Review: Knights of Honor II: Sovereign Pleases My Napoleonic Complex

Looking for an entry level Simulation and RTS game? Then maybe Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is your game of choice. I have always been a fan of RTS games since the days of Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology (which will finally get a more than deserved remake), and Simulation games such as Total War have always satisfied my need of seeing a massive battle happening in front of my eyes, which I think is what I inherited by films like Troy or The Lord of the Rings. Anyway, after having experienced a pretty decent amount of Knights of Honor II, we have a lot to say about it, so stick around while we talk about its strengths and weaknesses. Spoiler alert: you will have a great time with this game.

Knights of Honor II: Sovereign Biggest Takeaways

• The strategic part of the game is well-defined.
• Replayability is the name of the game, and it’s a fun thing to do.
• Real time battles are quite enjoyable.
• The learning curve is not as steep as it might seem.

Final Score: 7.5/10

Being a King is Nice, and Simple

Now, getting to be the monarch, emperor or leader of a nation surely is a thing I do not desire to anyone. I mean, the politics, the mind games, the secrets. They are all bound to corrupt a man. In Knights of Honor II however, things are, for a lack of better words, fairly simple. We will talk about this later, but learning things in this game is a fruit of trial and error. Everything is pretty straightforward once you start experimenting with your cities and villages. Building, negotiation between nations, war and keeping your country happy is the name of the game.

A campaign, or better called, a playthrough of Knight of Honor II is very similar to that of AoE and Total War. You will see the whole map of the region you choose, and each city will have their own buildings and stability (that means, how are you viewed by the people and, possibly, rebels). You will have neighboring nations which can be allies, friends, threats or enemies. It will be up to you to keep the way of diplomatic peace, or become the king of the world. Each action you take in favor of one nation will irremediably affect the relationships with other nations, depending on their own diplomatic agenda or ties with the one nation you are interacting with. It is a bureaucratic game in which a merely trade agreement could mean an invasion by a foreign power.

All of this while you try to keep your own people at bay. You will need to keep the peasants, clergy, nobility, army and merchants happy. Each action you make will either please or grind their gears. For example, executing prisoners could impact negatively on your peasants. Breaking a trade agreement will make merchants unhappy. Having a good relationship with the Papal States will please the clergy, if you are a catholic nation. And so on and so forth. If kept unhappy, you will risk a rebellion that will rise up and battle your forces and pillage your cities. So this game really wants you to micromanage everything and don’t leave any aspect of being a nation’s leader neglected.

What a Wonderful World

And while we play being the politician or the world slaving maniac, we are introduced to a world that feels and looks great. I mean, the game is not extraordinarily demanding or groundbreaking, but it fulfills its purpose. This will grant you a friendly UI and an aesthetic that is a classic for these type of games. You will be able to visit all cities in the world and see the current wars and battles while they are happening. You will also access the negotiations with other nations through a text base interaction. It would have been nice to see a little bit of animations like Warcraft 3. With each character’s pictures emoting with each order or with each decision you make. But maybe that’s just me.

The live battles a la Total War look great as well and the terrains change based on where each army encounters each other. Even you get to enter a siege if you are attacking a village or a town. In general, the game’s graphics serve its purpose. They do not blow my mind and don’t have anything in particular that stand above all other games. Ultimately, the strength of this game is its gameplay, but the game’s graphics do not have a negative effect.

Rome Was Not Built in a Day, or Did It?

You see, the game in itself, while presenting a lot of mechanics and contents, is actually pretty simple and not at all complicated as other games of its kind. Just like I said, managing your country and the relationships with other nations is what, in essence, will keep you growing and moving forward. Having said that, it does not fill simple at all once you begin the game.

Yes, every single game has a learning curve, specially if you are new to a certain genre. But what makes or breaks the early stages of the game, is a tutorial or some sort of in-game guide. And while Knight of Sovereign II does feature an in-game guide, it is far from perfect. You see, I’m not a fan of endless pages and pages of text. Even more if they will talk about things that are pretty much irrelevant at early stages of the game. That is what happens in Knights of Honor II. You will be swarmed by lessons, independently if it is relevant to you or not at the moment. This will have the effect of, when you will indeed need to use that mechanic, you will have zero recollection of how it works.

Maybe it’s me that sucks at gaming, but when I needed a bigger army at hand, I had no clue of how to recruit new soldiers. Also, almost all the battles that I engaged with enemy nations were simulated. Not by choice, but of plain ignorance because I did not know that I could take part of them in a Total War style. And regarding those live battles, I would strongly recommend from deferring from using that mechanic if you don’t have good stability in your nation, since spending time exclusively getting rid of your enemy will cause your nation to revolt and pledge allegiance to other nations.

What I think would make a great difference is a tutorial that will introduce mechanics naturally. For example, early stages of the tutorial will teach you about building and managing your stability and crown status. Then you will receive either a war declaration or a trade agreement offer, and you will learn how to manage those situations. And maybe replace or complement the text explaining the situation or mechanic with some voice acting. This all will possibly make things better and learning quite improved, since the only alternative right now is to read the documentation offered by the game, that is not exactly user-friendly to say the least, or just learn by trial and error.

Related: Knights of Honor 2 Sovereign – Starting Tips and Tricks

Is Knights of Honor II, Sovereign?

In general terms, Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is a good game for experiencing the RTS and Simulation genres. It is not hard to learn, and it has a very high replayability. So go ahead and experience different type of kingdoms, empires or caliphates. At its current state, it definitely needs some improvement, specially by flattening the early game learning curve since it can feel a little bit overwhelming. However, once you begin understanding the mechanics and getting the hold of all things royal, you will have a wonderful time trying to keep your diplomatic ties friendly, or going for the hardest achievement in the game and become the ultimate supreme leader of the world. Sounds quite enticing, really. Give this game a try and I believe you will have a great time, just don’t get discourage and push through the first moments of the game.

Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is available now on Windows. If you like RTS games, be sure to check out How to play a co-op campaign in Iron Harvest and When Does Stormgate Release?.