Reviewed: April 26, 2005
Reviewed by: Tyler Whitney

Publisher
Paradox Interactive

Developer
Black Sea Studios

Released: May 10, 2005
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1-6
ESRB: Everyone

8
7
7
8
8.0

Minimum System Requirements

Knights of Honor comes from European based Black Sea Studios, and combines elements of real-time strategy with nation building and conquest. In simpler terms, it’s a mish-mash of Civilization and Age of Empires.

Knights of Honor features:

• Three main game views provide a platform on which to make global decisions and perform tactical actions for all aspects of: Warfare, Espionage, Religion, Diplomacy & Kingdom Management.
• 6 different types of Knights; some with special abilities and upgrades allowing them to achieve different objectives within the game: Marshal, Spy, Merchant, Landlord, Builder and Cleric.
• Command your loyal Knights to conquer enemy kingdoms, perform devious espionage actions or rule over your own provinces in different ways.
• Featuring one of the largest maps ever seen in the world of games with three historical entry periods, each with a totally different political situation and more than 100 playable kingdoms.
• 3 geographical regions with over 150 provinces and different architectural styles such as Western & Eastern European as well as Arabian.
• More than 60 structures & upgrades that can be built to improve the production or defence capabilities of the province.
• A unique battle-system with tactical elements and more than 50 different types of military units and siege weaponry at the player's disposal.
• 9 different types of battle including: Town Assault, Camp Assault, Open Battlefield and River Crossing.

Each nation is split into different time periods, Early, Middle and Late, so you can have definitive areas to call your own, along with the correct technology and feudal ties. From here you pass down leadership to your lords, or knights, who can do a variety of roles from farming resources to providing military and even espionage, you don’t have to micro-manage every detail thankfully. Keep a careful eye on your affairs though; it will take keen skill to lead your nation to victory.

An interesting feature is the aspect of life and death, and with that, a blood lineage. You can choose successors to the throne, but be wary for existence is very fragile in this archaic time, your preferred heir may fall ill or perish in combat. Speaking of which, Black Sea has crafted a fairly deep, yet simple combat engine that factors in such details as flanking, morale and a host of siege weapons. The latter isn’t limited to just the attacker unlike most games, Medieval Total War comes to mind as one frustrating example. Where are my flaming buckets of oil? Or the giant boulders to be cast down upon the heathens?

Well thankfully in Knights of Honor the defender has the ability to hastily construct stonewalls, archer towers and huge bulkwarks to fend off would be aggressors. Units themselves are somewhat varied and historically accurate; archers, knights, pike men, cavalry etc, along with the added siege equipment. A key note-there is no unlimited ammo here, ranged units will run dry and be forced to fight it out in close-quarters, quite deadly for archers with noting but cloth or thin leather armor, one reason a cavalry charge through their ranks usually proves deadly.

A key figure on the field of battle is your marshal, usually surrounded by an elite cadre of troops. He can be very important in swinging the battle in your favor, especially with issues of morale. The A.I is definitely capable and shrewd, but at times if you loaded your troops in certain areas, they didn’t seem to relocate fast enough to counter-attack, and the same tactics work again and again. I think the A.I does better in the grand scope of things such as economically or politically, but fails a bit in the war zone.

Once you conquer a realm, which usually is through sheer military might, as much as it was in those bloody days, you can offer a peace treaty with a list of demands ranging from money, land or even romantic obligations. It’s pretty exciting to absorb these nations and their resources into your fold after every success, and becomes addictive very soon-you just want to gobble up all the territory you see before you. Be careful though, you don’t want to spread your forces too thin and not pay enough attention to other matters.

Navigating menus was also a bit confusing at times, there is a LOT of information on the screen and 3 different view sets to toggle from depending on your current focus, it’s too bad it’s so clunky.

The animations of the various soldiers and whatnot are a bit stiff at times, mainly due to the small size I would think, which also makes telling one unit from another difficult at times. Black Sea did a good job of touching on aspects of daily life, such as peasants milling about, animals in the wild and other fine details that help breathe some life into the game world. As I often say in relation to these strategy games, most people who like them aren’t that worried about graphics in the first place, as they champion thought over fluff. And if you have a modest rig like mine, you will appreciate modest graphics even more.

Battlefield sounds and the like are well done but a bit muddled at times, and could have used some more time focusing on clarity, rather than sheer cacophony of sounds. But they at least get the job done and convey the chaos of warfare well enough. Its also nice to see the voices are carried over here, even in correct dialect and accent.

Also included is a decent multiplayer mode, although compared to single player depth, it’s not very intriguing to just beat up on 5 other people with no real long-term consequence. Remember, the combat system alone isn’t the strong point; it’s all things in between that add up to a fine game. A nice addition would have been an online “conquest mode” of sorts, but considering how long that would take; I can see why the developers opted for a limited death match of sorts.