A large portion of the game consists of moving your hero to a scroll icon on the map and listening to a gravelly-voiced man lead you through an adventure story.
Neocore took that inspiration a bit literally, as King Arthur 2 is basically a computerize version of those books. Remember the "choose your own adventure" line of books? Many RPG developers would credit them as one of the sources of modern RPG storytelling. Perhaps it has something to do with the way the story is told. Without the anchor of nostalgia and familiarity, the story and setting turn out to be pretty ho-hum. And while it is admirable of them to risk continuing the adventure on past its natural ending point, I'm not sure it's all that successful.
When you name the game "King Arthur", you really want access to his story, the one we all know. Right off the bat, narratively, developer Neocore Games had all but shot their wad on the first game. William must simultaneously search for a cure to his father's malady and gather an army (or four) to repel the forces of darkness from the land. Arthur has been grievously wounded by evil magic and in his absence, demonic forces have arisen and laid waste to the whole of England. Whereas the first King Arthur game dealt with the whole Excalibur, Lady in the Lake, Knights of the Round Table tropes, King Arthur 2 centers on Arthur's son William, many years after the events we are all familiar with. I suppose that turned out to be true, but this game reminded me that immersion isn't the only thing a game needs in order to be fun.
So upon launching King Arthur II - The Roleplaying Wargame, I thought to myself, "Sure, I'm going to be fighting mythical creatures and such, but at least it will probably have a fantasy-esque immersion of its own".
And while I certainly appreciate the attempt at realism that Medieval and Empire try to establish, it always breaks the immersion when I eventually conquer the known world seeing Scottish flags flying over Athens, Greece just looks silly. I love persistent army and city management (none of that skirmish map, Star Craft mindlessness for me), and the slower, tactical combat is infinitely satisfying. King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame review
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