Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns
Developed by: TimeGate
Studios
Published by: Strategy
First
Reviewed By: Rob
Charette
Game Was: Supplied
05/03/01
A fresh perspective on Real
Time Strategy
TimeGate
Studios has a hit
on their hands with their first release - Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns.
Based on the shine and polish evident in Kohan, it's hard to believe
that TimeGate
hasn't been making
games for years. Much of the game's success may be attributable to its
talented and experienced senior staff, many of whom have worked on an
impressive array of games, including Baldur's Gate and the Wing
Commander series, among others. Kohan finally takes RTS to new
heights by bringing together elements of battle simulation, resource
management and hero development - packaging it all with an excellent,
extremely refined interface and impeccable attention to detail.
The Story
Kohan's story
facilitates the tactics and strategy portion of the game, while the setting
allows for unique units and an interesting game world. The Kohan are an
immortal race whose idyllic civilization was destroyed by the forces of
Shadow. Eons have passed and the Kohan race has returned to reclaim Khaldun,
the lands that once belonged to their race.
Each Kohan is an immortal
hero with special abilities and skills who is "awakened" upon
activation of a golden amulet. You must lead the Kohan immortals and their
armies against the Shadow and restore Khaldun to its former glory.
Install, Manual &
Interface
I encountered no problems
with the moderate sized 600 Mb install. The 55-page manual is informative
and does a good job of describing the interface and gameplay essentials.
Charts of unit statistics are included, but I would've liked more
descriptive information about individual units since they are not your
typical troll and dwarf variety.
A reference card is also
supplied which details hot key assignments and tech trees for each of the
four races' building and unit types. Kohan has the most intuitive and
useful interface I have seen in an RTS. The layout of menus and all
information is functional, logically presented and complete. Mission load
times are incredibly fast and keep you immersed in the gameplay.
You can save whenever you
want but hot-keys for quick saving and loading are strangely absent. Also, I
do wish you were able to queue building orders within cities. These are my
only gripes and overall I feel that TimeGate
Studios should be
congratulated for developing an intuitive, graceful and effortless
interface.
Kohan easily rates a
95 in this category.
Game
Mechanics
In many ways, Kohan resembles a
classic turn based strategy game such as Age of Wonders or the Heroes of
Might and Magic series. You have hero-controlled armies that you move across
the map to conquer the enemy hero and his armies. In addition, you control
towns and cities that supply your hero with troops and resources. You can
build outposts, as well as mines and as you explore the map, you can win
over new cities, gain technologies and find more resources. Kohan does all
these things very well, but streamlines resource management and city
building in order to focus on the composition of your armies, strategy, and
tactics.
In Kohan, you
control numerous armies and a number of heroes, or Kohan. You gain
access to more heroes as the campaign progresses and each hero has a unique
story and background. Since they are immortal, they may be
"awakened" after death, but lose any experienced gained. The
heroes help personalize the game and it's fun to watch them advance through
the campaign.
All units in the game are
grouped into companies, which you recruit and design to your liking.
Companies are made up of a Captain or Kohan, four front line units and two
support units, such as missile units and mages. You can use your heroes as
fighting troops or you can command them to lead from behind the lines. The
units you have available for company construction depend on your race, the
technology level of the city, and any advanced discoveries you have
made.
You can make companies for
specific duties, such as engineering or scouting, with there being literally
hundreds of combinations of troops, resulting in unique company attributes.
For example, using archers and clerics for support troops with a front line
of heavy infantry will result in a lethal combination. On a higher level,
you could also build a company of missile units to support a company or
companies of melee units.
Orders available to
companies include move, formation, retreat and rout. There are four
formations available and they range from slow, but tough, combat formations
to speedy, but weak, column formations. Companies can be further grouped to
form regiments. The formation and facing of each company in a regiment can
be locked in order to give tactical advantage to the larger formation. Kohan
also seamlessly incorporates advanced ideas such as zones of control,
supply, population and detection. The zones add a whole new level of
strategy.
For example, units
regenerate when in supply and automatically attack enemies that cross into
their zone of detection. In addition, zones of control and detection change
based on the surrounding terrain. Buildings also have guard zones, which
trigger the deployment of local militia. Finally, terrain, fortification
level, and morale are also factored into combat. Though this may sound
complex, companies, regiments, zones and more are all explained in simple
terms in the tutorials. The whole system works very well and becomes second
nature after your first campaign scenario.
Gameplay is real time but,
like most everything in Kohan, game speed is highly adjustable and
you can easily slow things down during heated battles and speed things up
for resource gathering and exploring. Kohan's sixteen-mission
campaign is well scripted and I looked forward to each new mission. The
computer AI is relentless and provides a challenge even on normal difficulty
level. Skirmish mode is also available, as well as a full-featured map
editor.
As expected, playing with
human opponents adds a whole new dimension to the game. Kohan
supports up to 8 players with LAN, Internet connection and through GameSpy
Arcade's free player matching service. Multi-player games are highly
customizable and the politics lore allows you to make offers for peace,
declare war, and ally with other players. There seems to be a decent sized
community of gamers on GameSpy, and you can find several different clans
posting on the Homepage message boards.
The games I played were great fun and I experienced no slow-downs or
bugs.
Two thumbs up for a robust
and full-featured multi-player experience.
Graphics
As mentioned previously,
the interface is very crisp and clean. The in-game movies are good but
sparse, while mission briefings and other graphical interfaces are
extremely functional and consistent throughout. The screen resolution
is set to 1024 by 768 and Kohan's 2D engine looks excellent but
unremarkable.
The maps are attractive and
have a decent amount of terrain variety, but I wished that they were a
little more fanciful and imaginative. The units in your companies are
distinctive and easily identifiable. In addition, unit animations are fluid
and convincing. The animations for magic are particularly good and I found
myself recruiting magic casting units in anticipation of watching the
effects during combat. The towns and other structures change as they are
improved or damaged and have distinctive characteristics for each race. Kohan
doesn't break any new ground in terms of graphics, but everything is highly
detailed, looks great and contributes to the excellent gameplay, earning Kohan
a solid 88.
Sound and Music
Kohan's music fits
the game perfectly. The transition is managed very well when going to and
from game menus and within the game itself. Voice acting is professional
and with the exception of one race's voice, very well done.
In-game sounds are
appropriate but could be slightly better. Fighting sounds can be repetitive
and unit acknowledgements are far too frequent (The latest patch corrects
this. Kudos to TimeGate
Studios
for listening to the players
of their game and responding in a timely manner. Lets hope this fledgling
company maintains this level of support.).
Overall, the game sounds
are good enough to contribute to the gameplay and the epic musical
score adds to your immersion in the game world. Kohan earns a
respectable 85 in the sound and music department.
Summary
Kohan: Immortal
Sovereigns is an outstanding game. While the concept of formations and
zones is certainly not a new one, Kohan's implementation works
perfectly. The interface is a work of art and the attention to detail
throughout the game is commendable.
Most importantly,
everything comes together to make Kohan a blast to play. If you are a
fan of strategy games, you owe it to yourself to add Kohan to your
collection.
A MUST HAVE!
You can purchase Kohan:
Immortal Sovereigns at
Compuexpert for $37.90.
