14 DAY TRIAL // Lionheart: King's Cruade is a real time strategy title developed by Neocore Games and published by Paradox Interactive, allowing gamers to take on the role of the famous English crusader as he aims to conquer the Holy Land and beat back the Saracens or take the opposing side and push the Cruaders into the sea.
The first impression is that Lionheart looks surprisingly much like Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come, the title that Neocore has put out in 2008 and which I quite liked, despite being a bit rough around the edges, and that it plays in a very similar manner, despite having quite a few improvements made to the meta game.
The player needs to recruit troops from a pool in order to created competent armies, balanced for the likely enemy forces, equip them with armor and with weapons, assign artifacts that can be used and various strength enhancers.
Once the preparations are complete there are a number of regions the player can choose to invade and, at certain points during the game, missions that can be undertaken and take him to already prepared battlegrounds where traitorous Templar and pretenders to thrones can be faced.
The actual fighting is similar to what players know from the Medieval installments of the Total War franchise but with more of an emphasis on countering units properly and with an extra dose of brutality.
Engagements rely very much on morale and on breaking the enemy, routing his units and then slaughtering them at will and it's rare to see a unit stand its ground and loose more than half of its number before it flees.
There are some nice touches, like units gaining traits based upon their performance in battles that modify their attributes a little, and cavalry charges that heavily depend on the unit moving at speed before it hits the enemy and the tactical puzzles are quite enjoyable.
So if you are looking for a good history based real time strategy title Lionheart: King's Crusade might just be the game for you.