Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI

[EPW]

ROTK is finally coming back to the PC in English. Anyone play the PS2 version of this?

[LordShiva]

no

[EPW]

Go away then

[LordShiva]

I will if you change your name back

[EPW]

The first one was pretty good

[LordShiva]

Teh first kingdom?

[EPW]

teh first game

[LordShiva]

And then teh second through eleventh sucked?

[EPW]

probably

[EPW]

Originally posted by LordShiva
I will if you change your name back

HAHA BE GONe

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by EPW

HAHA BE GONe

VICTOLLY!

[Seedle]

I've played the PS2 version. Very different from X, if you've played that. It's a turn-based strategy game, rather than an RPG with tbs elements. Unfortunately, you either have to cookie cutter your cities (build barracks, weaponsmith, and as many markets/farms as possible) or deal with a lot of micro-management (send gold from gold farm to siege city, build siege engine, send that to where ever it needs to be, etc.) It is interesting for a change of pace, but it is too shallow to play for too long. If you do play it, make sure you play with female characters enabled, especially playing as Lu Bu. Diao Chan and Lu Ling Qi both have beastly abilities.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by EPW


HAHA BE GONe

/me goes away

[EPW]

Originally posted by Seedle
It is interesting for a change of pace, but it is too shallow to play for too long.

That's the last thing I expected to hear

How is the AI ?

[Seedle]

The AI is pretty good. I haven't noticed any glaring problems with the opponent AI, though I have some minor quibbles with the governor AI, which doesn't seem to perform as well. You'd think they'd be the same AI, but maybe it's a handicap for the player. Or maybe I'm crazy. Anyway, you have to use governors, because you have to spend "AP" to take any actions, and the amount of AP per turn you get isn't enough for more than 3 cities (and, depending on what all you need to do, sometimes it isn't enough for 3) Bottom line for governors: they won't win the game for you, but they wont' be so stupid as to loose it either.

For the enemy AI, I think it's okay, but I'm not that great at the game, so someone else might find it too easy I suppose. It will flank you and/or opportunity strike you, so be very careful when moving troops out of a city.

As for the shallowness, with city management, it's like I said: either cookie cutter, which is boring; or specialize, which needs micro-management. While you might get the best yields from specialization, having to set-up caravans constantly is a pain, and it uses up AP that you need for other things. Not to mention the fun of the enemy being 2 turns away from a city, and the shipment of gold you need to build weapons is 3 turns away.

In battle, it is more interesting, but not much more complicated. It generally boils down to using "tactics" (a special kind of attack) over and over until you win. Yes, you can set up traps and forts and such. Yes, you use zones of control to your advantage. Yes, there are choke points. Yes, you must choose which units to have (horse, pike, spear, or bow) And yes, picking which officers go best with which units, and with each other (you can combine 3 officers in one unit, and they all affect performance/abilities) is fun and interesting. But at the end of the day, it's mainly about numbers, special attacks, and bows. There are enough decisions and options to be interesting at first, but you learn to optimize your battle strategies fairly quickly. Like I said, it's good for awhile. But it gets repetitive fairly quickly.