The Good
Wha? 2000? Dang, I just finished the game this year in 2005, thinking it was new...doh. Oh well. For some reason, the earlier Konung game isn't in the database yet...maybe I'll add it when I have time.
Konung is an interesting RPG where I can sense that the developers where trying to re-create their RPG fantasies into a game. A game where you are the hero, whilst fighting evil, you try to manage small forces of towns against the enemy forces. The closest game to remotely resemble this was Jagged Alliance 2, but even in that game, town management was too general.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, I'll start with the good stuff I've noticed in order while playing the game. The review of course in relation to comparing the game with its predecessor as well as other RPG's.
The first thing I've noticed was the fabulous artwork involved in the game. I haven't seen much games that put much effort in artwork when it comes to "loading pictures" e.g. save game, load game, etc. In this game, every system option to loading pages have detailed pictures of the heroes in the game. Like real-detailed oil-painting pictures. A big thumbs up for effort in this regard.
Graphics have upgraded way up from the original Konung. Back the characters were a little bigger than your hero in Ultima-Pagan and not so nice coloring either.
Ah, the world of statistics. What RPG isn't without character statistics and not passive statistics that you can't control like in irritating Playstation games, but leveling up and advancing you character to your own taste.
Gameplay was a little better, though it "seemed" that way because of the better graphics.
Didn't have to download a !#!$%! patch to finish the game. Ha! At least most of the programming people got it right.
**The Bad**
Here comes da bomb...
I don't know if the position is called Quality Assurance or Game testing, but I know I wanna fire somebody. I like reading. I especially like reading all the little details the game has to offer. In RPG's, you like reading the most are item descriptions, since it usually gives a lot of information about the game. But what did I find? Was it incomplete descriptions, or is there a scroll button somewhere I didn't find. A one line item description and some of which stops in the middle of some word. For crying out load, you'd think that you don't ever get this kind of thing wrong, but nooo. Someone deserves a kick in the behind for being terribly negligent.
Combat has it's few problems. In all it's not that bad, this is more like a "needs improvement" thing. The first "problem" about combat is that it kinda get's a little messy and chaotic when you have a lot of characters in your team. Not that you can't control you characters since you can click on their portraits, but sometimes you need a fast shortcut which I don't think exists. This is probably the main reason why some of my characters died...load game.
Next combat problem or travelling problem, is these idiot characters of yours don't seem to follow your orders very well. Sometimes they run, sometimes they walk, sometimes they walk when your not looking and when you center on them, then they start running. What the? Seriously, there should've been a permanent "run" button you can use. You have no idea how many times my characters got whacked in combat because they walked instead of running when I double clicked on the screen.
Times like this you know they the Ultima series has combat options like "attack strongest" or "attack nearest". Since combat is somewhat a jumble in this game and character development must be planned carefully, you kinda want your lower level characters to kill more enemies than the higher level ones. But that doesn't happen very often since the higher level characters whack the enemies faster than the lower level dudes can raise their sword. So you try to weaken the enemies and run away, hoping the lower level dudes will finish the job. But what do you get? A "follow the leader" parade, where your stronger character is followed by the enemy who in return is followed by the lower level dudes who don't seem to fight very well while walking or running. Your practically invulnerable when your running, nobody can whack you unless their really lucky.
The story line is kinda "ho-hum". Didn't hire a very good writer I gather or didn't pay'em enough money. Most of the dialogs is one or two liners that seemed to be put in a hurry.
Uh, was the intro sub-titles supposed to be that fast or am I just slow reading. Not likely.
Crappy ending cutscene by the way.
**The Bottom Line**
Well, it's worth the play if your a Konung fan (though unlikely since it ain't that famous, doh). Not bad for an RPG, it certainly has a refreshing approach in RPG management one would like to try.