Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero Review — RPG Wargaming

Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero is a unique strategy game that takes an RPG approach, having players manage both kingdoms and adventuring heroes as they rule over one of many diverse kingdoms. While ambitious, interesting, and unique, some areas of the game left me wanting, and I came to the conclusion that Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero doesn’t quite fall into traditional video game categories.

Loading into a new game in Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero can be a little confusing.

This is mostly due to the fact that the game has no tutorial. While there are scenarios of varying difficulty, the game never presents a straightforward opportunity to learn the game hands-on.

Instead, the developer of the game provides us with a self-written manual for the game and it’s features. While not a hands-on approach to learning the game, this little PDF manual is quaint and nostalgic, reminding me of a time when such manuals were a necessity and packed with new computer games, especially the likes of Empire Earth and Age of Empires.

Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero present itself as a 4x game with RPG elements.

By this, I mean that each game of Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero begins very similarly to the 4x genre staples; You pick a nation, enter a map, and are given the freedom to expand your kingdom as you see fit, taking in resources, research, and armies (both your own and those of other nations) into account.

Something interesting is that Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero do differently than others in the genre, providing a rich backstory for each of its many starting kingdoms. In most similar titles, you are given little, if any, lore on your starting nation, expected to roleplay any history your nation has should you wish for it to have it. Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero’s 25 Kingdoms available in the standard campaign not only have detailed backstories but have information on the rulers who rule them, how the nation interacts with its neighbors, and another deep and intriguing history that is surely meant to define how you play that nation.

This emphasis on lore and backstory is present throughout the game, with each little town you click on having a brief blurb about that location’s history.

The game’s 4x mechanic similarities are pretty straightforward and easy to wrap your mind around after a few turns, which is sort of to the game’s detriment. Cities exist on their own tiles, produce gold and resources each turn, and can be added on to with extra buildings (for a price) that increase their output of resources. Units are produced over a series of several turns and distributed as you see fit to defend your territory or attack others.

Research functions very differently from 4x titles, where instead of unlocking new buildings or units by progressing down a tech tree, assigning researchers to certain technologies provides you with a percentage boost to certain aspects of your Kingdom that helps it to continue running or buffs your heroes or military units to keep them fighting.

The first three X’s of the 4x formula (explore, expand, exploit) Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero are rather underwhelming. The act of kingdom-building is slow (due to the rate at which you passively produce resources early on) and lacks any real depth that players of even the most basic 4x title would expect. Veterans of the genre will grow bored of these features quickly, as their basic design and complexity ceiling are sure to leave you wanting.

It’s here where I realized that Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero is not a 4x game; It’s a war game, similar to tabletop games of similar caliber, and is meant to be played with others. These features are relatively simple because they’re not supposed to be overly complex, as they’re not the game’s focus.

What the game focuses more on is its heroes and combat, which are both systems utterly distinct from anything in the 4x genre I mistook the game as being a part of.

In Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero, you’re given the chance to recruit parties of heroes. These unique characters are made up of traditional RPG classes like tank, mage, and druid and are powerful named players in your campaign.

Rather than focus on just building a city up, Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero want you to build parties of these adventurers and send them on, well, adventures. You send these heroes from town to town, gathering rumors that set them off on quests throughout the map. Engaging in these quests takes you into dungeons with their own dungeon-crawling mechanics and stories and enemies to be taken on in turn-based RPG-style combat.

Once your heroes finish their quests, they are rewarded with resources that go towards your kingdom, allowing you to engage in the kingdom-building aspect of Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero as a secondary objective. When your heroes are leveled up and done adventuring, they can lead your armies or govern your cities, creating powerful tokens that allow you to paint the map in your colors, further expanding the reach of your kingdom.

Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero feel more like an RPG with a wargame side mechanic. It wants you to build parties of heroes, grow attached to them, and then send them into story-rich dungeons and adventures. Only afterward, and almost as an afterthought, can you build your kingdom and take on other players, using the spoilers of your adventures to play a game of RISK with a little more complexity.

While Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero might disappoint some 4x gamers, it is undoubtedly a unique and interesting experience, and one worth checking out if you find yourself intrigued by its unique premise.

Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero was reviewed on the PC. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero is available on Steam.