King's Orders
- October 25, 2024
- AFTERLIFE
- 2h median play time
Get on SteamIn King's Orders, become a medieval ruler managing armies and cities across Europe, communicating through letters and making strategic decisions. Re-enact historical events in various scenarios, such as the Hundred Years' War and the Reconquista, testing your strategic prowess. The game offers a immersive experience for players seeking a deeper strategy game set in the Middle Ages.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a unique mechanic where players must send letters to give orders, creating a sense of immersion and realism in managing a medieval kingdom.
- The developers are actively fine-tuning the game in real-time, showing commitment to improving the player experience and addressing feedback.
- The game offers a challenging experience that appeals to fans of grand strategy games, with a detailed tutorial that helps new players understand the mechanics.
- The user interface is clunky and requires excessive clicking to perform simple tasks, making gameplay feel tedious and repetitive.
- There are numerous bugs, including issues with saving and loading games, which can render the game unplayable for some users.
- Diplomacy and AI behavior are often confusing and unbalanced, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences where players are overwhelmed by unexpected wars.
- gameplay20 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is characterized by a unique letter-based mechanic for issuing orders and gathering information, which some players find intriguing and enjoyable. However, criticisms include a lack of variety among factions, a repetitive user interface, and a formulaic dispatch system that may hinder the overall experience. While the core mechanics are solid and the game offers a decent level of complexity, some players feel it could benefit from deeper strategic elements and a more engaging approach to its grand campaign.
“The game is interesting and offers a unique style of gameplay where everything is done through letters.”
“King's Orders is a grand strategy game with an interesting mechanic: you have to send letters to give orders, and receive letters to gain information.”
“Overall, I recommend this game as it gave me a lot of fun with its unique concept of gameplay.”
“I feel that the dispatch mechanic is too formulaic and hasn't realized its full potential, and there isn't enough fog-of-war, overall leading to a slightly more boring experience.”
“Big campaign map and plenty of factions to play, but there is no mechanic or flavor difference between any of them; therefore, once a playthrough is done, there is little reason to try another.”
“The gameplay is punishingly unapproachable.”
- grinding5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious, particularly criticizing the user interface for its lack of intuitive design and efficient information handling. Many express hope that future updates will improve these elements to enhance the overall experience.
“Very tedious to play.”
“Handling information in the mail is also extremely tedious, and there isn't any sort of overview of mail by hovering over it, or a summary, or anything.”
“The UI design behind giving orders is incredibly tedious and as players get more playtime they will realize that it doesn't feel good; it feels like an unintuitive chore.”
- story4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's story is inspired by true events, blending narrative with grand strategy elements, which players find engaging. However, the lack of clear statistics and informed decision-making can lead to confusion in gameplay choices, and the simplistic representation of messengers detracts from the urgency of their missions. Overall, while the story offers a compelling foundation, it could benefit from more depth and clarity.
“Based on a true story”
“Try out this game, people! It feels great when playing, going from story to grand strategy—a wonderful blend of elements.”
“Chances of success and other statistics are not available, say, for the success of spy missions and the odds of winning a battle and success of diplomatic choices, making it rather unclear what choice to choose: rulers never made choices without an informed decision, and statistics or an advisor narrating the action would fix this issue.”
“The messengers are basically just a red dot moving quickly across the map, so something feels lacking to appreciate the criticality of their mission.”
- graphics4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
The graphics have received mixed feedback, with some users criticizing them as subpar and suggesting a more minimalist approach, such as pixel or low-poly styles. However, others appreciate the simplicity, noting that it complements the game's depth and engagement, ultimately finding the overall presentation satisfactory for the gameplay experience.
“The graphics are not good.”
“This is a map painter, but even so... they should've gone with pixel graphics or stylistically low-poly -- something to better embrace minimalism.”
“The graphics are pretty simple.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with many users reporting bugs and navigation difficulties that hinder the overall experience. Troubleshooting is often required to get the game functioning properly, leading to frustration among players.
“Unfortunately, this is just way too buggy and hard to navigate to recommend.”
“After a lot of troubleshooting, I finally got the game to work.”
