My Backlog “Kingdoms And Castles”

You know how everyone has that massive backlog of games we either got as a birthday present. Or absolutely HAD to buy on the Steam Summer Sale because it was so incredibly cheaper than usual?

Well, as I’m getting through mine, I decided to at least dedicate some written reviews to games that are no longer “that fresh” or are obscure, smaller games.

So, I decided to start with a small, charming city builder (I got a lot of them on the list) called “Kingdoms and castles”.

I do not know exactly why, maybe that is my economics degree speaking, but I am really into the resource management part of strategy games.

So any “city builder” is of special interest for me.

What is it?

“Kingdoms and Castles” is an indie title that engrosses you with its charm from the moment you see the screenshots on the Steam page.

It is a stylized, low-poly mix of a little bit from everything.

It has light elements of RTS games, where you can wage war on your neighbors with a simple roster of “rock-paper-scissors” relation unites.

It has light politics system, where you can exchange ambassadors to communicate with your NPC neighbor kings and queens. Decide on trade prices, alliances or declare wars.

And of course the main part – the economy.

From city planning, for defenses against invading dragons and Vikings, to logistics. You will have to engage with a lot of proper management mechanics.

Not that simple

Despite its chill soundtrack and colorful low poly art style, each game will become complex pretty fast.

The availability of food variety and medical facilities will affect overall health. The proximity of charcoal burners to homes will affect the household happiness. And so on and so forth.

Even when losing soldiers in a war with a neighbor, you will see it reflected on the population’s mood as they are saddened by the losses of our soldiers.

The random generation of levels also perfectly factors into the package.

Here you got the usual shtick, where by tweaking various settings, you can then preview the map and decide where to place your first castle.

You can have a sea game on islands, or a classic all-out war on land.

All adding to the replayability.

No multiplayer?

My only problem though, is the fact that it has no multiplayer.

This game is so relaxing and charming, yet presenting the tools and complexity I look for. It is just perfect, for the option of a chill evening session with a couple of friends online.

But unfortunately, the game’s focus on city building and the time forwarding mechanic ultimately render it a single player experience.

Now, I have this game installed on both my home PC and laptop, for a quick jump-in for a couple in-game years, every now and then.

Because unexpectedly, this game turned out to be an indie gem in a niche subgenre I really love.