Ancient Kingdoms

About

Ancient Kingdoms is a multiplayer role playing game. It was developed by Ancient Pixels and was released on January 15, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Ancient Kingdoms is a classic 2D RPG game meticulously crafted to evoke the nostalgia and charm of beloved RPGs from the golden era of gaming. Designed by dedicated fans for fellow enthusiasts, it offers an experience that celebrates the timeless elements of traditional role-playing games, with special attention to making the game accessible for beginner players in the genre, and entertaining and …

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89%

Audience ScoreBased on 140 reviews

story6 positive mentions

grinding22 negative mentions

The game offers a nostalgic experience reminiscent of classic MMOs like Everquest and World of Warcraft, with engaging gameplay and a variety of classes to choose from.
The developers are highly responsive and actively engage with the community, providing regular updates and improvements based on player feedback.
The game features a rich world filled with dungeons, quests, and loot, making exploration and character progression enjoyable for both solo and co-op play.

The game can be extremely grindy, especially in the later stages, requiring significant time investment to progress, which may frustrate some players.
Inventory management is cumbersome, with limited space and a lack of clarity on item usage, making it tedious to manage resources and crafting materials.
Solo play can be challenging due to difficulty spikes and the reliance on mercenaries, which may not provide adequate support in tougher encounters.

story
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
68%
11%
The game's story is generally well-received, featuring an epic narrative and engaging quest lines that keep players motivated. However, some players express frustration with the linearity of quests and the need for grinding to progress, which can detract from the overall enjoyment. While the world is well-designed and offers a fair amount of content, issues like respawn rates and inventory management can hinder exploration and quest completion.
- “Epic storyline, even for an early access game.”
- “The quest lines are good enough to keep you playing and looking forward to the next in your line of goals; I'm working on my warrior epic weapon quest currently!”
- “Single/multiplayer, co-op, much loot, story rich, ultra low system requirements, everything is here.”
- “Once I hit level 50 and started Krom Razz, I was no longer able to progress the main story until I ground out veteran levels.”
- “I know merc healers were just buffed, and that let me progress, but them needing veteran level scaling just to complete the main story is frankly absurd.”
- “The quests are very linear: kill a few mobs, report, kill a few more, report, talk to someone and get another quest, kill a few mobs, return to the first quest giver, kill a named requiring a party.”
grinding
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game is a significant focus, with many players noting it as both a positive and a negative. While some enjoy the nostalgic, MMO-like grind for character leveling and gear progression, others find certain grinds, particularly for professions and rare items, to be tedious and unreasonable. Overall, the game appeals to those who appreciate extensive grinding, but it may frustrate players seeking quicker progress or more engaging exploration.
- “Extremely grindy; this is fine, but some of the grinds are actually unreasonable (looking at you, Slayer skill). The grinds are also a semi-positive because character leveling and gearing is fine; it's more the professions that can be a slog.”
- “Sometimes you need to spend a while grinding levels, or camping (more like frequently checking in on) rare spawn bosses, or farming bosses on repeat until the item you need drops.”
- “Expect to spend tens of hours farming veteran levels per boss progression if you actually want to complete this game single player.”
gameplay
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
58%
16%
The gameplay is a nostalgic homage to classic pixel 2D MMORPGs, featuring familiar mechanics such as races, classes, and skill progression, while allowing for cooperative play with up to five players. Players appreciate the blend of old-school elements with modern conveniences, though some criticize outdated mechanics and unresolved bugs. Overall, the gameplay is described as fun and intuitive, with a meditative quality that appeals to fans of the genre.
- “Gameplay is exactly like old school pixel 2D MMOs with races, classes, gathering skills, etc. However, this is a co-op game with up to 5 players.”
- “It perfectly blends that nostalgic pixel-art aesthetic and classic RPG gameplay with modern conveniences.”
- “The gameplay itself is heavily inspired by classic MMORPGs in that you have the holy trinity (tank, DPS, healer), a meaty level grind, and a large world to explore that may suddenly surprise you with an ultra challenging boss in a low-level area that you may decide to return to later when you've geared up your character more or perhaps find a group of friends to help out.”
- “The game features every outdated and horribly player-unfriendly mechanic that even 'old school' games stopped doing a decade ago.”
- “Still a lot of broken mechanics, and when pointed out that things weren't working, I was met with 'well this is how it should be and it should be working', rather than accepting that there may be something still broken.”
- “I don't think that was of much importance, but it kind of sucks that you cannot go back and check that later in case you forgot something about basic mechanics.”
graphics
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
33%
25%
The graphics of the game are characterized by a nostalgic pixel-art aesthetic that successfully blends classic RPG elements with modern conveniences, reminiscent of 90s CRPGs and titles like Stardew Valley. While some users noted performance issues on Linux, the overall visuals are praised for their solid execution and enjoyable atmosphere, appealing particularly to fans of retro-style graphics.
- “Harkens back to the CRPGs of the 90s, but running smoother and with better graphics.”
- “It perfectly blends that nostalgic pixel-art aesthetic and classic RPG gameplay with modern conveniences.”
- “Superb game with awesome old school graphics style recreated in a modern way.”
- “There was another review that said there were performance and graphical issues with text on Linux.”
- “Graphics: retro”
- “The graphics remind me of Stardew Valley and the mechanics are sort of a mix between old games like EverQuest (leveling and a skill tree that determines your progression) and Ultima Online (profession skills like cooking/alchemy/mining are use-based and go up the more you do them).”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
80%
20%
The music in the game is praised for its nostalgic quality, reminiscent of classic titles like RuneScape, and is described as pleasant, relaxing, and ambient, enhancing the overall gaming experience.
- “I enjoyed the music; it reminded me of RuneScape back in the day.”
- “Pleasant music and sounds.”
- “Nice, relaxing, and ambient music.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users report stability issues, particularly noting that certain drops feel buggy, which makes completing arcane missions challenging.
- “Some drops feel buggy, making it really hard to complete arcane missions.”
- “The game crashes frequently, disrupting the overall experience.”
- “I often encounter glitches that prevent me from progressing in quests.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
The game's optimization has been criticized for performance and graphical issues, particularly on Linux, with reports of significant frame rate drops to 20 fps in certain areas. However, some players with similar hardware configurations have not experienced these problems, indicating inconsistent optimization across different systems.
- “The early access release has some obvious technical issues, with performance drops to 20 fps in certain areas, while others with similar rigs experience no issues at all.”
- “There was another review mentioning performance and graphical issues with text on Linux.”
- “Clearly, something here is poorly optimized.”
- “There was another review that mentioned performance and graphical issues with text on Linux.”
- “Do note that the early access release has some obvious technical issues, with performance dropping to 20 fps in certain areas, while others with similar rigs don't experience any issues at all.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
50%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its captivating visuals and a nostalgic retro style reminiscent of 80s and 90s games, creating a unique and engaging experience that resonates with players.
- “I loved the visuals; the atmosphere is decent, and there's something catchy about the game that I can't quite put my finger on.”
- “The retro style and atmosphere evoke the charm of games from the 80s and 90s.”
- “The retro style and atmosphere of the game remind me of classics from the 80s and 90s.”