|
Page 1 of 2
Those Digital Jesters bring a new entrant in to the city building foray. The box invites us to "Build, Defend, Expand". So, I took up the challenge to see if this game of French origins offers us anything new.
Title: Medieval Lords
Genre: City Builder (Single Player)
Published by: Monte Cristo / Digital Jesters
UK Release Date: 29th October 2004
Recommended Configuration
O/S: Windows 98 or higher
Processor: 1.5 Ghz
Memory: 512 Mb
Video Card: GeForce 4 with 128Mb
Sound: DX 9 compatible At
a glance this game appears to be of the RTS genre. I would say it is a
city simulator with a touch of RTS and a little blood for good measure!
You can become the Lord of the land by expanding your medieval village
in to a citadel fortress. Experienced game players will
recognise many of the elements in this 3D game. However, if you
are seeking a cutting-edge RTS game - keep on looking. This game
won't tax your brain to hard, but is it fun? Let's take a closer
look with the help of some eye-candy.
The image on the left is a shot from the
first-person view taken during the game. The terrain textures are a
little disappointing when viewed close-up, they lack the finer detail I
would have hoped for. Notice how the cottage in the center appears to
be hovering off the ground? The shadow rendering isn't so great either,
they are quite blocky looking. On the upside, the building models
are nicely drawn with plenty of detail. This along with ambient
sounds does create a nice feeling of a medieval village. The
second screen shot is an arial view, this is the view which will be
used during normal game play. Things are looking better from up
here. The terrain texures work well from this distance. See
how the game allows the irregular positioning of buildings and the
creation of odd shaped fields for crop production. City building fans
will enjoy being able to create their on styles of towns and citadels. Be
aware that Medieval Lords only supports two screen resolutions, 800 x
600 and 1024 x 768. When using an LCD panel which has a native
resolution of 1280 x 1024 some clarity may be lost due to image scaling.
Cities and Buildings
At the heart of every city is a main dungeon building which acts as
a base for a garrison of troops and a store for food supplies. Lose
this dungeon to enemy invaders and your are defeated. Capture the
opponent's dungeon and his wealth and land is yours for the taking. Certain
buildings must be built and occupied before technology can advance and
provide further new buildings to play with. The usual set is there;
carpenters, blacksmiths, markets and healing witches! Houses
start out as small cottages and will automatically grow in to much
larger residences according to how content the occupiers are. A well
designed village will soon grow in to a thriving community. A bigger
population means more tax income available for spending on defences and
leisure buildings or whatever takes your fancy. Defensive walls
can be constructed from timber or stone complete with towers and gates.
Positioning of walls is flexible allowing them to be used in conjuction
with natural barriers - mountains and water.
Roast pig and a pint, anyone? 
|
