Some games are considered to be ahead of their time by introducing unique concepts that move the RTS industry a step forward and insure that this last bastion of PC games will endure. It is not the case with Seven Kingdoms Conquest, a game which doesn't bring anything new, furthermore destroys the credibility of the previous title and shatters any hope of a possible successful sequel.

There are two distinct races to choose from, the Humans and the Demons who are fighting each other for the supremacy over Earth, each of them with specific classes that should provide the game with enough variety. The humans are divided in seven ages, each 1000 years apart while the demons come from seven realms, and since they are relentlessly attacking our world any of these realms may appear in any age.

Native inhabitants of this planet, the humans are the less exciting side in this game as there are always just three playable nations that will simply change their name while you progress to another age. They will gradually evolve from relying heavily on strength and magic, to creating sizeable armies composed of disciplined soldiers and eventually to high tech devices which are more than a match for any demon. Overall the number of troops required by a human side decreases but the quality of the available units increases sharply.

Being able to chose from seven realms (Beasts, Nightmare, Shadow, Plague, Ice, Serpents and Fire) sounds much better and in theory the Demon side should present us with the opportunity to test multiple tactics that will greatly enhance the gaming experience. Now let me tell you how things work in the real world... The difference is minimal and except from the different look and somehow specific abilities that each unit posses you get only a handful of unique options to choose from when building a large scaled army.

As in any RTS game there is of course an economical component to Seven Kingdoms Conquest and sure enough this department brings nothing innovative, and instead of enhancing the dynamism causes a significant decrease in terms of speed. The humans need food and gold which can be harvested from bottomless mines and farms while the demons need blood and stone to grow a functional economy, and the structures required are stone shrines and totems of blood. These glamorous and somehow creepy names fail to cover the truth that there is simply no difference in these structures compared to the human counterparts. Anyway, before rushing to invest more in these lucrative mines and farms one must be aware that it is perfectly safe to upgrade them to earn the much needed resources.

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The third resource that can't be harvested is "reputation" or in the demons' case "fear" and it is gained by conquering neutral cities of by killing enemy units, its sole usage being to promote you own troops. Strange enough Seven Kingdoms encourages these kind of arbitrary promotions that allow you to upgrade units that didn't even see combat at all. It's only possible to promote your troops five times but this is more than enough to stomp over the lesser enemies with these super units.

Usually the tutorial should help the newcomers getting familiar with certain units and gameplay but Seven Kingdoms Conquest is a failure even at this stage as the human tutorial can't be completed due to a bug. After a couple of basic maneuvers you are asked to proceed with your mission and expand after a specific gate that won't open so there is simply no choice but to call it a game. The pessimist has only pleasant surprises and I must confess I was thrilled to acknowledge that the same gate opens in the Demon tutorial so I can complete my training and have an easier ride in the actual campaign.

There is not much to say about the campaign set, at least not on the good side as the missions are virtually unscripted and seem to be mere skirmish games in disguise. Basically you have a starting city and the computer has its own and the objective is simply to annihilate the opponent by destroying each and every building and units he possesses. To make things further worse some missions are bugged and you won't be able to complete them even if there is nothing unconquered on the entire map.

The story is weak, twisted and lacks cohesiveness while the narrative passages recited between missions are insufficient to create that certain mood that can preserve the interest intact. Saving the game from time to time is definitely the wise thing to do, because Seven Kingdoms Conquest has the tendency to crash when least expected and even a harmless alt+tab can have a catastrophic effect on your progress. There is a downside on this action because when you load a mission all hotkey group unit assignments will be lost and troops tend to blend in so it's a challenge to reconstruct your teams.

Well, there is one more thing to do after you eventually give up the campaign and that is trying the skirmish where you can at least chose both the side and the starting edge and a different victory condition such as "domination" or "king of the hill". The opponent can be set on different levels starting from easy up to insane in case you are interested in an extra challenge; still the AI is very weak and the main concern is not how to outmaneuver the opponent but how to deal with the miserable path finding. The computer will frequently walk his army right through your troops ignoring the inflicted damage, as his agenda is to conquer an obscure neutral village on the opposite side of the map.

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Conclusion:

This game would have been rated as average even if the release date was around the year 2000, but nowadays it is simply stunning that such poor RTS games are still being developed and furthermore they manage to hit the market. The original concept was deprived by any depth, this game has nothing original, it is crippled by bugs and frequent crashes make this title one to pass. Maybe a patch or two can improve it a bit, but overall there is simply nothing good enough about Seven Kingdoms Conquest to give it another try.

Gameplay: 42

To say that the story is weak would be an understatement as the campaign is virtually made up of a couple of unscripted missions piled up in one outrageous set that makes absolutely no sense and won't raise enough interest to complete. Atrocious AI and the repetitive nature of battles will have a deterring effect on anyone so the skirmish missions stand no chance in keeping the gamer entertained either.

Graphics: 55

In terms of visual effects this game is not a wreck but the units and buildings are just too colorful for their own good and seem almost cartoonish, while the weather effects are non-existent. When large armies collide it creates a melee where friends and foes look alike and are difficult to distinguish, but the disintegrating buildings and the explosions' splash look decent.

Sounds: 54

There is nothing to shout for regarding the sounds but the Celtic themes blend in fairly nice and create an appropriate atmosphere; on the downside the swords hitting plated units and guns being fired sound silly. Voice acting between missions is better during the Demon campaign and even if it doesn't add extra information that one might find helpful in understanding the twisted story, is fairly good.

Multiplayer: 47

Let's just say that multiplayer lobby is not implemented yet, you can play over LAN, or over the Internet if you have the IP of a specific machine hosting a game, but no matchmaking service exists. Nonetheless even if you have the will power to find another gamer willing to waste a couple of hours on LAN it is boring as hell and will put your patience to the limit.

Hardware: 53