King's Heir: Rise to the Throne
Developed by Cordelia Games
Published by Artifex Mundi
Released for Xbox One (12/14/2018)
Also on Linux/Mac/PC/PS4/Switch
King's Heir: Rise to the Throne was developed by Cordelia Games, the same ones who brought us Path of Sin: Greed, which I found enjoyable enough to check out their earlier effort. This game was previously released as Kingmaker: Rise to the Throne and for some reason the later ports of the game had the title changed to King's Heir: Rise to the Throne. Both names are equally forgettable and I couldn't figure out why the title had to be changed, but they're both the same game so it really doesn't matter in the long run. Enough about the title, let's look at King's Heir and see how it plays...
King's Heir is exactly what you'd expect from Artifex Mundi if you've played any of their other releases: a mixture of the point & click and hidden object genres. The story involves a prince who fell in love with and married a poor girl, which the king did not approve of at all. The king sends the prince off to battle and plans to drive the poor girl away while he's out, which backfires when the prince is killed in battle. The prince's wife later died after delivering their baby, which has now gone missing. You take control of a royal knight who must try to find the missing heir, help them regain the crown and take over the throne. It's a cool setup, but unfortunately the characters and dialogue just aren't all that interesting and I found myself really struggling to care about the plot. While the story is a bit of a letdown, it was at least sufficient enough to provide reason to continue forward to the next puzzle.
There are also a few combat sequences you'll encounter, but rather than a traditional combat system these play out in a puzzle where you must trace each point on a shield without tracing over a line. These aren't terrible, though they do little to convey the excitement of a sword fight and are definitely the weakest aspect of King's Heir. Luckily, they only pop up a handful of times throughout the game and there's also an option to skip these if you so wish. While the combat is the weakest link, the hidden object sequences are easily the most enjoyable portion of the game and help make up for it.
King's Heir delivers some wonderfully detailed illustrations and the developers have done a good job adding some life to the images so they don't feel completely static. There's a decent number of different screens you'll see as you play through the story and each one is impressively drawn. The overall presentation is very good and I didn't encounter any errors or bugs while playing through the game. There's also a bonus episode that will be unlocked after completing the main story and while it's short, it's a nice little extra for those who want some replay value. While King's Heir isn't as good as Cordelia Games later effort (Path of Sin: Greed), it's still an enjoyable point & click/hidden object game that I'd recommend picking up if you're a fan of the genre, though you might wait for a sale as the initial asking price is a bit high considering how short the game is.
Final Verdict: King's Heir: Rise to the Throne combines a point & click adventure with hidden object puzzles with varying degrees of success. While the illustrations look great and the hidden object puzzles are fun, the uninteresting story and weak sword-fighting puzzles hold it back a bit. Still worth a play if you like the genre, but I'd recommend waiting for a sale.
Purchase Links:
Buy King's Heir: Rise to the Throne - Microsoft Store
Purchase Links:
Buy King's Heir: Rise to the Throne - Microsoft Store
Related Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment