Lionheart: King's Crusade Impressions - First Look

It's GDC 2010. There are a lot of games here. That includes games like Lionheart: King's Crusade from developer NeoCore and publisher Paradox. Lionheart will be a hybrid real-time and turn-based strategy game along the lines of the Total War series, and it will explore an alternate-history version of the third Crusade. In the annals of real-world history, King Richard the Lionheart arrived at Jerusalem at the port of Cyprus, but he was unable to push further and eventually lost the support of his partners and was, himself, captured. King's Crusade suggests a different outcome--a successful military campaign on the part of Richard to push through all of Jerusalem, along with a separate campaign played from the opposite perspective, namely that of Prince Saladin, who famously thwarted the Crusade.

We sat down with Richard's campaign to begin our adventure by commissioning various types of troops for our armies, including standard foot soldiers and exceptional officers, like captains that increase morale and make battalions more autonomous, as well as healers that can keep your army on its feet longer. Supplying your army properly will give you more options to prepare for the game's real-time battles, such as lining up siege weapons like catapults, digging dikes as barriers, or setting up spike barriers to repel enemy cavalry.

From this point, you can take inventory of your current armies and resources, including holy relics that provide magiclike bonuses and also view your relationships with the game's various friendly political factions. For Richard, these include the king of France, the Templars, and the papal court. These factions serve multiple purposes--they'll lend you their support when they're happy with you and give you the opportunity to make them happy by acting as mission advisors. As a matter of fact, the friendly suggestions of different factions actually act as alternate objectives for whichever mission you're taking on next--France's king may prefer you approach a certain mission with subtlety and stealth, while the warlike Templars may demand that you dive headfirst into the enemy army. (And in a pinch, you can also sell your holy relics to the Vatican for some extra cash.)

Lionheart is currently in an early state, so there, unfortunately, isn't a great deal to show at GDC. The game will be released later this year.