Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries

The Good
This is a really well-engineered RTS. Smooth and carrying a lot of powerful detail without any hiccups. The build system is also well thought out and balanced, and offers a multitude of pretty cunning strategies to win your game. The AI is very tough and you can expect a gritty battle every time. With the inclusion of detailed diplomacy, very detailed trade caravanning systems, experience building in units, hero units, mystical creatures, weather and magic, this RTS stands out as one of the best in its generation. Coupled with its fine and smooth programming engineering, this game is designed to last and in many cases exceeds the RTS competition from succeeding years.

The Bad
The graphics are not full 3D. I think they are sprite based. But the sprites are very detailed and there is no sense of loss in continuity or precision. In fact, the graphics design is very detailed in characterisation and it is less clunky than many full 3D RTS interfaces. The other thing to keep in mind is this is very much a deep thinking strategic game, especially against human opponents. Diplomacy is very important because it influences loyalty of citizens in your kingdom. The need to maintain loyalty of your citizens is pretty unique in the RTS genre.

The Bottom Line
It ranks up there in the best of RTS Fantasy alongside Tsar, Age of Mythology and Warlords Battlecry. However, with Seven Kingdom's unique need to maintain your peasant loyalty and other strategic options, a special flavour is given to gameplay which makes this game one which you should really experience to understand how far RTSes can go. Seven Kingdoms is better than Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, which is far more clunky.