Seven Kingdoms: Conquest

I’m not familiar with the original Seven Kingdoms from several years ago, so cannot compare this new edition to the original. Apparently the original Seven Kingdoms was a very good strategy game in its time, though. If that is true, then the legacy has not survived. The new Seven Kingdoms Conquest is a wholly mediocre strategy game that has little to offer in the way of entertainment and strategy.

I love tutorials, and so immediately began to play the human tutorial after installing the game. At first, I was impressed with the concise, yet informative nature of the windows. Everything was presented in a linear, logical manner. However, soon into the tutorial I ran into an impassible glitch which involved a city wall that wouldn’t open after the enemy was defeated. I just sat and watched for several minutes as the toppled building behind the wall rose from the ashes of defeat, and my warriors attacked yet again. And again. And again. Oh well, so much for the tutorial. I figured I had learned enough to at least get started on the game, so I began the campaign mode.

The campaign mode involves several scenarios, but oddly enough, they are all available right from the beginning. There is no requirement for previous levels to be finished before beginning a subsequent level. Couple this with the extremely bare story line, and the result is a total lack of plot continuity during the game.

Basically, it’s the humans against the demons. We don’t really know why we’re against each other, we just don’t like each other, I guess. Seven Kingdoms Conquest offers the basic strategic elements of units, buildings and spells that can be upgraded by research. The units and buildings are pretty boring, although the demon ones are a little more fun to see. It may seem cool to have a priest for diplomacy and a spy for information, but it’s not. They don’t really do much. In fact, this game’s strategy is so simple, you can basically play most of the way through without ever using a spell, or spy, or really anything except brute force.

I’m not big on fighting in these types of games, but I began to just build my army as fast as possible in every scenario, and then immediately moved around the countryside attacking all the villages, diplomacy forgotten. This gained me skill points and resources. I then attacked my opponent, and usually won. If I lost, I just went to a saved game and changed my fighting strategy a tad. This isn’t very interesting and doesn’t involve much higher thinking. There a few items and resources scattered around, but not enough to be much fun.

The game controls are good, and everything works as it should. It’s easy to assign units to keyboard numbers for troop maneuvering. Zooming in and out works well, and the map is clear and readable. This is a real-time strategy game and time does advance, but there is no obvious way to see how it is advancing, at least not that I could see. It is possible to slow and speed up the time by keyboard commands, though.

The graphics are average, but for some strange reason, they really made my graphics card heat up. Every time I ran Seven Kingdoms, my poor computer fan went into overdrive mode and made a very loud noise. Turning down the graphics options didn’t seem to help. I have a GeForce 7600 GS card, while the system requirements state that it needs a GeForce FX series. I’m not sure if the GS is compatible or not. And, it’s not like the graphics on even the high level were all that great, except when zoomed in.

The bottom line is that this game is a very basic strategy game that doesn’t provide much incentive to play. Everything here has been done before and usually better. There are much more fun strategy games to play. I love strategy games, but I don’t pretend to be a gaming guru. If I can easily win the first few scenarios by just stomping through the villages and ultimately the enemy, then there is something wrong with the strategy.

Gameplay: 5.0
The gameplay is extremely basic and somewhat boring. Build up an army, go fight, go to the next level. And so on.

Graphics: 6.0 
The graphics are all right, but aren’t anything to get excited about. They did make my graphics card work hard, though.

Sound: 6.0
Wholly average music and sound effects.

Difficulty: Medium
Most of the game is of a medium difficulty. There are no difficulty levels to adjust.

Concept: 6.0
The content isn’t anything new and the presentation is average.

Overall: 5.5
This is a mediocre offering at the strategy table. There isn’t anything here to raise this above the crowd, and there are many more excellent games to play. Thinking isn’t required, and players can just choose to hammer their way along through to the end. I long for the old days of Heroes of Might and Magic.