The strange thing is, the graphic quality of the art is actually very good from a technical standpoint. Having lost the art style and personality of the cartoony charm, story and character should have been a bigger issue.

They just kind of get lost in the midst of the game and environment (sometimes literally). For a game that lasts so bloody long, you would figure that these characters would have had the chance to develop some sort of individuality. It's almost easy to forget to use them (and hard to know they've been used in some cases) because there's no visual reward. Not even their special abilities are special looking. They have different voices and accents, but they're all just as mysteriously boring. All the other heroes act pretty much the same. He doesn't seem to have a personality at all. But the story is told with so little detail, character, or panache that I just don't care. They'll help him take back his country one territory at a time, gathering folks grateful for his help and leadership, some of whom will actually hand their towns over to him. A mountain ranging dwarf that blows things up, a soldier friend from home that can whoop armies all by his lonesome, a misunderstood thief girl, a wise old uncle. So far so average, right? Well, along the way, he meets up with old friends that join forces with him. He's the son of a king that was whisked away to safety by his mother, the queen, only to find out because of an amulet that he was the 'rightful' heir to the throne. Take Dario (a name that inspires respect and awe in Medieval Times restaurants everywhere) the main character.

well, it's just there with no nutritional value. I don't know that I would even truly call it bad. The thing is, Heritage of Kings isn't a horrible game. I have a feeling I would forget about it immediately after writing the review if the music wasn't scratching through my head like a broken record. Sadly, the combat added does nothing to promote the genre, even going so far as to be reminiscent of so many cookie cutter RTSs that cluttered our lives 3-5 years ago. Not only did they change the style of the art, which was a mistake as far as I'm concerned, but also tried to 'Americanize' the game by making it more combat oriented. The games might not have been the best strategy series ever, but at least it had its style to set it apart from the crowd. That soft spot contained a certain charm and likeability sat in those cartoony bodies. There was a reason that I held some little soft spot in my otherwise steely heart for The Settlers games in the past.

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