Review by: Troy Goodfellow

Richard the Lionheart and Saladin are two of the most iconic medieval warrior kings. Both were masters of the battlefield and both had to hold together fractious armies in an environment hostile to extended military operations, especially for the Crusaders. Sounds like a great setting for a game, right? It's been done over and over—this time by Ukrainian developer Neocore, the studio behind last year's King Arthur: The Roleplaying Wargame, an interesting but terribly flawed attempt to make an adventure/RPG/strategy/wargame. Still, you could tell that Neocore had ambitions for its design larger than “Let's be a lower budget Total War.”

Lionheart is a mission based territorial conquest game. The AI doesn't really have armies on the strategic map. Richard's first moves are chosen for him, but after that, you pick which territory you want to conquer. Victory gives you more units or resources for the next battle, but you're not facing down a lot of enemy invaders. You are, after all, Richard. You fight every battle in every province until you win.

This makes Lionheart less a military strategy game than a game about setting priorities and deciding which treasures you want to accumulate in which order. Once you choose where you want to invade, then the real game begins. You are given a selection of battle plans, each promoted by a faction in your army. You want to choose a plan that fits the forces at your disposal and gains you favor with a particular faction. Approval means you win bonuses from them, either special powers or hero units that can turn the tide of battle.

You can't lose influence with a faction, though. Not choosing them does not make them hate you, so it's less a matter of handling factional politics than it is choosing which goodie you want right now. Why use this mechanic at all when the fun of having France and Germany and the Pope is reduced to a shopping list? The Saracens, oddly, don't have to deal with this, but their campaign is more difficult in general. The Crusaders are entrenched and their powerful knights can crash through your lighter and more mobile troops.

Missions range from sieges to field engagements to holding land against counterattacks. You start with a core set of troops and then accumulate experience and cash to buy new ones or upgrade the ones you have. These RPG elements give Lionheart the prospect of replayability, though the battles are long enough that you many not want to revisit them.