Kingdoms Forlorn is a cooperative, tactical, dungeon crawling, sprawling, story adventure game from Into the Unknown where you’ll face off against dragons devils and kings in an epic adventure.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingdomsforlorn/kingdoms-forlorn-dragons-devils-and-kings

Pros

• Page Is Good
• Epic Adventure Game
• Price Point
• True Solo

Cons

• Price Point
• Aesthetic (possibly)

The Page

This is an interesting page for me. I put in my cons the aesthetic, and I think it might be the aesthetic of the page more so than the aesthetic of the game itself. The game looks different than most fantasy big box games. While it has dragons and monsters, it feels almost more grounded and more medieval in nature.

But on the flip side that same more simplistic aesthetic on the page itself, it seems a bit too much like it was done in paint. Now, they lay out things well on their page. I get an idea of what the game is about immediately, but at the same time, I also feel like if this was a new company, I’d be knocking them on it hard for not being polished enough.

The section that really stands out to me with this is the stretch goals or daily unlocks. Parts of the artwork look great. Other parts look unpolished, I guess that is what it comes down to for me. And like I said, I think it works for the game. It isn’t the flashiest, but it makes the game feel different. For the page, it just lacks the selling itself I’d expect.

The Game

The game itself does a lot of things that I like. Good character progression, from the looks of it. And while it’s not something that I seek out, I really like the idea that a character improves as things get worse. Cthulhu: Death May Die, I believe, does the same thing where you can unlock more abilities as you go more insane. So instead of feeling every hit as much, you fight harder for your life as the hits keep coming.

I also like that you make permanent changes to the world. This is basically a legacy element of the game but it isn’t a true legacy, I’d say. Basic idea is that as you play through the campaign and survive, your knights will influence the world, leave a mark on it. If and when you come back now what you’ve done before will make a difference on what happens next.

Also, for me, true solo is a huge add to the game. Just to clarify what that means, it means as a solo player I don’t need to control multiple characters. The game might be meant for 4 knights to go through it, but I can play it with one. It adds in squires as support, but the overall bookkeeping of all the knights versus some automated squires will make the game simpler to play.

As they say, the true solo helps you focus on the story. And I think that’s what interests me most is the story of the game. You’re going out as a knight, not as wizard, warlock, even a rogue or a fighter. You fight for your kingdom(s) and try and stop the monsters that are coming after you. That is pretty normal dungeon crawler, but it’s less an adventuring party, and more knights sent out on a quest.

Back or Brick

This one is a tough one for me. I definitely want to back it and right now I am for the $12 US no reward but access to pledge manager and early bird, if I decide to go in for more on it. So technically it is a Brick for me right now. I’m trying to convince myself with the pledge with no reward that I might play it later, I have room with the campaign games I own and have coming in, since I’m sure this will take a bit to deliver.

But in reality, I probably have enough to last me another five years or more, plus some on the way. So I likely won’t back this just because I don’t need another campaign game. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want this. And I think with Aeon’s Trespass coming out soon, we’ll get a better idea of what the company does. But I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you back it.

So is this a Back or Brick for you?

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