Kohan II: Kings of War - Australian Review (Reviews)

David Kvasnicka, GamePro Australia

11/11/2004 10:00:04

A quick way to describe Kohan II: Kings of War is to say that it's the short-tempered man's real-time strategy. If you're scratching your head wondering what the hell we mean, just think of every RTS you've ever played. Think of being swamped by having to manage every tiny detail of your towns and cities. Think of the hours of frustration, screaming at your units to actually do something useful without the necessity of an order from you. Think of how many times your worker/ peasant/ builder units have been idle, blissfully unconcerned that something needs to be repaired, or that they're being hacked to death.

Kohan II deals with these issues in style. Not only will your workers train themselves, garrison themselves, and repair structures autonomously, they'll also arm themselves and defend your cities for you. You've got to love the little guys. And not only do you not have to give them any commands, but what may freak out some RTS players is that you can't give individual units any commands.

Believe it or not, this is actually a good thing, and though it sounds like it could get frustrating, it seldom does. Your cities will operate their own workers, and your soldiers are organised into companies, which can only be controlled as a whole. What individual soldiers and spellcasters do in battle is entirely up to them. Which is refreshing - how many real generals have to delegate the most mundane of orders to their lowest ranks anyway?

The original Kohan was acclaimed for this clever new take on the genre, and Kohan II continues the legacy. Those who played the original, however, could possibly be a little unsatisfied in terms of new features. Kohan II looks suspiciously like a mere graphical update, but based on the merits of the game by itself, it's a winner. Essentially, the same design concepts are there, including the RPG-like levelling-up feature for your troops. This isn't new for RTSs, but never before has the word 'retreat' been burned into the vocabularies of gamers as meaningfully. Having battle-hardened companies survive engagements is as crucial in the game as it is in reality, and almost single-handedly transforms Kohan II into a stunning success.

By taking away loads of responsibility from the player, and adding just a few complexities to combat and economics, strategic thinking required from the player hasn't actually decreased, but increased by volumes. The player need only make the big decisions, financially and militarily, secure in the knowledge that resource gathering, city maintenance, and other little things don't need baby-sitting.

Kohan II is a great technical achievement in terms of RTS design evolution. After the somewhat disinteresting storyline and characters are finished and forgotten, Kohan II will no doubt remain as a good platform for strategy players to pit their wits against each other, or the AI. Here's hoping that some of Kohan II's approaches to strategy become standard for the genre as a whole.

Score = 9.5/10

Graphics: 4.5

Sound: 4.5

Control: 4.5

Fun Factor:

Scoring scale: 1-5

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Publisher: Take 2 / Developer: Timegate Studios / Retail Price: $89.95 (PC) / Release date: 15/10/2004 / Genre: Action, Simulation/strategy / OFLC Rating: M (15+)