Kingdom III: Rising Realms Preview – Long live the new king, the third of his name

As human populations have grown, we’ve had to come up with all kinds of strange naming conventions. The Icelandic tradition of adopting one’s father’s name as a surname is one I’m rather fond of, while the European one of having ancestral jobs, locations and distinctive features decide your name is much more workmanlike, and then you have the passing down of names directly from parent to child. Carry it on past a second generation ‘Junior’ and you’ll hear of people (often Americans) nicknamed ‘Trip’ or ‘Trey’ when they have a III appended to their name. Not so for the royals, though, who would stick with ‘the Third’ or ‘the Fourth’. Anyway, none of that really applies to Kingdom III: Rising Realms – you can just call it ‘Kingdom Three’.

Kingdom remains as gorgeously distinctive now as it did back in 2015. The thin strip of land splitting the screen in two, with the sky, buildings, trees and your ruler reflected in the shimmering water of the lower third of the screen. It’s a style that hasn’t significantly changed over the past decade, though Kingdom III: Rising Realms is naturally the latest and refinement of this and looks simply lovely. It breaks up that land strip, so it’s no longer a uniform line into the water, the pixel art characters, structures and environments look to have jumped ahead in terms or resolution and fidelity, and I’ve no doubt that the lighting and reflection effects have been further refined as well. Put side by side with its predecessors, it really will feel like the third of its name.

Naturally, you’d hope for a similar feeling from the game itself. The core remains the same here, as you ride around on horseback, all high and mighty, flinging coins at the vagrants you come across to recruit them to your cause, bringing them out of the wilderness and to your fledgling settlement. Tossing further coins at vendors gets them to produce workman tools, bow and arrow, and further weapons and tool as you grow your seat of power from a tent to a more appropriately regal structure, while you spend cash to erect walls and fortifications to defend yourself from the scurrying, money-grabbing Greed each night.

The differences start to emerge while exploring the rest of the world outside of your settlement’s early borders. There’s always been treasures, ancient relics and other items to find out there, but Rising Realms puts two new elements into the mix. You can now find Elites, powerful warriors and characters that can fight by your side, and relics that can give your ruler a weapon – an returning idea from Kingdom: Two Crowns – Call of Olympus.

For the opening level that we played, it was the red haired Bowmaster, bringing a real flair and combat prowess to defeat the Greed each night. She can even train up other archers to be stronger in battle. She’s a great ally to have and part of a more persistent progression system, with other heroes potentially impacting more than just the offence and defence, but the economy of your settlements as well.

Repairing a ruined monument out in the woods also saw some nice crows reward you with the return of a spear relic. This allows you to periodically chuck it up into the sky to then come slamming down into the ground, and (with some crafty positioning) whittle away at chasing Greed.

What’s pleasing through this opening stage that I played, was that it soon gave me the tools needed to defeat the Greed, compared to Two Crowns’ more gradual opening. It’s deliberate, allowing me to construct a siege engine to attack their portal and finally make my escape to the world map, but much more direct and satisfying to me. Of course, it also indicates that much greater challenges lie in wait – the Greed have a King all of their own.

There’s a world map to progress across, as well as a home castle which acts as a hub and will enable more preparation for the battles you take on, and so there is a slight risk that Kingdom III: Rising Realms will stray a little far from that initial micro-strategy concept. Arguably it does need this in order to reach a wider audience, and it is good to have a little more direct control over your kingdom than simply trying to throw money at problems. That always kept me feeling a bit detached from proceedings in previous games, and could be a really positive step here.

So yes, Kingdom III: Rising Realms might be the third of its name (albeit with some pruning to the family tree to ignore some oddball cousins) and it’s taking up the mantle from its forebears, but it’s also got a bit of its own flair and new era ideas to bring to the table.

Tags: Kingdom, Kingdom III: Rising Realms, Kingdom Two Crowns