Kingsgrave Review (PC, macOS, & Mac operating systems)

Egg or Chicken Games’ Kingsgrave is out now for the fair price of $10 on PC and MacOS platforms. Even with the relatively affordable price, though, you are probably still curious to know whether it’s worth the trouble of buying and sitting through its 10- to 15-hour playthrough. Well, Kingsrave is a little of a mixed goods bag. On the one hand, it relays plenty of impressive and satisfying scenarios. However, it still has its significant share of drawbacks. In the end, our review of Kingsgrave comes down to whether the cons you’ll find are manageable enough to appreciate your overall gameplay. Just how worthwhile is Kingsgrave? Scroll through to the end of our Kingsrave review to find out.

The King Rises From the Dead

First things first, let’s get it out of the way that Kingsgrave’s story is one barebones plot that fans of linear story modes will likely find appalling. It hardly gives much thought to the characters, whose main protagonists simply go by ‘King’ and ‘Spirit.’ We don’t get much story progression or character development, either. To some extent, Egg or Chicken Games' clear-cut neglect of the story makes judging the shallow and flat delivery somewhat unfair. On the other hand, it’s clear a more in-depth story will have drastically improve the player experience. 

And the premise isn’t even displeasing. That’s what makes Kingsgrave’s barebones story weird. You can see great potential from the get-go: a kingdom ravaged by plague and wild foes. It gets so bad that the Spirit has no other choice but to resurrect the King from a deep slumber. And so, henceforth, players take on the role of the King, controlling his gradual takeover of his kingdom, village by village, until he restores the desperate lands to their former glory. A restoration journey is always perfect in gaming, even as you see practical progress for your tenacious efforts and sit back to admire the flourishing result you have helped create. 

But we don’t get much in the way of story or dialogue past the premise. Even as you explore thoroughly, combing every nook and cranny for resources, you don’t get as many random NPC interactions or story development to further intrigue your interest in the game. It’s definitely a major missed opportunity to grab the attention of any gamer less convinced by the puzzle-solving and exploration segments of the game. Who knows, though. Perhaps the developers will make it a point of consideration for the future. 

A Bleak World

Before diving headfirst into exploration, the visuals will lay the groundwork for solid, or otherwise, first impressions. So, you’ll be happy to know your first steps into Kingsgrave won’t be as disappointing as the story. The visuals, indeed, draw a striking curiosity to find out more. You first lay your eyes on a bleak world in desperate need of saving. Portrayed from a top-down perspective, much in the same way as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, you’ll move the King about diverse lands, engaging in combat and world-building. On the whole, Kingsgrave 2D pixel art gets the job done. 

It perfectly relays the brokenness you’ve been called to heal. Yet, at the same time, drops delightful spirits of the king and the citizens you rescue breathe life into the game. That said, you’ll probably find more games with better world design. For one, Kingsgrave’s world can feel a little dull. Sure, you do comb through varying biomes, including woods, deserts, volcanoes, and more. Yet, for the most part, they all look the same, perhaps from the overreliance on gloom. 

Fortunately, the soundtrack elevates your experience right off the bat. You bop your head to a medieval Game of Thrones-like music score while immersing further in a relatively good sound effects system. Some exploration parts, though, only have accompanying sound effects, which would be fine, except much of your time is spent breaking barrels and covering as much ground as you can. It’d have been perfect to cue in the excellent soundtrack for these sections, complete with tense upbeat tones for combat sections and relaxing tunes when backtracking, but moving on. 

Chop Chop

As the King, you wield your initial scepter weapon and charge forth, clearing and reclaiming your territory—a section of Kingsgrave’s lands at a time. You’ll run into several types of enemies in your efforts to save and reclaim your kingdom. Some enemies will charge at you, inflicting melee damage at close quarters, while others will fire shots from afar. In turn, you’ll engage enemies differently, often needing to dodge and evade incoming attacks while looking for an opening to inflict damage. 

In the early stages of the game, combat can feel a bit clunky, especially in the movements, which feel a bit stiff even with the dash ability. However, thanks to constant exploration and progress, you’ll unlock better weapons and upgrades that smooth over combat. It’s unfortunate that combat takes a minute to pick up. When it does, though, it’s satisfying to maul over waves of enemies and come out on top.

You’ll enter a new area and beam with excitement over the secrets and resources it holds. Perhaps an area has pockets of survivors in need of rescuing and recruiting into your new farming exploits. Perhaps it has puzzles that reward you with the Flame of Hope currency, which enables you to unlock better weapons and skill upgrades. Consequently, your traversal and combat prowess go up a notch, allowing you to explore previously inaccessible areas on the map. 

In the Long Run

I’ve saved the best for last: exploration. It’s split into puzzle-solving sections of the game and world-building, restoring a doomed kingdom to its former glory. The puzzles offer a welcome change of pace, with evident creativity and challenge injected into their varying forms. You’ll stumble upon straightforward puzzles that take seconds to decipher. Perhaps shoot an arrow at a button on the map. However, some puzzles can be nasty head-scratchers that take forever to pin down. 

That’s often due to a free-form gameplay system where the game tends to let you do your own thing. You unlock area by area, scouring for potential resources and foes. You never know what you’ll find in a new area, and consequently, you may quite possibly move on to the next area, having missed picking up a resource or solving all the puzzles. In that sense, Kingsgrave is a Metroidvania-like game, which can get frustrating when you want to unlock a new area but cannot do so because you missed picking up some resource or solving some puzzle somewhere in the sections you’ve already covered. At this point, you have no choice but to retrace your steps and, well, look and keep looking until you find what you missed.

Kingsgrave can be a time-intensive grind to play to completion. Sometimes, the answer has all along been obvious, which makes eventually finding it all the more frustrating. Thanks to a constant stream of rewards for your efforts, though, you can easily let go of the frustration Kingsgrave induces. In truth, the gradual flourishing of your kingdom as you build new settlements, rescue your citizens, and reclaim your territory can feel extremely rewarding enough to forget the plentiful hoops you had to jump through to cross the finish line.

Verdict

Kingsgrave is a mixed goods bag that offers both impressive and disappointing features. So, it comes down to whether the good outweighs the bad. The story is practically non-existent, with only an intriguing premise setting the stage for what’s to come. Throughout your playthrough, you hardly engage in any worthwhile character development or story progression. It’s difficult to find reasons to care or justify the efforts you put into restoring your kingdom. It’s been great to unearth some history or NPC stories that give more insight into the world. 

Meanwhile, combat is a drag at the start, with barely punchy weapons or satisfying controls. Movement feels stiff, and dying is inevitable. At least, Kingsgrave offers plentiful checkpoints to respawn from, thus losing minimal progress upon dying. Also, combat picks up pace in the later stages of the game, thanks to better weapons and upgrades. 

But just as the combat begins to pick up pace, exploration starts to feel like a grind. Kingsgrave gives you the freedom to explore however you like, which, while it induces excitement over unearthing rewards, can be frustrating to complete. Sometimes, you’re barred from accessing certain areas until you can acquire a certain resource or skill. So, you’re forced to redo areas you’ve already covered, walking back and forth until you run into what you may have missed. At times, finally uncovering the secret you missed feels rewarding. Other times, it feels like a waste of precious time you could have better spent elsewhere. 

As a whole, though, Kingsgrave amounts to a playthrough worth taking on. See, despite the drag you fall into backtracking, it manages to sustain a sense of curiosity. There’s always one more little thing you can do to make your kingdom a slightly more bearable place to live and rule over.