A Kingdom For Keflings Review
Original review conducted on the 25th November 2008 by Scottish Steveo. The first Xbox Live Arcade to utilise avatars, A Kingdom of Keflings is fun for all types of games. Sit back, relax and build your kingdom till your heart is content.
I’ve been looking forward to this game since I read information on it at the beginning of last year. This game brought back so many enjoyable memories from the original Settlers series that I played on my PC about 10 years ago. On Wednesday 19th November 2008, the game launched alongside the released of NXE (New Xbox Experience) with functions to use your custom avatar in game. The game is priced at 800 Microsoft points.
The objective of the game is to create a thriving community, or Kingdom, for the people, or Keflings. You do this by assigning Keflings to specific roles in the community, such as a Lumberjack, Rock Miner, Transporter etc. The way of doing this is extremely easy. You just pick up a Kefling, drop them where you want them to work (i.e. on a tree for a Lumberjack, rocks for a Rock Miner) and the pick them up again and place them on where you want the goods of which they’re producing to go (e.g. the Workshop). Each workshop produces different items and requires different raw materials to do so. Therefore you will need different buildings in order to achieve this. The Lumberjack can produce logs from the trees which he chops down, he can either take these logs to the basic workshop which creates basic items, or he can take the logs to the Lumber mill where planks are made. As you can see already, the game is really in-depth for something so basic. This can be a good and a bad thing as it is sometimes hard to keep a track of which worker is doing what and you will sometimes need to watch the Keflings in order to see where they are going.
In order to ease this process, the best thing to do is fairly self-explanatory. You place the Lumber mill near the forest so the Lumberjack doesn’t have far to walk, and you place the workshops near the raw materials. If you do get confused, when you walk up to a Kefling, a little bubble appears above their head stating what they are currently doing – so this should make it a little easier for the casual gamer.
Building houses, workshops and buildings works on the process of a blue print. You can access the blueprints by pressing the RB button, which will show you a variety of buildings that you have unlocked (you unlock different buildings as you progress through the game) and how these buildings are constructed. It’s fairly simple, as each building needs certain items that can be built from the workshops. When you select a building you wish to build, pressing the LB button will show you what items you need and which way they need to be placed in order to build it correctly. You then go to workshop and create the items you need. You (either your avatar, or character you selected) pick up this item from outside the workshop and place it on the ground (marked by square tiles). You continue to do this until all parts of the building are present and voila – the building is created.
As brief example of this is a house – you will need a bedroom, a hearth (fire/cooker) and storage. You make these items by collecting logs and stone and transporting them to the workshop. From the workshop you select the items you need (a good feature here is when you have selected the item you wish to build, little arrows appear next to the items you require) and then create them. Once the items are created, they appear outside the workshop, you can then place these wherever you think is best. Once the house is built, you require ‘love’ in order for Keflings to appear. Love earned by completing missions for the Mayor and other objectives and is then found on the town square, which you create at the start of each community when you begin. You pick the love up and place it in the house and hey presto – another two Keflings are part of your Kingdom.
(On a side note, I managed to unlock a gamer picture when I was working through the tutorial – so it seems unlockables are present in the game!).
The game is extremely fun and addictive! Once you have your main buildings set up and your workers gathering resource you’re set! You can also gather woods and rocks by chopping down trees and mining, so if you want to give your Kingdom a helping hand – you can!
There are some cool weather effects throughout your play; you will see rain, frost/snow and gorgeous sunshine! The dawn and dust aspect is also there which gives the landscape a nice orange colour! It’s always good to see your little Keflings working hard and building a community. As you explore the surrounding areas, you will find items, which help you, progress (e.g. you will find a textbook which will allow you to activate schools or guilds). There is a lot to do and you won’t feel bored with the game at all!
Another brilliant aspect to the game is playing via Live with your friends! You can create a Kingdom with up to 3 additional players (4 in total). You can also find games and help other Xbox live players if they need it. I joined a game earlier and this players Kingdom was massive… there were Keflings chopping down wood, gathering wool from sheep, kids going to school and nursery! This game has endless hours of fun and you sure won’t be disappointed!
The graphics in the game are great – there is nothing better than seeing your avatar meeting up with fellow gamers and chopping down tress, mining and building a thriving Kingdom. The weather effects add realism to the game and feel like you actually are working through the seasons. Another brilliant aspect of the game is the music! It’s so catchy and upbeat – the music fits the game perfectly!
I’ve already lost a few hours to just doing the basics and I’ve unlocked about a dozen buildings. By looking at the blue print sheet, there are at least another 40 to unlock! Wow – this game is huge!
Add to this the ability to play with your avatars over Live or part of a 4 player party system and this game will take up a considerable amount of you time – and trust me, you’ll enjoy it!
This is one of the best arcade titles I have played to date and give it a respectable 9/10!
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