Kingmakers has the best twist on medieval warfare ever

Kingmakers has the best twist on medieval warfare ever

Time Stamp: February 20, 2024 4:21 PM

At first, Kingmakers looks like a normal Chivalry-styled sandbox tactics game. However, watch a bit more of its first trailer — around 23 seconds in — and you’ll see so much more.

[Ed. note: Spoilers below for the Kingmakers twist.]

The game, developed by Redemption Road Games (Road Redemption) and published by tinyBuild, is not just a strategy game. You play as an elite task force operative, according to a press release, who’s been transported 500 years back in time medieval England to prevent a future apocalypse. And you do this by using your modern technology — from guns to vehicles of all kinds and even air strikes. In the trailer, you can see the player character rolling over hordes of soldiers with their truck, an attack helicopter, and various guns including a shotgun and a sniper rifle.

It’s like Army of Darkness without the mischievous demons, or A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court if it was written by Quentin Tarantino or Eli Roth.

A medieval soldier running at the player character with their sword raised. Meanwhile, the player character is shooting him with a gun.

Image: Redemption Road Games/tinyBuild

Besides the brutal levels of violence and gore, Kingmakers is, in many ways, poised to be like other medieval real-time strategy games. Despite your technological prowess, you’ll still command armies filled with thousands of soldiers at once. The press release notes that this will run as a “real-time simulation with thousands of soldiers fighting simultaneously” thanks to AI controls that track loyalty as well.

You can also switch between just strategizing and taking care of things yourself. Kingmakers also features co-op with up to three other players, and in this mode, each of you gets an army to command.

Kingmakers is expected to launch on Steam early access later this year.

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