For the King II is called a “tabletop” RPG.
What that means is that this game—just recently ported from PC to Xbox Series X and PS5—is designed to feel like a board game that you and a handful of friends might gather around the kitchen table to play. You know, the type of imaginative adventure with lots of dice-rolling, where players control their character choices as they move around a map.
And while this video game doesn’t quite scream board game, it does open up a hexagonal fantasy map that you and three buds can adventure through online together (see below) without the need for dice or a table to gather around.
The story itself is fairly simple. The beloved Queen Rosoman has let power go to her head in the kingdom of Fahrul. Now, she’s no longer so beloved. In fact, she’s joined with malevolent forces and locked many of her people into what amounts to slavery.
So, it’s up to you to gather a team of average local folk—blacksmiths, stableboys, hunters, minstrels, scholars and the like—who can use their vocational skills and strengths to fight back against the wrongs taking place.
Your team is made up of average Joes, yes, but a blacksmith is stout and strong; a scholar has read books about magic spells; the local herbalist is wise to natural healing remedies; a hunter knows his way around a bow, etc. Together, they’re almost soldiers. And so they set off with rescues to make, dungeons to crawl, treasures to seek and other quests to work through in the course of five random-map adventures.
The main action in all of that is the turn-based combat.
Gameplay wise, your crew works its way around a clouded-over map, revealing pathways and enemies step-by-step. They get stronger as they win in battle, and as they find useable weapons and buffs. And in combat, your team can also resurrect fallen friends. And after a fight, you can take strategic rest stop to heal up.
However, each adventure also comes with its own ticking clock. Run out of time or lose all your party members, and back to the beginning you go. There you start all over with a fresh team of amateurs and begin the questing process once more.
As mentioned, For the King II is designed as a multiplayer game that connects online players through their own consoles at home. But you can play the game solo and control all the characters yourself, offline. Each of the five adventures will take somewhere between five or six hours to best, depending on your strategic choices and success rate.
The central story quest is a heroic one. Your team wants to rescue the beaten-down people and resistance members, and take out monsters. And you want to get to the bottom of why evil things have started to infect the land.
Gamplay is also colorful and easy to slip into for all ages. That said, the battles do become progressively more difficult. And strategy choices later in the game may require some chess move-like thought and discussion. The game also features randomized maps which lend themselves to future replay fun.
Turn-based combat is the central core here. Sword swinging, magic-casting and beasty chomping can result in some light blood spatter when characters fall. (Friends can be magically revived.)
Some of the boosts and buffs involve tobacco and alcohol—such as a pipe that increases movement and rum that boosts armor. Players also encounter discussions about drinking and gambling debt. I didn’t encounter truly foul language, but someone does proclaim that another character’s face “looks like a beastman’s arse.”
Later in the game, teams come upon dark, magical happenings and demon-like, glowing-eyed evil in the fantasy story mix.
For the King II packs fun, turn-based, multiplayer action into an engaging fantasy adventure. And there’s plenty of personality and replay possibilities to go around. The biggest obstacles for younger players will likely be the game’s rising challenges and some dark evil that crisps the story’s edges.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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