The second in Noio’s side-scrolling technique sequence, Kingdom: New Lands, is the newest giveaway on the Epic Games Store, and the final weekly freebie of the present sale. It’s a minimalist action-strategy game the place you play as a mounted monarch in a lush 2D world. You inform the peasantry what to construct and the place, and persuade them to do the job with cash thrown out of your coin-pouch (which you’ll tax out of them later), in hopes of constructing a city able to surviving nightly monster raids. Grab the game here earlier than June 13th, and see the trailer in all its pixellated glory under.
Kingdom: New Lands is an uncommon game in the event you’re used to conventional real-time technique. You have little to no direct management over your folks, and little or no UI to maintain observe of. Effectively, you play as a glorified money-stuffed cursor, your bulging purse being your key technique of interacting with the hardy village-folk. While the unique Kingdom was maybe minimalist to a fault, this sequel provides (because the title might recommend) new environments (a sequence of islands) and the choice to play as somewhat pixel queen as an alternative of a king. Not large additions, however given the middling reception the co-op third game — Kingdom: Two Crowns — acquired, it seems like a precariously balanced formulation.
It’s a deal with to have a look at and take heed to. The sprites will not be wildly detailed, with faces only a clean sq. of pixels, however they’re easily animated and convincingly lit, particularly as night time falls. The mild ambient soundtrack throughout daytime makes method for a much more menacing soundscape at night time. There’s a tense rhythm to the game – give orders, discover and collect in the course of the day, then scramble again house when the monsters come. Looks just like the Kingdom sequence has a protracted future forward of it too, as publisher Raw Fury recently announced that they’d purchased the rights to the sequence from unique developer Thomas Van Den Berg.
Kingdom: New Lands is free here on the Epic Games Store till June 13th, at which level the shop will return to its regular month-to-month free games rotation. The current sale, slicing £10 from the worth of each game over £14, additionally ends that day.
