Little Kingdom Hot

Andreil's Game has a bevy of games on XBLIG, and they all fall into a similar mold: Curiously ambitious gameplay mixed with a weak tutorial and partially-fleshed out design. The great news is that Andreil's Game has clued in to the first half of that sentence, by making their unique blend of fresh genres more readily accessible through incorporated explanations, tutorials, and on-screen cues. The not-so-great news is that the step doesn't go far enough, and players can still be left only half-understanding what's happening in any given moment.

Like the previous Andreil's Title, Dark Seal, Little Kingdom plays on a gameboard-like hex grid that seems more reminiscent of an actual sit-down strategy game. In Little Kingdom, the goal is to rule the entire board, competing against up to seven other kingdoms (1-4 local players, 8 kingdoms total per game). The competition can't be won through direct combat, and the kingdom's size instead increases through "Influence," which radiates out from forts that can be built. To increase the effect of this radiating Influence, either more forts can be built (at an ever-increasing cost), or existing forts can be upgraded.

The Influence system is novel, and with a small selection of ways to collect resources (including windmills, sawmills, and mining camps, as well as a trading market (where resources can be traded up the resource chain, at a ratio of 1:10), the game can certainly be frantic and intense.

While the standard complaints about XBLIG titles could be made (lack of online leaderboard, lack of customization, lack of persistent/saved features, lack of online play) about Little Kingdom, Little Kingdom deserves special criticism for its murky gameplay. Influence, a key facet of the game, is generally vague in implementation, and other than knowing various buildings give "Influence, More Influence, or Most Influence," hard numbers are never given, even when showing the Influence grid, a cacophony of relatively-meaningless over-saturation of numbers.

Andreil's Game's games continue to miss that special "accessibility" that would allow more gamers to really fall in love with their eccentric, quirky game designs. I'm still a strong fan of the dev studio, but I completely understand why others wouldn't be.