Kingdom Classic Review

By GenXGrownUp Patron Mike C

Kingdom Classic is a throwback to the graphical styles of ’80s video games. The game is very minimalistic in gameplay, only using the arrow keys and instructions. While most of the game is intuitive, there is still some initial mystery. The crux of the game is survival. As the sun sets and the moon rises in the sky, Greedlings beset your camp stealing coins, tools, and possibly your crown. Survive the attacks by recruiting peasants to become archers, builders, or farmers. Archers can kill the Greedlings and collect coins through hunting, Builders are crucial to survival as they construct walls, archer towers, farms, and your castle. Farmers, well, they farm, but are a substantial source of income as harvests produce coins. As the game progresses and your castle is complete, you gain knights required for the end game. Knights and archers attack the Greedling portals and when all the portals are defeated the game is won. This is a great game of strategy and limited resources. Beware though, if you lose your crown, the game is over.

I am a fan of strategy/defense games like Kingdom Classic. It is a much more relaxed and less complicated and involved version of 4X games such as Sid Meir’s Civilization. While you will not get days of gameplay in one playthrough of Kingdom Classic, I believe you will get your Corey’s worth. Kingdom Classic is currently $4.99 on Steam. Since GXG was generous enough to give me a key, I definitely got my Corey’s worth. Over the course of two days, I have played four or five runs over roughly six hours and still have not beaten the game. To be fair though, I had to figure out how to effectively use the resources available to my advantage. The game is measured in days and is fairly forgiving in the early days, but ramps up around day ten.

In the end, I would rate Kingdom Classic three and one-half tokens. The playability is definitely there and I enjoy the save feature that lets you save your current game only. This is my kind of game, build, defend, rebuild, and defend some more. The achievements for this game are also challenging. One, in particular, is not starting your camp until the third day, meaning you have to survive on your own without any means of killing the Greedlings; however, you can drop coins that they will pick up and then run away. The problem I have with the game, which is minor, is the lack of instruction or objective given in-game. Without researching the game I would not have known the endgame is to destroy the Greedling portals. I would have thought it was simply to survive as long as possible against the ever-increasing Greedling hordes. Regardless, if you like build/defend, strategy, and resource management games, you will find a simply beautiful game that scratches that itch.

By the way, Kingdom Classic is just one game in the Kingdom line. There are Kingdom Two Crowns, Kingdom New Lands, and coming out 7 September 2020, Kingdom Majestic. This latest version of the game will be available on PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Check it out right here.

Mike C is a longtime GenXGrownUp patron and won a copy of Kingdom Classic by listening to our podcast and writing in! Check out the show at genxgrownup.com/pod/ and be sure to listen to our latest episodes for your chance to win free games, too!