Knights of Honor – PC – Preview

Knights
of Honor has you conquering empires throughout medieval Europe, with your
ultimate goal being to rule all of Europe. Knights of Honor covers all aspects
of conquering, from diplomacy to economy to military.

To make managing your
provinces easier, there are separate battle and world views. World view allows
you to see all the land you have and all that is still to be had. You can scroll
across the entire country and check on the status of each area. It’s even
possible to conquer two countries at once. Battle view is zoomed further in for
easier access to your units. You can control each unit during a battle or have
the AI handle it for you. You can even pause time whenever you like so you can
check on any other wars you may be waging.

There are over 150
provinces and over 150 kingdoms overall to conquer, with the help of your
knights of course. You will be able to have 9 knights that can be any one of 6
jobs, aiding you in different ways. Each knight levels up too, so for each
successful endeavor they gain experience and when they level up they get a star.
Your knights can get up to five stars each, and every star heightens their
ability to do their job. Knights will also gain experience in combat, which can
then be used to buy new abilities for that knight.

Different factors come
into play when building and upgrading your towns and villages. Economy,
religion, and gold are your biggest influences, and they will affect various
things like how fast buildings are built, how well your soldiers perform in
certain tasks, and how quickly you make money.

There are also six land
formations that will allow you to expand into certain directions. You can excel
in things like hunting and fishing if you build around the right resources.

To enter into combat you
must wage war with a province you have not yet conquered. In fact, diplomacy in
Knights of Honor is very deep. You can ally with other provinces through
treaties and pacts, and you can also breach those pacts and declare war. Each
battle begins and ends with a cut scene and after-battle stats.

Prisoners can also be
caught during battle, and you decide whether you let them go, torture them,
whatever. You can even send a knight as a spy to sabotage or gain
intelligence…but the enemy can do the same. If the enemy spy is caught, you can
let him go or torture him to find out who his leader is. You can then kill him
or even sell him back to his leader as ransom.

What I saw of the game
was 95% complete, and it’s apparent that a lot of work went into the playability
and detail of Knights of Honor. Right now it is planned to be released September
this year for the PC.

For All E3 2004
Previews