Today: Mar 28, 2024

Game Review: For the King

Josh LaBellaNews Writer

The king of Fahrul has been slain. You and your party have been assigned with finding his murderer and bringing stability to the kingdom.

“For the King” is a rogue-like role playing game that was released last Thursday by IronOak Games. The game allows for single player, online co-op and online multiplayer. In these game modes you can have a party of up to three heroes. For my single player game I picked the hunter, the blacksmith and the minstrel – a good combination of ranged and melee damage.

The customization in the game was fairly limited. You can get new armor and weapons but the base look of the character is controlled by only a few toggle switches. There are only four classes to pick from in “For the King” right now – hopefully they will add more.

The open-world game plays like a board game with hexes instead of squares. From my time playing so far I have travelled from mountains to forests and deserts, hitting villages in between. “For the King” is turn based both in travel and combat.

At the beginning of each turn your characters roll for movement. The number they get is how many hexes they can travel. Moving across the board you players can find a number of different encounters – a shrine to a god, a dead adventurer on the road, or a secret tunnel.

The combat plays like many turn-based systems but with a few changes. When engaging with an enemy you have three different options. You can directly attack them, ambush them, or try and sneak past them. The latter of the two options require skill checks in order to succeed.

In a battle the player characters and enemies get a number with decides the order of combat. The weapons they have permit for at least two different types of attacks – one being basic and the other being a special move which requires focus, the games version of action points, to do.

The special moves have the ability to cause different types of continuous effects like bleeding, burning, or being poisoned. In order to heal or get rid of negative effects the players need to use a free action to eat different types of herbs that can be found throughout the map or bought at stores.

After the combat is over you loot the enemy corpses and find money and equipment. Basic enemies drop loot not worth keeping but after doing quest missions you can get weapons, armor and consumables that will seriously boost your stats.

I only crawled through one dungeon in the game. It was for the main questline and I did not complete it. The dungeons rely on a linear system – the party has to beat one room to progress to the next. There were about 12 rooms in the dungeon I played.

In the rooms you will find combat against enemies like goblins and skeletons as well as traps. When my party came across a chest sitting innocently in the center of the room I rushed towards opening it. I was only half surprised when the chest sprung teeth and attacks my party.

After completing a room you have the option to heal your players, if you have potions, and divide up your loot. Halfway through the dungeon you can use a tinderbox to start a campfire so your party can heal and regain actions points.

Yet I learned I was not prepared for the depths I delved into. I did not have enough healing herbs and towards the end two out of three of my characters were on fire and poisoned. I got in one final battle and my characters all fell to their deaths.

Playing “For the King” brought up many fond memories of playing “Dungeons and Dragons.” The combat and exploration is fun. I don’t know how long the game will feel fresh for – but I do plan on convincing my friends to spend the $15 on it.

Photo Credit: Josh LaBella

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