A new monarch must survive the nightly onslaughts of "Greed" monsters long enough to build a boat and leave for the next land.
Kingdom: New Lands is a scrolling game based around trial-and-error learning. There is no in-game guide or descriptions of what the various items and structures do: I paid a hermit to ride with me and couldn't figure out why (highlight to read - turns out they offer special builds for upgraded towers). It is possible to accidentally wipe out camps by cutting down the trees on either side of them, thus eliminating the only source of new workers. There are shrines that ask for hefty sums of money without offering any immediately obvious benefits. The player can stay on an island for too long and loose everything to the eternal winter. However, once you've figured out how everything works, it becomes trivially easy to survive each island by repeating the same steps.
The randomly generated king or queen is limited in how directly they can interact with the world. The monarch can only move left or right, and decide where to spend their money. Gold coins are used to hire workers, build new structures, and upgrade existing ones. Workers in turn generate most of the monarch's income through farming or hunting during the daylight hours. At night, everyone retreats behind the walls in preparation for the nightly Greed attacks - monsters that want the monarch's gold or the crown. The monarch's reign will end if the Greed manage to steal the crown, forcing the player to start over from the beginning with a new ruler. The current monarch's reign will only continue if the player can manage to build and board a boat. Players will get to keep the gold they have on hand, their dog (if it survived), a hermit (must be riding with the monarch), and a few workers (four archers, two craftsmen, and two knights plus their retinues of five archers each).
There are a total of five maps that increase in difficulty through additional Greed portals, the removal of a traveling merchant (he hands out a daily allowances), and moving camps further away from the kingdom. The enemies also get tougher through increased horde sizes and new enemy types. Each island also contains new additions in the form of new hermits, shrine bonuses, and better mounts.
I need to gush about this pixel art. The sprite animations are gorgeous, full of character, beautifully animated, and mirrored in the water at the bottom half of the screen. Rainy days and blood moon nights, which occur every few days, only add to the atmosphere, tension, and beauty.
Crops wither and game animals disappear when the everlasting winter arrives.
Kingdom: New Lands is elegantly simple, addictive, and it's visuals are stunning. It can also be a repetitive exercise, and a test of luck rather than skill. Once you know what to do and how to survive, winning becomes trivial. You'll either love figuring everything out or find the system tedious.
First posted to videogamegeek.com
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