Kingdom: Classic vs Kingdom: New Lands

Kingdom is a franchise of strategy video games. While the Kingdom video games feature management and real-time strategy (RTS) elements, these games are known and easily recognized by their characteristic minimalistic pixel art visual style, and atmospheric soundtrack. While the different Kingdom video games feature the same characteristical gameplay, each Kingdom game provides a unique experience. In this article, I will compare the differences between Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands, two games of the Kingdom franchise.

Kingdom: Classic vs Kingdom: New Lands: Main Differences Between Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands

Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands feature the same essential, core gameplay that the Kingdom games are known for: reaching a new and unknown land, turning peasants into subjects, subjects into builders and warriors, building a kingdom and fighting the menaces that come each night. While both Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands feature this gameplay, there are some important differences between each of these games.

In Kingdom: Classic, the player character is presented with one large, continuous land. In this land, the player must build their kingdom, manage resources and fight enemies, which in Kingdom games are sometimes referred to as Greed. While Kingdom: Classic features a single, large landscape in which the game takes place, Kingdom: New Land features multiple, diverse islands in which the player character must settle and build their kingdom. In this sense, Kingdom: New Lands features more variety of locations to visit and in which to build. Another difference between Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands is that Kingdom: New Lands features more variety of horses and mounts, as well as more NPCs than Kingdom: Classic.

Kingdom: Classic vs Kingdom: New Lands: Difficulty

Kingdom video games are known to be challenging games, especially to unexperienced players. In general, Kingdom video games teach players the basics, and the rest of the game must be learned and experience through practice. For this reason, sometimes Kingdom video games are described as unforgiving video games. Kingdom: Classic features a basic tutorial, and the rest must be figured out by the players, and this is also the case for Kingdom: New Lands.

Considering that both Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands feature similar tutorial systems, and that the challenges of these games are similar, it is fair to say that Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands feature a similar degree of difficulty. In other words, in my perspective, these games present nearly the same difficulty.

Kingdom: Classic vs Kingdom: New Lands: Graphics

The Kingdom video games are well-known for their minimalistic medieval pixel art style. The visual style and art style that began in Kingdom: Classic is continued in Kingdom: New Lands, although it is reasonable to say that the art in Kingdom: New Lands has expanded in comparison to the previous game, Kingdom: Classic, because Kingdom: New Lands features more locations and NPCs. However, the same graphics, graphical style and art style are maintained between Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands. For this reason, both of these games have quite similar graphics.

Kingdom: Classic vs Kingdom: New Lands: Which Is Better for Beginners?

Players new to the Kingdom video games wonder which game is the best to start. Kingdom: Classic, being the first video game in the Kingdom games franchise, was the first experience in the Kingdom games gameplay style, and for this reason, doesn't feature as many elements such as Kingdom: New Lands. In this sense, Kingdom: New Lands contains more features and more elements than Kindgom: Classic. While Kingdom: New Lands contains more features, these are also more things for a new player to learn.

In my perspective, while Kingdom: Classic contains less features than Kingdom: New Lands, and for this reason could be considered an easier game to learn (in the sense of having less elements to be learned), at the same time, Kingdom: New Lands features a different learning curve as it presents locations and islands that gradually progress in difficulty. This means that the first island of Kingdom: New Lands, is generally easier than the land presented in Kingdom: Classic. For this reason, I would suggest Kingdom: New Lands for the players that seek an easier experience at the beginning, and I would suggest Kingdom: Classic for the players that seek a slightly more simple experience of the Kingdom games gameplay.

Kingdom: Classic vs Kingdom: New Lands: Content

Both Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands are content-rich single player experiences. In other words, both of these games feature extensive content that can be experienced by the player, and Kingdom games can be played for a long time. In terms of content, both of these games feature the possibility of building a kingdom and the challenge of the Greed. In Kingdom: Classic, a single, large land is presented to the player, in which players can build their kingdom, whereas in Kingdom: New Lands different islands are presented in which the kingdom can be built and the Greed can be fought. In terms of content, I would describe both games as being similar in amount of content, although there is the difference that Kingdom: Classic presents a single, large land, while Kingdom: New Lands presents different islands.

Kingdom: Classic vs Kingdom: New Lands: Replay Value

Kingdom games are known and praised for their replay value, also referred to as replayability. One characteristic of the Kingdom video games is that each playthrough presents a different land in which to build the kingdom and to fight the Greed, and this is true for both Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Lands. For this reason, each playthrough will present a new land and landscape in which to play the game, with different locations for NPCs and items. Besides this difference, some players also enjoy replaying these games with certain challenges, like finishing the game at a set amount of time, or with specific restrictions in order to increase the difficulty. Considering that both Kingdom: Classic and Kingdom: New Land contain these features, both of these games feature replay value.

Kingdom: Classic vs Kingdom: New Lands: Which Came First?

Kingdom: Classic was the first video game in the Kingdom games franchise, and during the time when it was the only Kingdom game, it was simply called "Kingdom" rather than "Kingdom: Classic". Kingdom: New Lands was released after Kingdom: Classic. For this reason, Kingdom: Classic came first and was released before Kingdom: New Lands.