darragh murray

I’m not usually a mad happy gamer, but the modest look of online empire building game, New Kingdoms, might seem to the uninitiated as fairly tame compared to its larger and prettier MMORG cousins. I’ve been playing this game fairly regularly since April this year, and I’m totally hooked! Do not be fooled, New Kingdoms is crack cocaine. And it is a particularly potent version of the drug when it is prescribed to someone who used to be addicted to Barren Realms Elite during the times when bulletin board systems ruled the roost, a game which New Kingdoms is most definitely modelled upon.

So what is New Kingdoms? Well, it is a turned based, multi-player empire building game. It is like “Civilisation” without the pretty graphics. You build a nation, set its political and economic direction, purchase land, build military, invest your “credits” (which passes for money in this game), make war against other players and computer controlled rogue nations, undertake espionage to undermine your enemies (for example, send spies to poison your rivals water supply) and all in seven turns per day! However, the most interesting part is playing the political games in this mini-universe. New Kingdoms has a “League of Nations” which serves as the main political body throughout most games, and is typically very active in deciding the punishments for nations which have breached its charter, whether by attacking small defenceless nations or overt use of weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, you can make alliances and form coalitions, whether for ranking advancement or economic gain. This makes New Kingdoms a very interesting and exciting game, and what’s best is that it is nearly entirely text based.

It’s a great game, and can take as long or short as you want it too. I play in numerous games with my empire labelled “The Red Hand” (which, yes, comes from the Tad Williams ‘Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, series, but is also the name I used to use back the in BRE days). Even if you’ve ever played and enjoyed Barren Realms Elite, you’ll enjoy this one.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 1:08 pm and is filed under DM Reviews Everything. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.