A great strategy game about life in the Middle-Ages. Enjoyable as well as addicitive
User Rating: 8.4 | Lords of the Realm II PC
Lords of the Realm II is an amazing game for how old it is in reference to the constant advancement of computers. I still play this wonderful game, single player, as well as multiplayer. The gameplay is great. You play the role of the leader of a county at the beginning of each game. You go through the four seasons of the year choosing things for your people to be doing. Once you're finished for that season, you just press a button and the season will change. If you are a strat/sim person, you'll love this game. You must guide your counties by assigning the people jobs, helping them through droughts and plagues, building castles, and of course building armies and taking over the world. Even the computer players are difficult to beat in this game, unlike some old battle games. Multiplayer is also a great option as you can have up to five players playing simultaneously. And it's truly a strategy as there are some many different choices to make often in the game that will make a large difference. The graphics are great. There are plenty of 3D cutscenes throughout the game that are done wonderfully for this time period. While battling, each group of 16 or 32 people will be designated by one person on the screen. It would be difficult to show two armies of 1500 knights on a battlefield so this works well. The look of the game almost looks like you're playing a board game but it's way to complex and good of game for that to be true. There are plenty of music and sound effects, nothing spectacular, but it is very Medieval. The songs are long and neat, and nearly everything in battles and on the main screen have a corresponding sound effect. Additionally, each of the computer players have their own unique voice that has voiceovers for the game. The replay value is high. If you like this game, it'll be one of those that you pull from your attic in ten years just to play again. There's nothing discouraging about this game and there are so many maps and plenty of modes, every game will be extremely different. This game is worth a look, I guarantee it.
