Rising Lords

Rising Lords
N/A
Metacritic
72
Steam
68.899
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$15.20
Release date
27 May 2020
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
72 (745 votes)
Recent
72 (40 votes)

Rising Lords is a medieval turn-based strategy game with card and board game elements. Send your serfs to fight and die in your name... or let them prosper, and use them to your advantage!

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Rising Lords system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: WIndows XP
  • Processor: 2,27 GHz Dual Core
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Dedicated Graphics Card with min. 2GB shared RAM
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 500 MB available space
  • Sound Card: Any
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carl.philpot1
carl.philpot1

I love this game, a relaxed economic and military build up to an exciting battle, to give you more regions to manage and attempt an overall victory. Nice game mechanics, authentic middle ages setting too. When the game is not early access anymore, it should be a delight to play.

Carl Stirling
Carl Stirling

If you are like me and love the stronghold series, but no longer have the reflexes and dexterity to play RTS decently this game is for you. One of the great things about this game is that seasons actually matter, and the higher historical accuracy is nice. Updates may be a bit slow, but I believe the developer will deliver!

ForgottenTree
ForgottenTree

I am really enjoying the game but the game freezes every few turns and requires a restart.
It is playable but the constant restart make playing it a painful experience, so I can't recommend it yet.

EDIT: no more freezes, thank you devs

Unislash
Unislash

This game really reminds me of Lords of the Realm 2, and no doubt draws some inspiration from the classic. That said, there are certainly plenty of mechanics that differ in Rising Lords, enough to make it a fresh experience that I've enjoyed.

I would recommend it on these grounds alone, however, I recently encountered a bug that corrupts my save file. Bummer. After filing a bug report with their in-game UI I took a short break. About an hour later, I booted up the game to try a different approach... and that's when I noticed that a new patch was just released that claimed to fix a similar situation to what I was encountering. Lo and behold, the patch fixed my bug!

Now I'm not sure if the developers managed to turn around a bug fix in less than an hour (if so, major kudos!), but in any case the developers are releasing patch fixes very often. So, good job developers! I hope your efforts lead you to a game that's a truly worthy successor to a classic from my childhood.

Muthergoose
Muthergoose

Fun game that continues to be worked on. If they continue to upgrade could really have something.

SnippityFlame
SnippityFlame

It's fun! Few bugs but will likely be ironed out as it is still in early access.

Passkey
Passkey

Crashes and just chugs when playing. Game seems broken in its current state.

Prinses Nina
Prinses Nina

Where to begin with this shoddy masterpiece......

I will start off by telling you that this game is absolutely worth your time and money. The music is immersive, the artwork is amazing and the game feels and plays like you are a true medieval monarch. BUT, there is two things I must adress. Number one, framerate. When zooming out to observe the whole map (if you have all of it unlocked through the fog of war) my frames dropped from a nice, comfy 60 fps to a mere 10-20 fps. I presume this is due to the large amount of animations and dynamic textures there are on the map but it really is bothering. On top of that when making your armies, when they reach a certain size your frames will drop dramatically when attempting to modify or simply view your armies. Which is annoying when you try to replenish your forces after battle.

Now on to the second, and most important, issue with this game. Crashes. For some reason I can not upgrade my main town hall building, the game simply crashes. Every, single, time. Worst thing is, you can't cancle the main town hall upgrade once you start it. So when I lose focus of my capital my workers sometimes automatically assign themselves to the town hall upgrade when another upgrade has been completed. The only way I know this happened? My game crashes, that's how I always know. It's incredibly frustrating to be playing the game and you litterally can't progress your town past a certain point. I feel like I haven't been able to play most of the game because of it. FYI I am under the impression that upon upgrading said town hall it might unlock new buildings, but I do not know this for sure and I can't find out either. Similar crashes happened around turn 81, 108, 120 and mayby more. These crashes seem more random and don't have any real cause as far as I know.

In short, the random unfixable crashes ruin the game in some aspects. But if they get fixed, SOON, it will be worth your time.

ReeLeR
ReeLeR

This is a great game for casual players. I love the graphics-art in this game, and the gameplay is fun. I have seen no bugs so far but considering it’s an early access game I’d expect some bugs to show up. I think the game will be great when the full version is released.

12
12

WOW. Great game
love the art and the game play. no crashes so far

RooRooJaan
RooRooJaan

the game is still in the early phases but i really wanna thank them for thinking about folks like me who have crappy laptops but still wanna play a 4x game. the AI in battle mode is way too hard in the early stages but that could be intended. first big issue is theres no way I could find out what different troop types do and what troop types are stronger against what troop types. secondly, what i would say is make the revolt mechanism more trasparent and tell me what minimum happiness you require. else than that keep killing it guys!

Brandon12340987
Brandon12340987

(Edited from original negative review due to fixes to the game)
the A.I have issues dont be afraid to go in on the hardest difficulty if you have experience in similar games best experience i have had getting them to work is hardest everything with no starting resources though it may be some maps bug out the a.i though the devs are very active, atm there isnt to much todo but i can see that this game and dev has a lot of potential

Oborowatabinost
Oborowatabinost

On its way. Few bugs, but not game breaking.

Anonymous
Anonymous

wonderfull consept , relaxed playing , but lots of deleys in game playing

Julian Vado
Julian Vado

Well in my humble opinion this game is worth the money ,its still early access so you may encounter couple of bugs (I didn't) ,beautiful art style (somewhat similar to Battle Bros) economy reminds me a bit of Stronghold where you produce different weapons for different troops and variety of food such as grain ,cattle ,sheep. Peasants will leave or travel to your Kingdom depending on their happiness , battles are turn based tactical fights with skill cards (as commanders skills).
Give it a try

Alaric
Alaric

I'm really glad I bought this game. Not only is it charming, relaxing and quite fun but it's also a decent challenge. It's fairly easy to learn and and challenging to master.

The visuals are fantastic and reminiscent of the illustrations present on the Medieval "Iluminura" style of manuscripts. The UI also looks nice, and provides useful info without cluttering the screen too much.

The turn-based battle system is very fluid, battles can be quite gripping and intense, requiring a good dose of strategic thinking. The card deck feature adds an extra layer of strategy and challenge to battles. It fits very well with the tile movement system and different deck combinations also help you diversify your combat styles and strategies.

Managing your territories, resources and population can be tough at times but it never felt frustrating. Prospering in all these fronts simultaneously requires that you pay attention to them, in a balanced way, since they are delicately connected to each other and influence/affect one another.
You must make sure your population grows, if you wanna expand your territories, and to increase your workforce to gather resources and build stuff. But don't forget to build enough buildings to house your people, otherwise you hit the cap and instead of not getting more people, you get villagers that go straight to being beggars cause they don't have a place to live.
You also gotta watch out for your people's health by feeding them, and their happiness by providing them with a variety of foods and careful taxation. But, again, with balance. Overfeed them and you may find yourself out of food in two turns, starving your subjects. Overtax them and they'll straight up pack their things and go to one of your rival's villages.
This brings me to immigration, which is a cool mechanic that will also influence population growth or loss. You can receive immigrants from other villages if you're doing better than others. Conversely you can lose your subjects to others if you're doing worse than them.
The year has the standard 4 seasons and each season is a turn. Things like agriculture are affected by seasons, like growing and harvesting your crops.

Mustering armies also has an effect on your population's happiness and numbers, your peasants will be the bulk of your armies. You can equip them to make them infantry, cavalry or missile troops or just keep them as peasants in battle. This depends on how much armour, weapons and horses you have (you start with some gear but then you either produce or purchase more).
This also makes it vital that you carefully plan when to start a military campaign and for how long. Armies don't come cheap and conquest/expansion can be a high-stakes affair for your coffers, a high risk might not always yield big results.

There's also a handy travelling merchant that shows up in your cities, from time to time, allowing you to make some good deals or to help you out of a pinch, if you're running low on something vital. For a fee, of course.

There's a bunch of great stuff in this game and I could try to think of everything and keep listing it but the review is long enough already.
All in all these great, but simple and well thought out mechanics, are a big part of what makes the experience very true to Medieval life and warfare. They make the game immersive and give you a notion of the trials of Medieval life from both a lord and peasant point of view.
The AI, that doesn't seem to cheat or have buffs that are unavailable to the player, adds to the challenge enhancing the feelings fairness and (if you achieve victory) satisfaction.

I haven't experienced any noticeable in-game bugs and had no crashes. I had, initially, some trouble starting the game up. However I joined the Rising Lords Discord, where a very friendly and helpful Argonwood developer quickly found a solution to my problem. After that I was able to run the game just fine (turns out it had to do with the game not recognising my graphics card. A simple tutorial video solved that).
So definitely join their Discord, if you buy Rising Lords.

Now for my suggestions:

- I would like to see some more overall variety of buildings, maps and troops.
- More variety on upgrades for buildings and troops.
- I would also suggest that some units in combat have their stats adjusted (in one of my first battles I had an "elite" retinue of typical Medieval mounted knights destroyed in one volley from a regular archer unit. If they got hit by a couple of volleys, before reaching the archers, it would make more sense seeing them eat dirt like the French nobility at Agincourt. One volley was a bit too OP, and they didn't look like English longbowmen to me. Also, the knights were not massively inferior in numbers, compared to the archers, and they were certainly better equipped and trained).
- Customisation options for some of the UI elements (like being able to change their size and placement on screen) would also be nice addition, even though the UI is already pretty decent.

Being an early access game, I think there's a fair chance I might see some of my suggestions come true. The devs seem to be listening to the players and I feel like they have passion for what they've created. I hope they will keep improving and polishing their game.
Even right now at this stage of early access, I feel the game is worth a purchase and I recommend anyone to give it a try!

Johnny Magh
Johnny Magh

It's a fun game, however it may get tedious once you get a few too many provinces. Looking forwards to the development of this game.

Berg2008
Berg2008

Fun game! Still in development and has some ironing out to do.

That stated, seems like there's a loyal group in early access who really enjoy this game and developers who are dedicated.

Lore
Lore

I can confidently say that this is a fun game.

If you are a fan of Anno 1404 - you'll enjoy setting up 'Trade Routes' between your various counties.
If you enjoyed the Stronghold series - you'll enjoy creating your army, Spearmen countering Cavalry. Swordsmen countering Spearmen. Archers countering EVERYTHING.

It's limited in its' similarity towards other 4x games, like Civilization. I think that's a good thing. It's got a unique blend of a lot of different games that I personally enjoy.

I haven't finished a 'Scenario' yet. That's the 'sandbox' for the game. It's been enjoyable, but a steep learning curve with relatively little explanation; I think that could be resolved with more intuitive and SMALLER menus (as I believe they're far too large. Many competing games do this part better).

During my playtime of my current Scenario I have found the game to be quite 'Snowbally'. Once you get another county, you can quickly bankroll and focus on a single county & expand more quickly. That's not a bad thing, just an observation.

Aside from all of this pre-amble, here is the meat of the review;

It's fun. It seems to be well-balanced & the cards add an additional layer of depth to your combat. The 'Scenario' map, is enjoyable. I like the art-style. It looks great & crisp. I think this game as an enormous scope for growth and is INCREDIBLY promising.

If you've enjoyed any of the games I mentioned above, grab this game. It's well worth the £15 asking price. I think that it can only improve from its' current iteration, but even in its' current state - it's still worth looking seriously at.

Cheers.

Malyx_Farfyre
Malyx_Farfyre

I bought this game on a whim. It had a unique look and I figured "Why not chief". I bought it wtih a grain of salt that is required of all "early access" games that would rather just throw out an unplayable trash game that should have just waited until release. well this is not one of those. Its polished enough to actually play, its art style is amazing and pleasant to look at, and the music fits in the greater scheme of things. It has a Battle For Wesnoth feel but more modern and more management. The ability to have to pick and choose what resources each area will produce and what its CAPABLE of producing means that you'll actually have to expand at some point. Spend 50 turns building up weapons and armor or spend a thousand in levies? the choice is yours. Overall this game is addicting and playable as is and holds hours of fun.

Now time for some cons.
-the inability to search for towns when sending resources. It isn't that much of an issue but it could make things 1 percent smoother.
-No idea what regions you own unless you have extremely good memory (I have horrible memory, not even remembering what I ate for breakfast this morning). A solution could be to add a drop down menu of just the regions you own?

Overall I really enjoy this game and cant wait for more updates and mods to come out for it. Seems like one of those that I can actually come back to.
*Note- If any of the above that i've stated has been mentioned in a hotfix or roadmap then I apologize. I attempt to read every games update's and information but since I have quite a few games the update section gets overran*

Ekwyn
Ekwyn

I believe the game can be really good at some point. However i can't recommend buying the game at this state, unless you are really hyped.
Information is sparse (in terms of gameplay), although somewhat intuative. But my main complain is not being able to save and load, this might not be an issue for everyone. But i dislike the fact i have to start over everytime i start up the game, resulting in never completing a full game.
EDIT: Playable and you can save, the core mechanics of the game seems to be working (for me atleast), however the game lacks in gameplay and content, there's already plenty of maps and opponents... But past the first 2 hours everything you do is the same over and over again, grinding through the AI and barebones mechanics.

EastPenguin436
EastPenguin436

I like this game! I love the concept and the art style of it! My only gripes are with the soundtrack and the menu UI. I think this game could benefit greatly from a good composer such as The Breakdown Epiphanies, who made the soundtrack for Battle Brothers, since the two games are pretty similar. I rate this game 8/10. Could be 10/10 once it is fully released.

Unscathed
Unscathed

Worth every penny. The art and animations are great, supplemented with deep strategy centered around development of your settlements and the construction of your armies. I picked this game up in early access late 2020 since it was cheap and on sale. Definitely enjoyed the core gameplay a lot, but my main concern at the time was optimization particularly around when you ended your turns. I'm very happy that the developers for this game coordinate with the community in discord and take our feedback to heart when making changes. There's been a lot of great changes to the game in 2021 since I've picked it up, completely fixing the optimization issues and setting the groundwork for the continual development of more content for the game. One of the few early access games I'm excited to see develop further in 2021.

Wenju
Wenju

Heavy feelings about Lords of the Realm. Nice mechanics but lacks a campaign mode.

WeirdNativeGuy69
WeirdNativeGuy69

The city building is actually quite interesting but almost everything about the combat sucks. For one, you can't lock a unit in combat, meaning that even if you're engaged in melee, the enemy unit can just yeet around your lines to kill your archers without consequences. There's also supposed to be a rock, paper, scissors matchup, so some units are meant to be very good against others. This doesn't actually work because if you have around a 100 man unit of crossbows, they will only do about 4-8 damage against a unit of swordsmen, even though they're specifically designed to fight them. Overall, it's not really a fun experience.

Green Ranger
Green Ranger

Great potential, beautiful design and easy to learn. A game to chill atleast for me!

SHIKOS
SHIKOS

I like this game:) Thank you Chris!!

Camponotus
Camponotus

It is definitely EA, lots of bugs and lacking in some features.
That said the core game-play is tons of fun, and the developers are giving regular updates, and respond to feedback.
Map layer is very engaging and strategic, with battles to spice things up. Looking forward to much more to come!

JustTrustMe
JustTrustMe

This game is good, I have lots of fun playing it. But still its lack of some content that not yet put in the game. Hope to see it soon

Irish
Irish

Reminds me a lot of Lord of the Realms. Has some cool extra features as well. That said there are several times my game crashed and I could not continue it because it saved with the crash. Also I would say the A.I needs some serious work. I look forward to playing the finished version. It's is a lot of fun.

brob914
brob914

I've been waiting a while for someone to make this game! Love, love, love the concept and art style and throwback to Lords of the Realm. Still needs a lot of polish, particularly the multiplayer is very buggy and unstable, which is a shame. More content please!!

Approved
Approved

No..
Price too high for what it has to offer at the moment

Mr. Sunday
Mr. Sunday

Although it's in early access, the game is very entertaining with its current content. Very enjoyable, reminds me of Catan but with fighting and a beautiful medieval artwork. It is also worth mentioning that the developer is constantly receiving feedback and updating the game, very nice.

dhwatson3
dhwatson3

In a way this game reminds me of lords of the realm 2 which I still play to this day. I'm glad I ran across Rising Lords as I've had a blast playing it. At this time it is still early access but I'm sure it'll have a spot in the games I always come back to over the years. After posting this review I scanned the other reviews and felt the need to add a little. I did have the game crash once but after that I haven't had a crash after hours of game play. I've also had no problems saving and loading games like some people have. Tips, instructions, mechanics, ect during game play is a little sparse but remember the game is early access at this point. But even if I knew that not another thing was going to be fixed or added to the game I would still recommend it, I enjoyed the game play without significant problems. The modify/create army screen can get a little wonky at times such as displaying odd units or problems when adding units to which I exit out of the modify screen and then re-enter it and so far this has solved the issues for me. Like other reviews mention if you like Lords of the Realm 2 and Battle Brothers give this a try I don't think you'll regret it.

Parabellona
Parabellona

Rising lords is a 4x with tbs combat. Combat's a bit basic but tactical enough to make it fun. I kinda wish the decision making was a little more transparent: why does this unit take this damage? What can I do to increase my chances of victory.

The saves get corrupted. a lot. like holy fuck a lot. Also if you load the wrong save the game might just overwrite your save for like, no reason.

The UI needs a lot of work. Trading resources between your provinces is super clunky, and you basically have to micromanage every single turn which gets a bit onerus. The combat system is especially bad. You move and attack with one click, so often you accidentally move to the incorrect square while simply trying to click on the target - could have an easy fix, just make it click to move then click to attack, we didn't need the streamlining.

Still, all that said I sat and played this game for 8 straight hours, so it's good fun. I'd say it's worth picking up even in EA (although it has tonnes of work before it's ready) but it's ok so far.

mhalthoff
mhalthoff

There are a few things to iron out and an occaisional crash, but I find this game great. Artwork is beautiful. Armies use area movement. Battles are fought on hex grid. There are quite a few cards you can use in battle to improve attack, defence and movement capabilities of units. Maps are good, (i hope more are added in the future). The number of hours i ve played speaks for itself.

Ludonardis
Ludonardis

The game is pretty and seems to have a potential, BUT for now it really lacks depth, or a tutorial (there is only link to youtube clip, that shows older version of the game).
The game has decent enough tooltips to live without tutorial, but it's only because the game itself is extremely shallow.
There is literally no progress mechanics at all.
I imagine it could get more playable at some point, but sadly isn't there yet.

It's a refund for me :(

javankoevering
javankoevering

This game is terrible!
First it's a direct rip off of lords of the realm by impression games in the 90's.
Secondly Lords of the realm is a much better game far more playable than this trash. (It's available on steam)
The only redeeming factor about this game is the option for multiplayer but you will never find people to play with by chance.
Is it just me or do developers these days just try to make a game that will keep your attention for long enough for the purchase to be binding and not care about creating something actually decent.

michaelatlam
michaelatlam

The game is really cool and i do enjoy playing it but its still in EA which also is ok i guess so expect a few bugs with it.

The good stuff:

The art is awesome
Concept it awesome
Battle system is interesting and can be challenging which is great.

I wound not recommend it at this stage if you are seeking to play a game for a long time as you would with a fully released game, I would recommend buying it to support the 2 developers so they can invest time and make it into a greater game., I have honestly enjoyed playing it so far.

They are a team of 2 brothers and sometimes we have to consider that...

brubardai
brubardai

Quaint game, which holds your interest.

Jake2.0
Jake2.0

I think this is a really good game, I'm looking forward to seeing it's progression and new things they introduce. 8/10 for me.

Tchijf
Tchijf

Ein schönes Spiel und das Artwork ist wirklich interessant und stimmig. Erinnert mich an Battle Brothers. Freue mich auf den Fortschritt des Spiels!

Pro:
- Frisches Spielprinzip
- Stein-Schere-Papier-Kampf (ich mag es)
- Nette Progression der Städte
- Leichte Diplomatie
- Hohe Wiederspielbarkeit

Con:
- Ein paar Bugs noch enthalten
- zu wenige Tooltips
- Komplexität noch nicht so groß

A nice game and the artwork is really interesting and coherent. Reminds me of Battle Brothers. Looking forward to seeing how the game progresses!

Pros:
- Fresh gameplay
- Rock-paper-scissors combat (I like it)
- Nice progression of cities
- Easy diplomacy
- High replayability

Con:
- A few bugs still included
- Too few tooltips
- Complexity not yet so great

edmondson799
edmondson799

Great game with a lot of potential, can't wait until finish.

thebadman
thebadman

Development is promising so far.

Economic managament of your domain is very important in scenarios, even tactical genius will collapse if they do not manage their lands well or have their workshops torched by spies cutting them away from reinforcements.

Combat have a lot of potential, but combat map generator does need some serious work to avoid creating silly battle areas that disables fortifications(Or worse yet, gives them to attacker to spawn in!), 2nd bridge and so on.

Your commanders are "decks" that you can develop to apply buffs, debuffs, perform special tactical actions and modify battlefield. Card system works really well with combat system.

Nikkieess
Nikkieess

for the new update, the prologue was intriguing. the story was amazing and i cant wait for the next chapter. but the when i play scenario, the merchant has a bug. which i cant trade eventho the merchant is in the region

Gabriel Kain
Gabriel Kain

Rising Lords is a very promising game. Even now as Early Access it is very stable and I did not notice any significant problems while playing. Only a few passages of text have not yet been translated, but that is not a problem. What I particularly like about this game is the art style. The design of the figures is reminiscent of old paintings from the early Renaissance. The game even has a multiplayer mode, which I think is very good.
The developers are very committed. I got in touch with the developers about a little thing and they immediately responded individually and were very helpful. This is what you would wish for with other developers as well.
Conclusion: We can look forward to a very nice game here, which is constantly being developed and updated. I highly recommend this game.

MattE/Bierbaron
MattE/Bierbaron

Rising Lords rises the tradition of Lords of the Realm I&II again. managing little feudal countrys, to get a thriving economy going. feeding the people, gathering construction materials, smithing weapons, and finaly conquering all the lands, while you hold your peasants at bay.

the game is in a very playable state, all important elements seem to be there, and function properly. bugs are quickly eliminated after the reporting. the devs took a lot of heartblood in this game, which is nicely done in every aspect.

dont expect a global strategie game like Total War or Crusader Kings here. instead enjoy a comfortable the settlers, with a lot of boardgame like elements.

I absolutly recommend this game, and hope their will be more content soon.

barut
barut

good idea with a no strategic dept. Complete boredom, lack of challenge.
not recommendable atm. Ofc it is early access but there are lots of things to do by devs

SkittlesSourPatch
SkittlesSourPatch

Great Artwork, Very Fun quick play, With some minor tweaks this game will be fantastic!

dusty_landings
dusty_landings

I enjoyed this for 8 hours, but still feels like an early access game or demo that I have already fully explored. Probably worth checking out again in a few months, but I don't think worth the price in the current state.

CrimsonBinome
CrimsonBinome

Playing Early Access and I can say that it has potential but still feels very much like a demo.

1. Towns all feel the same with only slight differences in resources (too much universal variety with building options perhaps)
2. Combat is too simplistic (the cards do help) but the units need more depth (I mean just copy Battle Brothers, I wont tell if you don't)
3. Worth playing but I would currently buy it on sale unless you want to fully support
4. I like the art style and the town mechanics are all well thought out

Isenritter
Isenritter

Reminds me a bit of Lords of the Realm, good times.

Jim Bananas
Jim Bananas

I absolutely love this game. It has Battle Brothers combat with AOE style kingdom building giving depth in managing regions to farm resources required to build structures or manufacture the armaments to equip your troops that could be better off if kept as peasants to farm more resources to build better armies later on, but then you would miss out on the experienced gained that will make the difference if facing a more experienced foe... It is well balanced, maps are varied and plentiful, the battles are fun, regiments level up, defence buildings are functional (as in if you build a castle archers are safe unless the enemy has ladders) the research system is innovative and works well and if played in ironman mode a lost battle or a silly mistake could mean disaster.
I have managed to lose while owning 60% of the map to an AI opponent who owned around 30% and I have won battles when outnumbered and surrounded. This is an excellent strategic game with brilliant tactical depth.
9.999/10

Urm
Urm

Gets old pretty quick. Art style is so-so, maps are kind of small. Battles are meh.... play something like Might & Magic instead. Needs work.

ZAB1019
ZAB1019

bad performance. i barely get 30 FPS. I get more FPS in tarkov, squad or even ARMA 3, somehow.

Zcav
Zcav

If you are a fan of Lords of the Realm 2 as me, you'll love it

Soraya
Soraya

Although it has many flaws, Rising lords is the first game that I am really into it that I am going write my first ever review.

Let's start with what the game is about. This is a turn based game which focuses on building your army and expands your realm. Your objective is to conquer the enemy lands or to reach a certain amount of money to win. It has many similarities with games like Crusader kings, Civilization. If you like these games, you're probably also into this. However in this game, the main difference is the combat. Your army can have a maximum of 7 pieces of different troops which you have raised during your turns in the world. When entering combat, your pieces will fight the enemy's ones, and who ever loses all the pieces or their's morale reaches zero will lose. I would saying the combat in this game is a lot like playing chess. Each type of your troops can have different strengths and weaknesses, and you try your best to to move them in the best possible way. In additions, the combat is further complimented by the cards system, which you can play to further your advantages.

For me, the aspect of the game that I like the most is playing in multiplayer. I spent 30 hours just to find the most optimal way to build troops and expand in the early game. Furthermore, when fighting in the battle, it can be very satisfying when your opponent fell into your trap that you've set up. In contrary, It's also very fun for me to learn about the mistakes that I've made during the combat and find a better strategy to counter the opponent. Another positive point is that the developers are very passionate about the game. We have our own discords, and the developers are quite active in listening to players to improve the game.

Into the aspects that can be improved, the first one is the game has lots of bugs. It can be quite hard when you spent 3 hours into your game and the game got bugged and you have to reset again. Just to remind you, the game is still in beta, so bugs are to be expected. Secondly, the AI is not really quite smart, but I think it's not much different compared to the AI in other strategies game though. If you're semi decent at strategy game, you can usually beat the most difficult AI after 15-20 hours of gameplay. And last, it can be quite difficult to find players to play with in multiplayer. There is a discord for MP though, but including me, there are only about 3-5 players who are currently active.

To conclude, I think if you're willing to surpass the limitations of the game, this is a very worthy game to play and spend your time, especially if you're into playing multiplayer.

Dennis T.
Dennis T.

A great game with beautiful in game graphics. It could need a bit more content but for a work of two people really impressive.

Garl
Garl

I don't really understand the bad reviews. Pretty great 4x type game, though it has bad performance for sure, don't get it if you're using a potato.

Akira1530
Akira1530

Great game, I would highly recommend it and can't wait to play the final product!
Pros:
-Beautiful, medieval tapestry-style look
-Rich population and resource management
-Challenging and fun combat system
Cons:
-Some glitches (e.g. abandoned buildings don't do what they say they will, saves load at the start of turn, sometimes economic victory happens sooner than it should.)
-Enemy AI is flat (no interactions, poor strategy)
-No campaign mode (yet)

Overall, the game is worth the price even now and I think it will be an exceptional value once it is finalized. Much of the style feels similar to Battle Brothers (a really exceptional game) but with more emphasis on kingdom management and less on battle, which is a quite enjoyable balance.

TimFinnegan
TimFinnegan

Sure, it's EA, but you can play through it within an hour. Just not enough to do..

Velensk
Velensk

This game has strong potential however at the moment it's edges are a bit too rough for me to recommend.

I'm not sure why steam wants reviews for early access games but in it's current form I can't say yes.

GoldenThrone
GoldenThrone

This game scratches an itch I didn't know I had. Beautiful artwork and great strategic game play. Can't wait to see what future development holds.

Joen
Joen

Great game with strong Lords of the Realm 2 vibes. No grand strategy in the tradition of the Paradox Games but fun and fast paced with enough strategy to keep it fun for many rounds.

Vaerix
Vaerix

Fun for the first hour but then you realize there isn't much more to the game then that. Just repeat what you've been doing over and over and over . . .

DrClumber
DrClumber

TL;DR: I am not sure why there are negative reviews?

Check out my Early Look video here: on my YouTube channel.

If that doesn't tickle your fancy, read along:

This game combines a number of classic strategy/turn-based gaming elements into a rather enjoyable melange. (That is a posh french word for mix). Gameplay consists of a strategy and a tactic component. The strategy side of the game is solid, in a standard game you are one of four 'players' (if AI, make sure you increase their difficulty settings so the game offers some competition). You are to win by either become the wealthiest, or the most dominant in a paint the map style.

You gather resources, build your weapons/army and set about conquering. The main component is managing your citizens, you need more bloody peasants than your neighbours, and you need to develop your lands to make sure you do. The dynamics for this strategic element are crude and could do with a bit more information (ie. why do they leave/come? what affects health?) but in general the premise is clear - look after Harry, Tom and Stacey and you will have a growing economy to support your army.

The army takes you into the tactical, which cleverly combines elements of Battle Brothers (as does the game's style!) in being classic hex based combat with terrain modifiers and 'dice rolls', with card-based elements, whereby the experience of your general grants potential advantages based on the card deck you choose to take into battle.

It is a fairly simple game in that regard, you'll figure it out soon enough, but the challenge comes from making the most of opportunities, withstanding your enemies and developing at the right pace. Talking of pace, the game reminds me a bit of Kingdoms and Castles, another excellent budget indie you should try out. It is pleasant, it doesn't demand constant attention, but does require you to plan ahead and be smart about your decisions.

All in all, a firm: 'Get this game' recommendation for Strategy gamers.

Greenly
Greenly

Started playing this great early access game and 20 minutes in ran into a problem where it would crash if an enemies unit would die with a retaliation attack. Reported it with the great bug reporting system connected with the game and it was patched in 20 minutes. If the devs keep it up this game will be a hidden gem.

biskraut
biskraut

This game has probably my favorite turn based economy of all time. The turn based battles are fun especially when you put longbowmen on hills! The strategy map plays virtually just like one of my favorite games of all time: Lords of the Realm II. It essentially is an improved economic system from that game. I really enjoy this game and can't wait to see what comes out of further development as it works itself through early access. It certainly is quite playable as it is now!

PussNuggets
PussNuggets

The game is fun. If you enjoy board games and like pc adaptations of board games, you like turn based games, free for alls, resource management or all of the above then this game would be up your alley.

Its got some cons though. It definitely feels like a game that would want maps for up to 8 players, even 6 would do. Unfortunately the highest it supports currently is up to 4. Thats my biggest downside personally. The way its played it would be absolute chaos and fun if we had 6 or 8 player maps. Devs kinda made it clear a while back they dont really intend on upping the player count but its something ill always hope for.

There are some problems that are annoying in combat. One being the battle cards you use arent the greatest at letting you know exactly how they are to be used or on what units and you really have to watch unit movement as the movement controls can be real fininky at times. You're also limited to how much of certain resources like food, that you can get in any region which makes growing and expanding feel a bit weird. And the AI definitely needs tweaking as they tend to go the same exact rout every game per map.

But honestly, its worth every penny even in its current state. I hope the devs continue to give the game the love it deserves. Its nice to see that the devs update the game still semi regularly This game has a ton of potential. It makes for a great party game multiplayer if you have a few friends who would be willing to pick up a copy and play with you and it also makes for an entertaining single player game.

RocksteadyJ
RocksteadyJ

At first i didn't like the art? Why don't these people have legs? But it grew on me. Its got some early access bugs but is totally playable so long as you can troubleshoot your way out of a paper bag. This game has enormous potential. Don't be a cheapskate! (of whom I am chief!) Pay full price and motivate these devs into building something truly epic! Don't look for a tutorial, just jump in and get wrecked by the AI a couple times then restart again till you figure it out. If anything just read the "tips" on the main menu. Embrace the lack of a tutorial as an additional challenge to the game. Beats analyzing spreadsheets of resource yields.

nmartin
nmartin

Very good turn based strategy game, very similar to the old Lords of the Realm II, but with a turn based combat system, which is a big improvement. Definitely still some bugs, but the developer is responsive in fixing things, adding new content and optimizing the game. Somewhat addictive if this is your jam.

Johnman
Johnman

Still in EA and needs more content, maybe a campaign or some scenarios with a story line would help. At the moment, bought today on Steam sale for 20% off, I would prefer to vote satisfactory, like neither a yes or no. Probably more like yes but needs lots of improvement.

Played 5 hours, its somewhat fun, I like it, but needs content. No crashes, no bugs sen or found. Fairly easy to understand and dive in, no huge learning curve, Music is nice, graphics are alright, cartoony but alright. Battles are alright nothing to excitinh. It really just plays like sandbox medieval simulation with no story or goals. Or just needs alot more before it will be lots of fun and worthy of a strategy tb title.

MasterDM
MasterDM

Its got everything I want in a medieval strategy game. Sensible, fun economic management and good tactical battles that can go either way. Perfect for feudal fun with friends. Still very much an early access game and quite buggy, especially in multiplayer combat. The AI as in most strategy games is absolutely atrocious. Despite the state its in it has huge promise and I love it.

Iron Council
Iron Council

Beautiful art style and interesting concepts to be found here! It seems the developer is taking really good care of the game and its content so far. I am intrigued by the economy/construction management and having fun fiddling around with army set-ups, the card system and turn-based combat. Very promising title in my humble opinion.

slaanesh
slaanesh

After playing for about 8h, I'm worried, bored and frustrated.
There are very minimal quality of life implementations, very few tooltips and lacking information/statistics. The artstyle and potential of the game, however, is brilliant. This is the issue of the reviews on steam - they all focus on the promise of the game.

Right now it is so bare bones, buggy and user unfriendly that it can not be recommended (it took me 4-5 tries to finish the tutorial - couple of times the merchant f**ked off to never be seen again, couple of times i did/chose an option that made it impossible to finish the tutorial, without any explanaiton). According to the devs and roadmap, they are about 7 months out - months clearly needed for overtime work and double-up development.

I sincerely hope the game will be brilliant - becaouse it can be - but there are a lot of manhours that are needed for it to become enjoyable.

GT
GT

like a child playing the flute for the first time. Looking cute, monotone in minutes, flawful and therefore frustrating and nervewrecking after a while. Needless to say, I would not hit it, still my anger after all this time is burning hot.

This might change in the future.

Fergas
Fergas

Good game i love anything to do with the medieval good job devs.

51l3n5t
51l3n5t

Legit amazing. Needs more. Local co-op (maybe I am too stupid to find it) would be awesome.

baltazar.gucci
baltazar.gucci

Fun strategy game that can be played again and again. Against the AI or friends. You need to manage resources and workers to get an army to take over the world. I am playing this together with my dad and we are having loads of fun. There are some minor problems like the tutorial not teaching everything and the easy AI somehow being way too strong but other than that it is a great game that I would like others to check out!

Lokin
Lokin

This is a very good game.
There is a tutorial now but if you need to use it then you are simple.

Angrynisan52
Angrynisan52

This is a really good game and new updates make this really enjoyable, they should have some huge maps that are kinda like total war campaign but scaled down and fewer enemy factions that would be cool but do learn how to play and watch a video before buying if you like this style of gaming

ezerock
ezerock

This game is still in development but it has a lot of interesting game mechanics that will appeal to those who like turn-based strategy, resource management, and card/deck building games. It has interesting and appealing graphics. It has potential for board game like multiplayer re-playability. I remember with fondness playing and old DOS game "Lords of the Realm" many years ago. This game has many similar elements to Lords of the Realm and so much more. If you remember and liked playing Lords of the Realm, you will love Rising Lords.

forasp
forasp

User interface needs a lot of work. Has promise, but at this stage of early access, I can't recommend it.

daredevil1963
daredevil1963

I want to keep trying this game

Graphics are lovely, seemingly very intuitive.

Learning curve is discrptice though. I feel I dive back into the game after viewing a few tutorials/ game plays

No manual in game. Although all the units are explained in online wiki

Overall ( early Access). B- experience. Lots of potentional , feels unfinished though

Tucker
Tucker

Great game by a great indie developer! Wonderful artstyle, solid gameplay loop, nice customization, meaningful player choices...

kingdavis45
kingdavis45

Game must be broken. Twice I've upgraded my dwellings or town centers and the very next turn my population cap resets to the previous number or zero and then boom all my peasants are now beggars. Food, health, and happiness is fine. I don't get it. My other town could hold like 4000 then that one also got taken down to 2000. Happiness was 99 at that point. I think I did run out of food but I got that food back and still even though my upgrades show on the map the number is capped at 2000 population. I can't wrap my head around why this is happening.

The more I play the more bugs I find. So I upgraded my two bathhouses in a captured territory and they turned into lakes and I lost the territory the next turn. Was no auto save and I basically had to start over. Mind you this is the first day playing this game and I had to start over 5 times due to unexplained bugs. I was really enjoying the game at first and now I'm regretting buying it.

✠ Robert ✠
✠ Robert ✠

A little expensive for 13 bucks, but the game is fun

Corrosion
Corrosion

Honestly, I really like it so far. It's not overly complex, but it does have some depth that makes it require some planning and critical thinking. Not sure about the reviews stating otherwise.

The soundtrack is really well done and the graphics are nice to look at.

Combat is pretty fun and offers a decent challenge.

It does need some more work for QOL stuff and it could really use more options for customizing your lord's traits and stuff, but it has enough content to offer several playthroughs right now.

The price is fair in my opinion.

Stoned Fox
Stoned Fox

Well, this is certainly a game I *could* like - but I'm reviewing the game as it is now, not how it should be in the future.

If the tutorial leaves me frustrated, that's not a good sign. Annoying things like "Press the army button on the bottom right... took me about 5 minutes to find because... it's on the fucking bottom LEFT. "Open the card menu" - okay where is that? I got to it before by clicking on the army button - but now it says "No free general available" - another 5 minutes. Okay so you got to right click on the army in the field this time... sigh. Control or Shift + click to add increments of 5 or 100 - convenient, except it doesn't apply everywhere... etc. etc. etc.

Also, the simple graphics belie the resource intensity of the game. Zooming out brings my decent rig to a stutter.

I'll be trying this again after a few updates, but don't buy at the moment unless at a decent discount and if you are willing to wait while the devs improve the game and fix some issues.

NMilitant
NMilitant

Good but Knight Brothers are OP AF

jason
jason

A very fun board game style strategy game. It's fun and addictive. The only thing that I would like to see is some improved multiplayer. As of right now only 4 kingdoms can play in at once. This is a great game nonetheless and is well worth the price. Bravo Devs!

Clock
Clock

Really nice and simple take on grand strategy style games. Even the biggest map i can still finish a game on in a single session.

Rat Master Keyser
Rat Master Keyser

The art style is unique and I applaud the developers for it.

However, the game is not very stable and can frequently crash or UI bugs that seem to require a game restart are present & common. Additionally, while game FPS is pretty good when not experiencing above issues, calculation times in combat and following end turn (season change) are quite slow for a game that does not have much going on. Further, for a game of its size, scope, it seems to be somewhat poorly optimized as my system resources were under heavy load. Namely, my graphics card was being fully utilized. For me personally, this is not a big issue, but I think others may wish to have more efficient usage in what should be a lightweight game.

Outside of that, from the gameplay I experienced, the game is shallow on a strategic level. I cannot see any real depth here in combat or on the town management. For combat, the bigger stack of similar units will almost always win; the combat card system makes a minor difference. For town management, you only have a handful of buildings that you will end up placing rather quickly. I do not believe there is currently a way to specialize towns very much, which to me is an essential part of games involving the control of multiple cities. For example, it would be excellent to make an area totally focused on raw goods production, such as food resources, iron or stone extraction, that would then export the goods to another town that has expanded it's manufacturing abilities. However, there is not really a point or way to do this. For one, strategic resources are global, so no transport is needed. Food resources are local, but it does not seems you can setup a steady stream of deliveries. Instead, you have to manually export these every turn. Further, I do not see a way to create new resource nodes. Each area has existing resource nodes & you cannot make a new mine, quarry, forestry nodes within the area; the best you get is a tile called 'wasteland' that you can clear into a 'field' for food resource production. It seems every area gets two 'fields', of which one is often a wasteland tile that needs cleared.

Overall, the game has nice concept & art style, but it really needs to be fleshed out for it to justify its price point & early access status. I cannot recommend the game at this time.

Cannon
Cannon

Beautiful game, good mechanics - all fairly balanced with a fair number of strategies and lots of variable battle tactics through various unit types, general upgrades and customised battle decks/cards.

Great multi-player promise (haven't done it, can envisage it though) but Single player is limited by the AI - that is, its not challenging; once you figure them out you cant lose. 21 hours in and I'm done for now.

redhongkong
redhongkong

for a game released 2 years ago, still in early access and randomly shuts down by itself. i wonder how did this gets such good review oO

Mr. Brian
Mr. Brian

This is going to be a very good game, a fun and casual strategy game. It's early access so there are issues. The tutorial is a little buggy and things are certainly not explained well. The tutorial teaches in a trial by fire way, it doesn't explain much when giving tasks and opening new menus such as the general deck or army, it also gives a lot of freedom in the tutorial which can bug out the tutorial.
- Got stuck on the deck didn't know I could buy more than one card, didn't understand the skill tree at all, so tutorial needs work but you will figure it out eventually. Needs more tooltips I guess.
- Combat is not clear on terrain advantages, needs tooltips, but generally it's intuitive. I think expanding the map and having battles have more units, divisions etc. would be cool to allow for more strategy. Strategy is mostly in the cards which is fine, but the cards are limited to what units they benefit and there are not many units. What I am saying is the battle system has plenty of room to expand.
- It's not always clear what effect adding a peasant to a wheat field will be? If added during growing season it doesn't change the stats. You can't see how many seeds will be planted, etc. Be more clear on cost-benefit.

The last thing is my tutorial is stuck on having peasants put out fires. I cannot place the peasant on the tile the game wants me to put it on. I don't know what I am supposed to do to move forward. So then I tried to play a regular game and I just wasn't ready. Needed more tutorial. So I restarted the tutorial and had the same issue....help devs.

Overall the game is promising and has a cool art style. Very board game like, it's casual and fun. I look forward to watching it develop. It can be played in it's current state, but will get a little stale until certain systems are fleshed out a bit more.

Multihack
Multihack

I kept getting a weird lag/stuttering constantly. Besides that game was extremely repetitve.