King Arthur Knight's Tale in review: Strong tactics RPG secret tip on Steam

This is an article from our content partner "PC Games". Here you can find the original article by editor Christian Fussy.

King Arthur: Knight's Tale is an RPG with turn-based battles, whose story continues to spin the Arthurian legend after the death of the main character. We take on the role of Mordred, a dark knight who killed Arthur in battle, but also had to give up his own life in the process. For nebulous reasons, we are brought back to life by the Lady of the Sea and entrusted with the task of reuniting the Knights of the Round Table. As the new lord of Camelot Castle, we gather a band of heroes around us and try to find out what our sudden rebirth is all about. Meanwhile, the lands of Avalon are infested with undead and other mystical creatures, including Mordred's old companions and adversaries.

After the tutorial, we take control of the legendary fortress and can send our knighthood on missions. At the beginning, this is quite manageable with Mordred and Sir Kay, who was freed in the opening minutes, but in the course of the game there are a total of 30 heroines and heroes that you can win over to your cause. A maximum of twelve of them can take a seat at our round table at the same time. If the capacity is exhausted, you can dismiss heroes from your service at any time. Assembling a powerful and diverse group is one of the core elements of the game, and the many possible combinations increase the replay value.

Our decisions: More morale management than role-playing

Which henchmen want to join us and who is loyal to us is also decided by our moral alignment. This is influenced by the decisions we make during the story and as rulers at our court.

Those who act according to the old creed of the Round Table are considered righteous, while violating current moral codes will earn us the reputation of a tyrant. There is often a middle ground, but those who remain neutral must later forgo bonuses that can be obtained for a high value. Points in tyranny and righteousness cancel each other out.

Once we've accumulated enough points in an alignment, we can unlock new options for the Arthurian Court and other companions with the same beliefs, including powerful warriors like Lancelot and the dreaded Black Knight.

The second axis on which our morality shifts is religion. Thus, characters are not only divided into the categories of neutral, tyrannical and righteous, but additionally into neutral, Christian and pagan.

Characters who feel they belong to the old gods will support your decision to restore Avalon's shrines and magical places to their former glory. Christian heroes, on the other hand, will appreciate it if you behave in a friendly manner towards religious brothers and demonize other religions as heresy.

Again, we get bonuses and access to new comrades-in-arms if we prefer one way of thinking over another. Christian leaders are especially revered by Grail Knights, while a pagan Mordred secures the loyalty of ancient beings and spellcasters like Witch Morgana le Faye. Morality has no effect on the development of the story.

Thus, the decisions are not so much a role-playing element as a part of resource management. Loyal companions receive bonuses to various combat stats, doubters the opposite.

The characterization of the characters doesn't go much further than approval or disapproval. While the various companions are usually introduced with a personal mission that reveals information about their background, that's about it. King Arthur: Knights Tale is clearly closer to a strategy game like XCOM than a true tactics-RPG hybrid like Fire Emblem.

The battle system: refined round tactics

We can take four heroes on a mission at a time. Usually, we first explore the landscape there, but some quests also start with a battle. Outside of combat, we can move freely around the mission maps and find treasures or NPCs that give us side quests. We also determine which combat formation our group of heroes should take. The characters basically move in one unit and can only be controlled separately in combat.

There are several ways to get involved in battles. Often, battles start immediately after we enter a certain area or give a certain answer to an NPC. Sometimes, however, we get the opportunity to gain a positional advantage against our enemies. A red line on the ground signals where a combat area begins.

If we have scouted well beforehand, we can line up our hero troop along this line and attack enemies from several sides. In battles that are initiated by dialogues or cutscenes, we usually don't have this option. Our troops then simply stand united in the formation that we have previously selected.

The battles are turn-based on a grid system. Anyone who has ever played a tactics game will quickly feel at home here. Every action consumes action points, whether movement, ability or attack. With the Overwatch option, we ambush enemies and strike as soon as they move into our target area. Attacks from behind cause bonus damage, there are status effects like poisoned, burning or frozen. The more armor a character wears, the more attacks he can endure without losing life energy. The system may not get an innovation award, but it works flawlessly. A few examples: Because the commands for movement and attack are on different mouse buttons, it never actually happened that we accidentally ran into the enemy.

The UI is clear and the colored representation of our tactical options is helpful. We can immediately tell if a tile would be a good starting point for a shot with the bow or if an object is obstructing our view. Also, which moves trigger an opportunity attack is always clearly visible. And the ability to significantly speed up an opponent's move by pressing the space bar ensures that there is hardly any waiting time.

These small design decisions prevent frustration and show that the team at NeocoreGames put the right thought into the game. The fights also feel nice and dirty and brutal. Sound and animations work perfectly together in this. Every arrow strike, every axe blow and every explosion is powerful and devastating.

The difficulty of the battles can be adjusted at any time outside of missions and offers a good spectrum of challenge. At the "Story" level, there is no permadeath and the battles don't pose much of a problem. On the remaining difficulty levels, however, tactics are definitely needed to keep your squad alive.

Each heroine and hero plays slightly differently. Melee fighters can use different equipment than mages or archers. Also, there are certain class abilities and unique talents in which the characters differ from each other.

It's a busy life in Camelot

During the missions themselves, we can't change equipment or items, nor can we level up. All this happens on the world map after the work is done. This is also where we invest the rewards we receive for completed missions. Gold can be used to heal characters from their injuries faster or to buy items at the market. But before we can do that, we need to expand our castle with the necessary buildings and facilities. We do that with building resources.

In order to transform Camelot from a ruin into a proper fortress again, different areas of the castle have to be expanded. For example, once we have built a cathedral, we can send heroes there to heal their injuries and traumas. With building materials and gold we can further improve our buildings.

In addition, we can give titles to our followers at the court. Each facility can be headed by a different member of your Round Table. This often not only increases their loyalty; if a candidate is particularly suited for a certain office, it also gives us bonuses to certain building functions. This depends on the respective character traits, of which each character has a small list.

Veterans make good instructors at your training ground, while those with a talent for finance can push prices down a bit at the market, etc. However, there are also negative traits that you should keep in mind. A lazy character will refuse to be used several missions in a row, and hated characters will be asked to pay more for services like healing.

Bitter Knights

Besides the rock-solid gameplay, it's mainly the setting that is a clear highlight of King Arthur: Knights Tale. Setting the story chronologically after the Arthurian legend and then turning it completely on its head is a fascinating idea.

Similar to Hades, where the heroines and heroes of Greek mythology meet again in the underworld after all the battles have been fought, the best times for the Knights of the Round Table are already somewhat behind us. Where in the rogue-lite we mostly run into lovable demigods in sexy poses, in King Arthur: Knights Tale almost every character is an absolute bastard. Even the supposed good guys.

Sir Bors, a hero dedicated to celibacy in the Arthurian myth, is a hypocritical philanderer here, Gawain a paranoid traditionalist, and Sir Tristan a walking cadaver.

The world of Avalon has gone completely to the dogs after the only seemingly final confrontation between Mordred and Arthur. On the missions we often meet formerly noble knights who now only follow their basest impulses. Only a handful of companions don't immediately prove to be broken, fanatical or insane.

The world appears gloomy and hopeless, in keeping with the dark fantasy genre. Character and art design support this basic mood. Very few characters are even recognizable under their massive helmets, and the lands we roam seem dark, foggy, wet and cold.

The flip side of the coin, however, is that after a few hours of play, you'll get tired of the ugly environments. Due to the fact that there are only a very manageable number of enemy types in the game, the motivation drops sharply after a few missions in a row. The famous

"just one more round" feeling is much less than in comparable titles.

The game's story also tarnishes the positive overall picture. The motivations of enemies and allies are either barely comprehensible, or extremely generic. We aren't allowed to make any meaningful decisions, and relationships between characters don't develop either. 08/15 dialogues and the voice acting, which is average at best, then do their part to make the events seem even more trivial.

We, at least, mentally checked out of the story pretty quickly. After all, collecting companions and leveling up castles and companions is motivating even without thinking much about the background.

We, at least, mentally checked out of the story pretty quickly. After all, the companion collecting and leveling up of castle and companions is motivating even without thinking much about the background.

Only one piece is missing to tactics heaven

The biggest strength of King Arthur Knight's Tale is the solid gameplay foundation. While all of the gameplay systems could still be improved with unique flourishes and additions, everything basically already works as it should. The battles offer the right level of difficulty for almost everyone. The idea behind the game world is original and the expansion of our strongholds and the leveling up of the troops is also motivating in the long run.There is, however, greater potential for improvement with regard to the monotonous environment design and the enemy types, which are also not very varied.

Personally, I also find it a bit of a shame that the role-playing aspect comes up a bit short. The already rather bland binary morality and religion system has no real impact on the story of Avalon or how Mordred presents himself as a character. In general, any choices that don't relate to resources or companions feel completely inconsequential. The bottom line is that I still think King Arthur: Knight's Tale is a real diamond in the rough. If NeocoreGames continues to polish the concept a bit more, we could be in for a real tactical RPG milestone from the studio in the future.