Seven Kingdoms (computer Game)
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''Seven Kingdoms'' () is a
real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...
(RTS) video game developed by Trevor Chan of
Enlight Software Enlight Software is a Hong Kong developer and publisher of video games. The company was founded by Trevor Chan in 1993, and their first project was the economic strategy game ''Capitalism'', which was published by Interactive Magic in 1995. In ...
. The game enables players to compete against up to six other kingdoms allowing players to conquer opponents by defeating them in war (with troops or machines), capturing their buildings with spies, or offering opponents money for their kingdom. The ''Seven Kingdoms'' series went on to include a sequel, '' Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars''. In 2007, Enlight released a further title in the Seven Kingdoms series, '.


Gameplay

''Seven Kingdoms'' made departures from the traditional real-time strategy model of "gather resources, build a base and army, and attack" set by other RTS games. The economic model bears more resemblance to a
turn-based Timekeeping is relevant to many types of games, including video games, tabletop role-playing games, board games, and sports. The passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. In many games, this is don ...
strategy game A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decision tree-style think ...
than to the traditional "build-workers, and harvest-resources" system in games such as ''
Command & Conquer ''Command & Conquer'' (''C&C'') is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise created and originally developed by Westwood Studios and currently owned by Electronic Arts. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself ba ...
'', ''
StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance amon ...
'', and ''
Age of Empires ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first title in the series, ''Age of Empires'', focused on events in Europe, Afri ...
''. The game features an
espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...
system that allows players to train and control spies individually, who each have a spying skill that increases over time. The player is responsible for catching potential spies in their own kingdom.
Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...
s built within the game allow players to hire
mercenaries A mercenary is a private individual who joins an War, armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rath ...
of various occupations, skill levels, and races. Skilled spies of enemy races are essential to a well-conducted espionage program, and players can bolster their forces by grabbing a skilled fighter or give one's own factories, mines, and towers of science a boost by hiring a highly skilled professional. For instance, having a skilled
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
general can make capturing and keeping a Persian village much easier. The diplomacy system is akin to a turn-based game, allowing players to offer proposals to another party which they are able to either accept or reject. Each kingdom has a reputation and suffers a penalty for declaring war on a kingdom with a high reputation - making a player's people more likely to rebel and more susceptible to bribery. Diplomatic actions include making war, proposing an alliance or friendship treaty, buying food, exchanging technologies, offering tribute/aid, and forging trade agreements. A ranking system allows all players to gauge the relative military and economic strengths of their allies and enemies, making alliances against the stronger players a natural option. The original game allows players to choose from seven different cultures to command:
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,
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,
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,
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
s,
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s,
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, and
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. Each culture has its own weapons and fighting styles, and can summon its own "greater being", each with different powers. Fryhtans are fictional beasts that hoard treasure and hold "scrolls of power", objects that enable players to summon greater beings. They are quite powerful and may attack human kingdoms.
Interactive Magic IEntertainment Network (IENT, stylized as iEntertainment Network and formerly known as Interactive Magic, iMagic, and iMagiconline) is an American video game company founded by Bill Stealey, the co-founder and former CEO of MicroProse Software ...
later released a free patch that added three new cultures - the
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, the
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and the
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- and a new war machine, called the Unicorn. The game was re-released on June 8, 1998, under the name ''Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries'' with this patch included.


Reception


Sales

Commercially, ''Seven Kingdoms'' was overshadowed at launch by competing real-time strategy titles such as ''
Age of Empires ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first title in the series, ''Age of Empires'', focused on events in Europe, Afri ...
'', ''
Total Annihilation ''Total Annihilation'' is a science fiction real-time strategy video game released in September 1997 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS by Cavedog Entertainment and distributed internationally by GT Interactive. Two expansion packs were released ...
'' and '' Dark Reign''. Writing for CNET Gamecenter, Allen Rausch reported that the game was "buried" by the large number of releases in its genre at the time. The game was particularly dwarfed by ''Age of Empires'', according to T. Liam McDonald of ''
PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
'', who placed part of the blame for ''Seven Kingdoms'' sales on its "indifferent ad campaign and weak graphics." However, both Rausch and McDonald noted that ''Seven Kingdoms'' had attracted a dedicated fan following by 1999, at which point Rausch wrote that it had sold "fairly well". In the United States, the game sold roughly 35,000 units by November 1999, according to
PC Data PC Data was an American market research and point of sale tracking firm founded in 1991 and based in Reston, Virginia. Its founder, Ann Stephens, had worked previously as the head researcher for the Software Publishers Association. Initially, th ...
. Global sales of ''Seven Kingdoms'', its expansion pack and its sequel surpassed 200,000 units by 2000.


''Seven Kingdoms''

The game received "favorable" reviews according to the
review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
(though almost all of them belong to its sequel rather than the original). ''Seven Kingdoms'' was the finalist for
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
's 1997 "Best Strategy Game" award, which ultimately went to ''
Total Annihilation ''Total Annihilation'' is a science fiction real-time strategy video game released in September 1997 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS by Cavedog Entertainment and distributed internationally by GT Interactive. Two expansion packs were released ...
''. The editors wrote, "Even in light of fierce competition from this year's other top-notch strategy releases, ''Seven Kingdoms'' stands tall as an inventive, enjoyable product destined to be remembered." However, it won the publication's "Best Game No One Played" award. In a 1999 retrospective, ''
Computer Games Strategy Plus ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...
'' named ''Seven Kingdoms'' as a runner-up for its "10 Essential Real-time Strategy Games" list. The magazine's Steve Bauman wrote, "Its combat is nothing to write home about, but few RTS games have a better build-up phase, with a slick visual representation of trade and economy."


''Ancient Adversaries''

The ''Ancient Adversaries'' expansion pack received "favorable" reviews according to GameRankings.


See also

* List of strategy video games


References

*''Seven Kingdoms II Strategy Guide'', M. Knight, Prima Games,


External links


Official Website
(archive 2009)
Enlight Software

(archive 2008)
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seven Kingdoms (Computer Game) 1997 video games Commercial video games with freely available source code Enlight Software games Free software that uses SDL Linux games Multiplayer and single-player video games Real-time strategy video games Video games developed in China Video games scored by Bjørn Lynne Windows games IEntertainment Network games