Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars

Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars

PC - Win 95, Win 98

Difficulty: Medium

Length: Long

Recommended Age Groups: Young Adult (11-16), Adult (17 and Up)

Reviewed by: Brian Rubin

Review:

Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars (7KII) is the sequel to the critically acclaimed yet commercially lacking Seven Kingdoms (7K). Created by Trevor Chan and Enlight Software (of Capitalism fame), the original 7K had some great innovations, such as espionage and trade, yet was hampered by poor graphics and lousy publicity on the part of its then publisher, Interactive Magic.

Here we are, a couple of years later. Interactive Magic no longer exists and now 7KII is being published by Ubi Soft. Finally, we have a game with graphics that will look good in the eye of any jaded game player and expanded gameplay from the original.

7KII is basically a 4X game: eXplore, eXpand, eXperiment, eXterminate. There are several lovely nuances that the 7K games bring to the table that make them truly unique, but I'll get to them in a moment. You begin a game by selecting one of several tutorials (which are excellent), a single map game or a campaign. The tutorial is long and exhaustive and really helps the newbie get into the game.

The next option is the single map game that basically means you play a disconnected game with no thought to a campaign or a larger goal. These games, like the campaign I'll mention in a moment, are completely customizable, with multiple pages of options to tailor the game to your liking. This is one area where the game shines, as we gamers always love lots of choices.

The final play option is the campaign that, unlike most games of this type, is dynamic. This means the ebb and flow of the overall war is effected by your successes and failures, just like in real warfare. This is a great boon for replay, as these campaigns can take a long time. The missions in a campaign can get repetitive but they're usually fun anyway.

Once you're finally in the game, you have many, many options available to you on how to proceed. The key to victory usually involves acquiring neutral towns under your own flag and this can be done in several ways. You could use the direct approach by using force. This will make the people of that town very unhappy toward you and also drop your rating with the other kingdoms. You can also hire a soldier who is of the same heritage as those in the village and have him build a fort adjoining the town. This will lower the resistance of that town. Finally, you can send in a spy to sow seeds of dissent in the town and find people willing to help the town join you.

This is merely the tip of the iceberg. You have people to feed, buildings to build, minerals to mine, kingdoms to trade with, Fryhtans to slay and so on. The options available to the player are almost too numerous to mention. The points that stick out in this reviewer’s mind as making this game completely different than most of its ilk are the trade, diplomacy and espionage models. Let's look at each in detail.

The trade model in this game is quite detailed. Goods and services may be bought and sold at markets and through caravans and pure trade treaties are available. Trade is actually fairly easy to accomplish. You basically form a treaty, then form a caravan, then tell that caravan which of your friends’ markets to take the materials to, whether they be raw materials or products made in a factory. This is one key to success.

The next interesting and important feature is the diplomacy model. This is a fully featured diplomacy model and all types of alliances and treaties are available. This makes for some interesting, if sticky situations, as an ally might ask you to attack its enemy, who also happens to be an ally of yours. This is just one example of what can happen through diplomacy.

Finally...my favorite of all, the espionage model. I find it interesting that no other game has attempted to copy this innovative and successful idea. Through the use of spies, you can protect your own kingdom through counter-espionage or use spies to infiltrate other kingdoms. The use of spies has to be one of the most innovative features of 7KII and, probably in my mind, the most fun.

This can all be played in multi-player as well. This reviewer was only able to play a couple of multi-player games but with the included lobby software, the chance of finding opponents is quite easy. Gameplay against other humans is a blast, too, thanks to the large room left to the player for incorporating many different styles of play in one map.

Overall, with numerous gameplay options and highly innovative gameplay, you can't go wrong if you like your strategy on the brainy side. If you're the kind of king who likes subtlety and subversion, then this game is for you.

Graphics:

A huge improvement over the original.

Sound:

Music is great but overall effects are rather sparse.

Enjoyment:

Probably one of the most enjoyable strategy games of the year.

Replay Value:

Multi-player options, customizable missions and dynamic campaigns ensure a long life on any general's hard drive.

Documentation:

The online manual is rather well written.

Comments? Send feedback to mailto:editor@allgame.com?subject=Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars - Review (H 20671).