are all very well created and add immeasurably to the over atmosphere and immersion. Sound effects add weight and gravitas to actions and abilities; while the background music is the sweeping choral ooohs and aaaahs you would expect from a game with this title.
All in all this is an excellent title and very enjoyable even in Early Access.
I'm someone who has never really quite clicked with the tactical turn based genre, but I do love an RPG. Knight's Tale takes aspects of other fantasy genres to make itself accessible and enjoyable to a broader range of players and that's a great achievement.
King Arthur: Knight's Tale is available now on Steam and Neocore have just released a big summer content update to shake up things around Avalon, with features such as:
A brand new class, the Sage: Sages are experts at providing utility for their team using frost-based magic, including protective barriers and ice walls
Controller support: So that players can kick back on the couch and enjoy the journey across the Once and Future King's land
Difficulty settings: For those looking for more challenge, or to experience the game as more of a story
New abilities for existing characters and classes: To provide more options for Knight's Tale's veterans
And more...
Further details about the patch are available in the patch notes over here
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