jp
Home Talks and Slides My GameLog Research and Projects Publications Resume Teaching
Back  //   GameBreadth Project  //   Game Ontology Project  //   GameLog

Kingdom: New Lands (PS4)

Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
I started playing this game on Thursday 9 July, 2020  //  I stopped playing this game on: Saturday 3 October, 2020
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

July 13, 2020 06:01:21 PM
I played a bit more yesterday afternoon and made more progress in the game, but I can't say that I found the experience satisfying. This is perhaps less a critique of the game and more about a misalignment with my preferences and tastes. Or not? I'm not sure.

I guess that one of the things I tend NOT to like about simulation-heavy games is that often-times there is a lag between a poor decision you make and the consequences of that decision. I don't think this is a bad thing per se, but if a game is really slow and it doesn't have a way for the player to manage that - I just get really frustrated really fast. In my mind, simulation games are interesting when I can experiment and try things out as I play - but that requires a fast/shorter loop. Not between error and consequences, but between "experiments". If it takes me 2 hrs to "understand the basics" of a game - that might be too long, and if it takes another 2 hrs to verify that understanding...well, a 3rd play-through might not be happening.

So, my last playthrough? Well, I did pretty well in the sense that I accomplished my goal of "getting off" the 1st island. It helped that I knew that the boat would take a long time and a lot of resources and so on. So, I felt that I made progress simply because there are some deterministic things you need to know (and they're not hard to execute). Once on the 2nd island I lost because, well...the "bad guys" got me because I strayed too far and the character is too slow.

Was my 2nd playthrough any fun? Well, I just spent a lot of time waiting around...waiting for the gold to appear, waiting for the builders to arrive and build, and more. I really wish there was a "double speed" option or "fast forward to next event" kind of functionality.

What I don't know is if I have to start on the 1st island again or if I can start immediately on the 2nd? I may or may not play this again just because of that.


July 9, 2020 07:21:49 PM
I've played two games so far and this seems like a rogue-like city-building game? But, it's 2D side-scrolling? I'm very confused by a lot of things...but my second game was kind of boring in the end because I entered a "lose cycle" where I didn't have enough gold coins to make progress or stay alive. The game kept on encouraging me to build the boat - which I did - and it was A LOT OF COINS - but then nothing happened, and it was too late and most of my workers were gone, and I had no way of getting more coins and ugh....

So, I think I'll try again, just to see how it works and if I've figured stuff out, but I'm more intrigued and interested in the premise than the actual game. There's a lot here I think you're supposed to figure out on your own, but it's too easy to make a mistake and have it bite you in the butt 20 minutes later. And that sucks. (the game is quite slow as well).


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria