Lionheart: King's Crusade Impressions

If you know your strategy games, chances are you've heard of King Arthur - The Role-Playing Wargame. This strategy/role-playing hybrid stood out from the pack in 2009 thanks to its beautiful visuals and intriguing amalgam of different brands of gameplay. Developer NeoCoreGames is at it again with Lionheart: King's Crusade, though it is leaving behind the mythical Arthurian setting for one grounded squarely in reality. Lionheart will occur during the 12th century and focus on the events of the Third Crusade. This, of course, was the crusade in which Richard Lionheart, King of England, led British troops against Saladin's forces. We caught up with NeoCore's Zoltan Varga to fill us in on how players will be able to alter the course of history.

Lionheart: King's Crusade is a real-time-strategy/role-playing crossbreed featuring two single-player campaigns: one for the crusaders, and one for Saladin's warriors. In one campaign, you seek to conquer the Holy Land and even the entire Middle East; in the other, you seek to push out the invaders and unite the land under Saladin. Regardless of which campaign you undertake, you will plan battles from the strategic map, taking over cities like Damascus, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and Cairo. NeoCore seeks to retain as much historical accuracy as possible. If you choose the Lionheart campaign, for example, the game starts with you marching toward Jerusalem--though of course, what happens next is up to you.

You'll want to focus on building and maintaining your army from the strategic map. There will be 20 or so different types of units to recruit, such as archers, foot knights, spearmen, and so on. As you win battles, you gain experience, and you will then be able to customize your units in various ways. You can enhance their stats, such as attack and defense; purchase skills, like the ability to pierce armor; buy better armor; hire captains for your troops; and even grant both passive and active skills to your main hero. One such ability is Sound of Courage, which has your main hero blowing his horn to improve the morale of nearby soldiers. You will even earn weapons and other gadgets for your troops by looting the spoils of battle.

In the meanwhile, you will be dealing with four other factions continually trying to complicate matters: The French, the Holy Roman Empire, the Templars, and the Papal Court. You can create alliances with these factions, and doing so may result in new units and upgrades. But alliances are made to be broken, and intense warfare is always on the horizon. Battles involve hundreds and hundreds of units clashing at once in multiple types of battles. Some battles will be enormous free-for-alls, while others will be based around authentic historical missions. The battlefields are expansive, and combat resembles what you would see in a Total War game and its ilk. In the demo we saw, troops had to capture Acre by destroying siege equipment, bringing down the walls, and marching into the city. While you will do your best strategic planning from a distant zoom level, pulling the camera right into battle will reveal a wealth of wonderful details. Units looked absolutely fantastic when seen up close, and there was a great sense of impact as arrows hit their marks and spears pierced their targets.

Lovers of massive strategy should keep their eyes on Lionheart: King's Crusade. The visuals look terrific even at this stage, and the game seems to be every bit as epic as the developer's last effort. Lionheart is scheduled to be released this September, but GameSpot's grand strategy is to bring you more information before then as it develops.