Of Kings And Men Review
The New Guy In Town
Of Kings And Men is a new, early access title on Steam released only a few weeks ago. Available now for the fair price of $24.99, Of Kings And Men shows that developers can still hold true to personal values while creating appealing and innovative content.
Check out the Steam page here!
A typical scene in Of Kings And Men
What is Of Kings And Men?
So, as the title suggests, this review is focused on the newly released game Of Kings And Men (OKAM). But what is it? Of Kings And Men is classified as an "early access medieval action game" being developed by Donkey Crew. It's similar to games like Mount & Blade: Warband and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, but of course adds its own flavour to the genre.
But what makes it different? Why should you, a valued consumer of video games, buy this game? Well the response to this question is rather complicated. OKAM offers a lot to its buyers, but it is in early access and we've all fallen prey to an early access title in the past.
The thing that's different with OKAM is that the developers actually care. They respond to forum and Reddit posts, they engage with the community, and they take feedback very seriously. This is a good thing. Not a lot of developers do this anymore when it should be one of the main objectives of an aspiring company. But luckily the OKAM team is different. Donkey Crew has an open Discord channel for tech support, questions and just to hangout and socialize with their supporters and community.
Future Plans For Of Kings And Men
In its current state OKAM is rather short winded with the diversity It can offer its users. But this doesn't mean their isn't content coming. A vast open world is planned in which players can colonize and explore with artificial intelligence and friends alike.
The artificial intelligence is another major feature coming up in Of Kings And Men. Players will be able to build villages and towns complete with peasant workers and civilians, who, will gather resources subconsciously for the player to use in various activities such as weapon and armor creation, siege weaponry, and construction projects. As well as help contribute to the players chosen Kingdom and it's war efforts against the other 3 known factions.
More is planned to be revealed for OKAM as development goes on.
What about specifics though? Why should you buy this?
Well OKAM offers 200 player battles with extremely polished gameplay. The most impressive part of the gameplay is the huge player battles that you can expect to run smoothly and stutter free (this is very rare in alpha games) . You can also dive into the intricately designed maps that allow for extensive exploration and a lot of tactical options for whoever you decide to play with. And that's how Of Kings And Men is best played. By creating memories with friends who you know either in real life or that you've met online. Doing this will surely increase the amount of fun you can have with OKAM.
My Personal Experience
I personally play with the clan known as "The Band Of The RedHand", and I already have so many stories from playing OKAM with great guys who make the experience so much more enjoyable. For example, just the other night we had about 15 of us playing together in Conquest (1 of 2 current game modes available in-game, the other being a duel mode) and we flanked to the far right of the map to engage the enemy from behind their front line. We came to find out that our whole team was following our example. The enemy team in chat wondering at our lack of presence on the battlefield. The enemy quickly came to find that our entire team was taking them by storm at the rear of their pack. With a lot of luck and a wee bit of skill and organization, we won the battle. My teammates and I were giddy with excitement and adrenaline. A feeling you really don't get from many games anymore and maybe that's why I'm such an avid supporter of OKAM.
Conclusion
Overall, Of Kings And Men offers a lot to its users and is an example of what an early access title should be. The game obviously has flaws that need to be addressed, flaws would include the declining player base, cheaters and unbalanced weaponry. But all this can be expected from an early access game though, and shouldn't discourage you from picking It up as soon as your next paycheck rolls around.
As with all future reviews, I will be giving ratings based on how much I enjoyed the game. In my ratings, a 1 means that I absolutely did not enjoy the game, and a 10 confirms that it's a must have addition for everyone's game library.
Of Kings And Men's Rating: 8.5/10
