Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (PC)

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It has style if not a lot of grace.

Based on a ridiculously long classic Chinese novel of the same name, Romance of the Three Kingdoms plops you into the late second century as the Han Dynasty collapses. It's a time of heroes and warlords, of daring duels and ruthless pillaging, of duty and disloyalty. It's your standard story of the fall of one empire and the creation of another, born out of chaos.

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A lot of this information could be more readily available.

The series of war games, which has been around since the days of the Amiga, has been only irregularly ported from consoles to computers, and in Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI its recent console history is obvious, especially in the interface design. Mouse use is not as context-sensitive as it could be, and the developers seem to think that you should never use two clicks when seven will do. Building a farm, for example, takes four button pushes -- select City, Develop, Farm and only then the tile you want to build on. Since there are limited construction tiles for each city, why not have the build menu open with a right-click? Why aren't there more hotkeys?


The real problems are related to the sparse documentation. The tutorials cover some of the basics, but the "whys" and "wherefores" of diplomacy are left for the unhelpful in-game documentation. You are taught how to duel and debate (yes, you debate) but not about how to use these skills tactically. Managing the loyalty of your vassals is left to intuition, and the role of special items in combat is not very clear.

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Music for the farmers?

It's too bad that the designers don't seem to have thought much about how to present information in an efficient or helpful way, and this considerably weakens the game. Take the mini-map, for example. It's too small to easily track the movement of enemy armies and there is no color-coding to indicate your relationship with rival cities. Juggling the demands of a five-front war can be a bit much even on the Beginner level, so an easier way to keep track of who exactly the good and bad guys are would have been greatly appreciated.

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We've got trouble, right here in Cheng Du city.

Though the main map and menus aren't much to look at -- you can't even tell your swords from your horses without a rollover or zoom -- the character artwork and mini-games are beautiful. The opening cinematic is so stylish that you might even sit through it more than once. The writing captures the spirit of the novel and the times without sounding like a hoary collection of the sayings of Confucius.


There's no denying the emotional pull of the game. Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI manages a difficult task, making a fundamentally spreadsheet-like game of managing food, money and men into a character-rich environment that turns every betrayal into something personal. When your top general defects and opens the gates to enemy armies, the pain is considerably worse than that of seeing your best-laid plans fall apart. It's a blow to the heart when Lu Bu decides that your rule is a sinking ship and refuses to go down with it.

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The strategy tips are helpful, but not clear on who is whom.

A lot of the strategy is in basic logistics and geography. Do your troops have enough food? Can you take an enemy city without pillaging its improvements? The map doesn't change from game to game, so it only takes a few sessions for you to get familiar with which cities are strategic chokepoints, which ones have 20 construction tiles instead of only 12, and which valleys have gates so you can prepare for the difficult task of capturing them. The various troop types are supposed to have strengths and weaknesses, but pure numbers and the skill of your general seem to matter more than whether you have pikes or spears.

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A city in danger.

There are eight campaigns to choose from and eight pre-set scenarios in which you play as a specific character, though most of these use maps from the campaigns. This supposed variety doesn't stop Romance from becoming repetitive in ways, since every game requires you to slowly build up your economy, grab neutral cities, and then confront the none-too-bright enemy generals in combat. The artificial intelligence can be a letdown: Enemy forces walk into ambushes fairly easily and charge ahead into larger armies with little concern for how hard it was to get 6,000 good men assembled.


Romance takes off once you embrace the diplomatic options and alternate tactics available to you. If you track the loyalty of enemy subordinates, you can bring entire armies over to your side with sufficient payouts or persuasion. You can craft elaborate defenses to slow down an enemy approach or challenge cowardly generals to duel, which saps their followers' will to fight each time you're refused.
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Duels prove who is the better man.

Dueling is one of the two mini-games that spice up the experience. In dueling, you choose a stance and build up power while trying to knock your rival off his horse. If there are other characters nearby, you can recruit a fresh body to stave off defeat. Debating is the more substantial mini-game and plays like a card game, with different leading suits and chances to shuffle your deck. You will do more dueling than debating, but both mini-games are a nice distraction from all the conquest and seduction of the main game.


But it's as a pure strategy game that Romance shines. Unlike in so many other games, where you would leave enemy improvements standing 'to save yourself the effort of building them later, here there is real strategic merit in razing the landscape. Enemy generals need food to keep an army alive, so burn their farms. Gold from markets keeps cities orderly, so pillage the marketplace. Cause enough trouble, and you might be able to provoke an enemy army into confronting you from behind those walls. Throw in defensive improvements, traps and matching leaders to proficiencies, and you have a core gaming experience that potentially ranks with the best that the PC has to offer. It needs more variety and a few more clues about what exactly is happening in order to rise to excellence, but once you break through the platform culture barrier, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI has a lot to offer.

This review was based on a review build of the game provided by the publisher.