Be a King Game Review

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Be a King is a “village” building and management game, similar to the Build-a-Lot games. You set up buildings to grow your town and manage the needs of your people.

What makes this game different is that it is set in a land similar to medieval Europe, with peasants and knights and bandits (and kings). For gamers who are getting tired of time management games that involve restaurants and farms and modern towns, Be a King represents a fresh take on the genre.

The game starts with you as a freshly crowned prince, with the land in disarray. You will need your management skills to get the kingdom under your rule. It won’t be easy though… you will have to overcome resource management challenges as well as defend your towns from attacks from invaders intent on stealing your land.

Be a King is set up as an ongoing story told in 25 consecutive scenarios, each of which is more challenging than the last. Each scenario has certain objectives you need to achieve, such as building a town with a certain number of people, or successfully defending a town from invaders.

You usually start each game by building homes. The more homes you have, the more people can live in your towns and the more money they generate. You then build other buildings to support your population, from farms to generate food and military buildings to protect your towns. Every building has a role to play and you will need to manage your resources and time in order to efficiently set up your towns. In addition, building placement can be a gamebreaker. Your towns will occasionally be under attack, and where you decide to place your military defenses could mean the difference between a successful defense or having barbarians running through your people’s homes.

Another feature of the game is the ability for you to hire heroes. These heroes are able to help defend your towns. In addition, you will sometimes be confronted with “quests”. Each quest requires you to satisfy certain criteria in order to earn a reward. Usually, these quests require you to send your heroes to far-off lands and do the things heroes usually do. These quests are optional though, so a bit of good decision making can have an impact on how efficient and successful your towns will be.

The efficiency is important too. For each scenario, there is a hidden time objective that you are judged against. If you perform beyond expectations, you will be able to earn bronze, silver, and gold medals for that scenario. This gives the game some replay value in trying to best your previous time records and earning as many gold medals as possible.

Be a King is not a very complex game. Hardcore gamers might find the mechanics too simple and boring. And some might find that 25 scenarios isn’t a lot to play with, especially since most of these scenarios involve you making almost the same management decisions with a few variations depending on what the scenario objectives are.

But what it does have is a great medieval atmosphere that is a welcome break from other time management games that always seems to revolve around modern consumerism. So if you are sick of those games and are looking for a change in scenery, Be a King should be a nice change and will keep you entertained.