The reign of freedom and fun

Sandbox games are about freedom, about doing and playing and creating experiences that you enjoy without worrying about how a game is ‘meant’ to be played; well Reign of Kings lets you do just that.

The game can be best described as a Medieval Survival Sandbox RPG where players must come together or fly solo in a quest for survival or power, or just pure unadulterated bloodlust. The online game puts you in a server with other players where everyone starts pretty much naked on the beach(kind of like how all survival games start these days) after which you must hunt and gather enough resources to build yourself some decent equipment. This is where the fun begins.

Players can come together, form guilds, build bases, trade with others, explore the map and quite possible make a play for the coveted throne of the kingdom or they can just roam around cutting heads off, there’s a place for everything. The role-playing and medieval theme immersion is quite deep as you can roam the lands in suits of armor striking fear into newer players or just shackle and capture them, put them in cages or just hang them for the world to see.

The games internal society and economy are greatly influenced by those in charge; when a guild or individual takes the throne, the king can set taxes thereby changing how players go about their business in the world gathering resources. Low taxes don’t really bother anyone, but push the people too much and a few might band together to remove the king from power bringing into a ton of unpredictable elements into play. From building bases and negotiating with other players and guilds to leading massive sieges against the crown, Reign of Kings can be played in a whole lot of different ways.

Even though the game is in Steam Early Access, it is quite an amazing experience because each new player encounter in the game opens up a world of new opportunities. While games like DayZ almost always have a shoot on sight undertone, Reign of Kings challenges that notion and more often than not showing mercy or giving someone the benefit of the doubt will work out, while other times you’ll end up as mincemeat in the hay fields. Gameplay aside, it feels more polished than a lot of AAA titles these days and while there are definitely bugs and kinks to work out, this is easily the best early access game in the market.