Kohan 2 Kings of War is an RTS game through and through. It plays like an RTS game, feels like an RTS game, and even smells like an RTS game (if that’s even possible.) Although the genre has its greats like Command and Conquer and Age of Empires, it also has its downs. Unfortunately, this title falls in neither section.
K2 is a direct sequel to the original games Immortal Sovereigns, and Ahriman’s gift, taking place a couple of generations after. The land has once again been ravaged by the threat of the Ceyah, a band of exiles trying to gain independence, and you must stop them at all costs. On your quest, you use the help of the Kohan, immortals that must be “awakened” from small golden amulets. They possess great powers, are much stronger than normal soldiers, and can use special magic and abilities.
Kohan 2 has everything that most strategy games have, but little else. Resource mining, food producing, building creation, pretty much everything that we’ve seen before. But what is interesting about the game is that instead of building individual soldiers, you build a whole company of a certain type of unit. If you build some cavalry, you can choose its support and flank units, which will assist the main group of cavalry in battle. This goes for all units in the game as well. When combat is over, and if your companies survive, they can be healed in “Resupply” zones around friendly cities. This means that if there are any deaths, the men will return, and all of the injured will be healed slowly. Since the world is based around a fantasy setting with magic and monsters, expect a lot of wizards, heroes, and dragons combating alongside, or against you.
The environments are decent, depicting lush peaceful forests, and deserted wastelands. The atmosphere is perfect for the whole fantasy deal, but could definitely be better. Animal herds roam around the maps at times, but are completely peaceful, and wouldn’t dare attack your troops unless provoked. Lairs of monsters are also randomly situated around the map for you to conquer and explore for treasure. By doing this, you could become richer in gold, or be granted a bonus technology that will benefit your empire.
The gameplay is sometimes slow and boring, leaving you watching your forces slowly hack and slash at foes until someone loses. For me it was especially boring, since the entire game lagged like crazy. Even with my computer computer setup, it didn’t run as smooth as it probably should have on a Radeon 9600 All In Wonder XT with a 2.6 GHZ processor, and 1 GB of RAM. Normally there shouldn’t be a problem, but yet, it seems there is.
I should also mention the difficulty of the game. On the campaigns, and random maps, I had always found myself creamed by the enemy within the first half hour of the game. I felt like a noob playing Starcraft online for the first time. And don’t blame me for not using strategy, because in a sense, there is none. I didn’t see how terrain could be used for you’re advantage, nor flanking, or skirmishing. Absolutely nothing worked against the enemy.
Kohan 2 is not a bad game. I have seen much worse. The story is deep, the history is amazing, and the unit types are pretty cool. But it just isn’t fun, at least not for me. To me, amassing as many powerful units at once and sending them to every city the enemy has under his control is not strategy, one again, this is how I feel about it anyway. Hopefully, Global Star Software can come up with something a little more fresh and original next time around.
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