Kingdoms Reborn

Kingdoms Reborn is a turn-based city-builder strategy game, developed and released by one man from Earthshine studio. The author was inspired by such games as Banished, Anno and Civilization. The game, like other economic strategies, offers challenges in the form of appropriate resources management and work organization, it is also equipped with an complex technology tree. The game was released on Steam Early Access on 3 November 2020.

Mechanics

At the beginning of the game a map is presented to the player, together with resource icons located in each area. So the player can choose the starting location for their colony. What strategy he later chooses depends largely on where he decides to settle. Its next goal is to expand and develop the town founded by the settlers. To make this plan effective, the player must take care of the basic needs of the inhabitants, who, like real people, must eat, rest and do various jobs in order to survive. It is important to gather resources and improve and modernize buildings. With each era, new technologies emerge, which are worth unlocking in order to increase the civilization development of a controlled colony.

Kingdoms Reborn offers an open world, located on a large, procedurally generated map with as many as 7 biomes, which are the habitat of various species of plants and animals and a place where unique resources can be found. The fields available for settlement include, among others, tropical forests, deserts, areas located close to larger water bodies, etc. There are also randomly generated areas on the map, where diseases can occur, affecting the decline in population growth. The game also shows seasonal changes, the temperature indicator is also present.

Right after choosing a place for the settlement, the player has the possibility to choose starting cards. The cards are used to build and perform actions in the game. The purchase of the next ones takes place at the beginning of each new turn. There are reasons why the author decided to develop a card system. It introduces more content (additional buildings, actions, bonuses) without overloading and messing up the UI. Each of the cards also has a short description, explaining for what purpose it can be used.

The game has three difficulty levels: normal, hard and brutal. In single player mode, up to 8 communities can appear on the map, which can interact with each other in later stages of the game.

Military actions are limited to Influence Points which are used in the game. Using them, the player can vassalize or take back the land of another community. The enemy, on the other hand, can use them to defend himself.

The game benefits a lot from the classics of the genre. Just like in Anno or Pharaoh, the player's buildings have 7 level upgrades and just like in Banished, the characters visible on the map simulate human behavior - they move, perform various tasks entrusted to them.

Game modes

The game offers both single and multiplayer mode. Multiplayer is played in sessions reflecting those known from Anno or Civilization and involves a maximum of 6 players. The player can decide how his relationship with the other participants in the session will look like - whether he decides to cooperate (co-op mode) by exchanging resources, sending gifts and connecting cities, or whether he enters PvP mode (player vs. player) and declares war on someone, kidnaps or robs the selected player.

In this mode, the cards system is used to adjust the pace of the game. The limited number of actions that players can take is to prevent the chaos into which the game could turn over time. With limited movement, participants also have the opportunity to show their cleverness and ability to develop strategies wisely.

Technical aspects

The game has 3D graphics. The music for the game was composed by Alistair Lindsay, also responsible for soundtracks for such games as Rimworld and Prison Architect.