After going through the initial set up of my Steam Deck I was faced with a decision – what to play? I installed all the mainstays I had, but it was some of the simpler games that I was drawn to most. Turns out that I’ve purchased quite a few of these indie… or quasi-indie titles over the years. My Steam library is a constant reminder of how much I’ve spent on games and the purchasing of the Steam Deck hasn’t helped much (quite the opposite in fact). What it has helped with is my gaming time, and as such I’m playing games that otherwise might have gone ignored in my library forever more. When going through those that were marked as working well on the Deck, I discovered that I had a little game called Kingdom (Classic), developed by Noio and Licorice, and published by RawFury. It’s less than 300mb in size, so after clicking install I was curiously loading it up within seconds.
I’ve played the game for a good chunk of time now and I have been wondering what to say about it. It’s basic and restrained. You have a character that can move left or right, and you can spend money, that’s about it. But that doesn’t do this little title justice. The simplicity of it is a little deceptive. You start the game as a randomly generated monarch. You have a steed, a crown, and empty money pouch. You’re encouraged to ride to the right and as the carved letters of KINGDOM fall into ruin in the background, and deer run off through the woods before you, you stumble upon a small trail of gold coins. Picking these up, you find an unlit fire pit and a few wayward vagrants. Some on screen prompts guide you to lighting the fire, recruiting some villagers, and building a tool smith and bowyer. Once this is done, you’re told to gather and expand. Your primary goal however is the defence of your crown, as if you lose that, you lose the game.
This is the trick however, your ruler is impotent for the most part, especially in martial ability. You can temporarily gallop, you can pick up and drop coins, and spend them on certain things. Dropping coins recruits new citizens, and spending can be used on upgrading your base and defences, building new structures, purchasing weapons and tools, offerings to shrines, or paying off merchants to get cheaper goods. You can also order trees be cut down too, which allows for the expansion of your territory. You can do a lot with your gold, but you can’t directly control your troops, and this is where some of the challenge comes from.
I mentioned earlier that your primary goal is the defence of your crown. This might have been simple if it weren’t for the waves of enemies that besiege your kingdom from both sides. These shadowy figures emerge from portals located as the furthest extents of the map, and while they start out rather weak and lacking in numbers, as the days go by, they eventually become formidable, and you’ll be dreading the coming of night as you anxiously wait to see if your defences will hold.
While nightfall makes you feel like Theoden behind the walls of Helms Deep (especially when the rain starts to fall), the bright light of day will offer you the peace you deserve. Each morning the bells toll and for the first few days, you’ll be given a chest of gold to help get things up and running. These dry up eventually, but if you can get enough archers and farmers recruited, and enough farms built, you’ll be earning more gold than you can spend, and your pouch will be overflowing.
None of this is properly explained by the game of course, and the first time I played I was surprised to have my crown knocked off my head and pinched by one of the little shadowy bastards one night. Dynasty over. This didn’t happen quite as quick the second time around, and it was overreaching and poor defences that was my downfall. This was also the case for the next five or ten subsequent runs as well. Careful spending, continual recruitment, and strong lines of defence with incremental pushing into the wilderness seems to be the way forward. The buildings can only be placed in certain randomised sports however, so careful planning in required, as well as a modicum of luck. Locations where walls and towers can be built close to one another are the best for defence, and combined with a catapult and stone upgrades make for very durable barriers. These are able to withstand the initial waves easily, but nothing is impregnable, and even your archers who seem safe in their lofty towers are vulnerable from the later waves which come with air support monsters who have a penchant for kidnapping.
The key to success then? Destruction of the portals. Along with managing your Kingdom, your camp can be upgraded extensively. Initially just a fire, it transforms into a camp site, then a wooden hall, and eventually becoming a stone wrought castle. This final stage comes with the unlocking of a new unit, the Knight. You purchase coats of arms and hang them on either side of your castle. New recruits can pick these up and become the aforementioned soldiers. These units, once recruited, will gather a force of archers, and make for your furthest walls. There they will remain until you give the command for them to charge out. Once set, the Knights and their archer comrades will make for the closest portal. The archers bring the structure down while the Knights defend them from the retaliatory waves. Succeed at this and you can build a teleporter of your own in its place. This allows you to traverse the map almost instantly for a one-way journey and is a godsend when you’ve expanded your Kingdom far beyond the central keep. Do this for all four enemy portals and you’ve finished the game.
Along with being fun to play, Kingdom is also a pleasure to exist within (ignoring those stressful moments when it all goes to shit). The pixel art is absolutely beautiful, and the day night cycle provides a constant change to the lighting. The atmosphere is constantly changing too with low hanging fog, heavy rain, clear skies, and inky nights illuminated by the occasional blood moon and the flickering of torches and campfires. The animations are characterful too, and all this combined with the charming sound effects and melodic music make for a really pleasurable experience. I can’t say enough about how much I enjoy the aesthetics of this title, and it looks even better on the OLED screen of the Stem Deck.
The visual design is restrained, just like every aspect of the game, but everything is clearly recognisable, and visual cues go a long way to conveying the state of things. Little details like your horse running out of stamina and seeing its breath billowing from its mouth as it recovers, or the deterioration of your walls when under attack as bricks fall and the walls crumble.
All in all, this little title is a real gem, and one that really works well as a handheld game. It would seem a little too simple to bother sitting at my desk for, but slouched on the sofa, or in bed, it makes for a great game to dip in an out of. So far, I’ve spent just over 18 hours playing it in small bursts, and while it might seem like a long time to have spent playing such a simple title, sometimes that’s just what I crave. I managed to bring down my fourth portal and survive the final retaliation after more tries than I would like to admit, but regardless of how long it took me to complete, I really do recommend picking it up yourself. It’s beautiful, charming, and fun (as well as being incredibly frustrating when losing your crown after hours of cautious ruling). And get this – it’s FREE on Steam. I don’t know if I even purchased it now that I think back, perhaps it became free later…? Either way, it was made free in 2020 and remains that way now, so you have absolutely no excuse not to play it.
Have you given this title a go? After playing it for a few hours I picked up the sequels in the Christmas Steam sale for a few quid. Having completed this one I’ll be giving them a go soon and I’ll be leaving the classic version of this game behind (as I imagine it’ll be harder coming back to this after experiencing the broader features of the later games).
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