A curious type of Rougelike is Kingdom: New Lands. I have never seen another Rougelike that is in anyway similar to Kingdom: New Lands, it is a strange mix of city building with permadeath and resource management. It was interesting to play to say the least, if not lacking somewhat....
Kingdom: New Lands does not have a story. You are just a king or queen riding a horse through a forest until reaching a clearing which you then create and expand a kingdom while keeping out hordes of evils things, repairing a ship that will get you out of the forest and of course explore the 2d world while waiting for the ship to be repaired. It is rather nice to have your previous king/queen be your ghost guide in your next playthrough, a cute touch if nothing else. However there is not really much else in regards to world building or any reason why anything is happening. It does not really hurt the game really as it does not really need one. Rougelike games tend to be light on story because it will get in the way of the pacing and would be hard to put a narrative into a game that needs multiple playthroughs.
Gameplay is kind of limited; you press the left and right arrow keys to move and the down key to drop coins to pay for minions and buildings. That is of all really; you have no control over your minions in regards to where they go or what they do. This can lead frustration if you need archers to gather at one place and they don't or your builders wonder outside the walls during the night or do not repair the walls because the game decided not to. As the placement of things like shrines and signposts, all which will give you some sort oof in game advantage are all random and sometimes do not spawn at all which can either lead to an easy game or an uphill struggle that is not fun. Enemies will only spawn and attack on one of the map, this does help cut down on expenditure as you can focus on defending one side. However the random spawn element can skewer the odds towards you or against you. As a result Kingdom: New Lands does not have any consistency in its difficulty what so ever. That is not to say there is a solid sense of tension in trying to repair any damage done by an assault or hire more minions after the previous night saw the death of two of more archers before the next night sets in. The game wisely gives the player a few nights (randomly) where no attacks take place giving the player a small/large window to recover and expand. The trouble with this is that there are times when no attacks occur for a high number of nights which allowed me to build up a sizeable empire to which nothing could touch me. Then there were playthroughs where I was bashed into the ground with just enough time to pick myself up for the next bashing.
It is like arguing on the internet all over again.
Graphics and art style are low resolution pixel art, very simple and basic. It works. That's all I can say about it really, it is distinct and has a charm to it but not much else really.
The game runs fine. No problems at all.
Kingdom: New Lands is an ok game that I would recommend be played in short bursts. The basic gameplay and jagged difficultly discourages long gameplay sessions. Maybe try Dead Cells instead?
