Kings and Men

[Grim.Reaper]

Saw this hit early access today, but disappointed does not appear to have single player mode...otherwise, I would be all over this.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/430440/

Persistent Medieval War

Of Kings And Men allows you to experience huge, player-driven battles like no other. Engage in massive combat with more than 200 players, capture territories, or practice your fighting skills in competitive matches with intuitive melee combat.

Throughout Early Access, Of Kings And Men will introduce strategic elements, allowing players to conquer and control the land by political, economic or military means. Send armies to protect your cities and invade enemy territories. Lead your troops into decisive orchestrated sieges against player-built fortifications that are fought with hundreds of friends and foes simultaneously. Every victory or defeat shapes history forever.

Key Features in the Early Access launch:

Battles. Over 200 players can battle it out in large, skirmish regions
Factions. Team up and wage war against enemy kingdoms
Skills. Train your character and practice your personal skills
Progression. Unlock Swords, Polearms, Spears, Bows, Crossbows, and other authentic 13th Century weapons and armors to customize your look and play style
Dynamic Combat. Fight with a fast-paced and intuitive combat system, based on the experience of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) fighters and medieval manuscripts
Custom Engine. Donkey Crew's custom engine is tailored specifically to the game.

[Hofstadter]

Sorta looks like a pointless version of mount and blade

[Tpek]

Well, I'll be waiting for your impressions.

So far sounds like some variation of "War of The Roses" to me.

[JasonPratt]

They've been having server troubles, and still are having "hiccups".

Looks promising, but I'll be staying away a little while longer.

[Toonces]

The first review on the store page states that the devs behind the Mount and Blade cRPG mod created this.  I spent a hella ton of time playing cRPG and it was fun as hell. 

I'm going to have to do some research on this when I get home, but if it's the cRPG guys then this is definitely worth keeping an eye on.  For $20 I might just be willing to take the gamble on early access.  Must watch some Youtube videos and read more first...

[Dammit Carl!]

Interesting.  Bit ambitious for my taste - I like my Chivalry and my firepot wielding, "for Agatha," screaming footman.  Reminds me, I've got to buy the add on where I can play a pirate...

Anyway, I like my chop chop stuff simple, but I do wish these guys well.

[Nefaro]

So far sounds like some variation of "War of The Roses" to me.

This.


Watched a couple minutes of gameplay, two different times, and the only thing going on was a few people fighting by a flag. 

By "fighting" I mean swinging the mouse left & right, and therefore the view, whilst hacking away. 

Reminded me of War Of The Roses, but without much interesting terrain or varied equipment between the digital louts.  Unimpressed at first glance.  WotR looked better.. other than the rampant & uncontrolled cheats which ruined that game.

[Toonces]

Well, it's like this.  In the same way the Squad team is building upon what was great with Project Reality, the cRPG guys are building this game.  I can only say that cRPG was a very fun mod for Mount and Blade.  Still, it is what it is.  WotR was fun, too, until they completely killed it with micro-transactions and the unchecked rampant hacking.

Only based on how much I enjoyed cRPG for Mount and Blade, I say this is worth keeping an eye on, the same way Squad is worth keeping an eye on.  I may go ahead and take a bullet for the team and pick this up tonight...need to do some of my own due diligence first.

[Nefaro]

I'm certainly not shit-binning it without having played.   Like the idea, and I also enjoyed WotR before it was left to die a painful speed hacking death.

Just haven't been inspired by it yet.   Hopefully it reaches some level of wonderful.

[Skoop]

The key thing is mount and blade had sp and this is only mp so speed hacks inbound.  Mount and blade 2 or kingdom come which are sp focused are the games you'll want for the hack n slash itch.

[Toonces]

Whelp I went ahead and bought it.  I watched some videos and it looks like WotR and cRPG had a baby and made this game. 

Installing...I'll post up some impressions after I spend some time with it.

[Toonces]

I never even heard of this game before this thread- so thanks for the head's up!   O0

[Toonces]

Ok, I spent a half hour with this just now and I have a good idea of what it's all about.

This is very much a cross between War of the Roses and Chivalry.  The graphics are very nice; check some youtube videos to see what it looks like.  The animations are very smooth and the hitting and blocking mechanics are very intuitive.  It feels a bit smoother than Mount and Blade.

The game is like both WotR and Chivalry in that you start with some basic gear and then can level up through gaining experience to buy better skills and gear.  It's a lot like Mount and Blade with the skill system, and WotR in the gear you can buy.  Also, you do a progression with skill in gear, so you can move up to new armors or weapons by unlocking them like in a skill tree.

The game is definitely early access.  All I played were capture the flag scenarios.  No siege or anything like that yet.  It looks good, but both teams have the same gear, so the only way to tell your enemies apart from friendlies is by a little arrow over friendlies' heads.  Not unlike Mount and Blade and WotR in that respect.  When they differentiate the armor for each side it will look very nice.

I played several rounds on a server with about 150-180 people on.  It is quite a melee with 90 people on each side...much more massive feeling (and confusing) than you're used to seeing in other games. 

There is definitely potential here, but it is very much early access.  I plan on keeping it- for $20 I'll get my money's worth this weekend.  But for someone casually into these types of games you might want to stick with Mount and Blade and wait a while.  It's still content thin and mostly just a smash fest ATM.  But, you can play it, and I see myself investing much more time in it.

[Toonces]

Also, right now I don't see a server browser.  You click play, region, and it plugs you into a server on its own.  I don't know if this is a feature they plan to change in the future.  I suspect they will so that clans can stick together, but I'll have to research that.  Most people like to host or pick their particular server, so I can't imagine this is what the final version will look like...but I don't know.  Worth mentioning, though.

[Raied]

Got it, the combat system has some fresh ideas and different than similar games, but the combat feels very clunky and its difficult to tell if you hit someone, or even if you blocked on the right direction or not.
The battlefield feels very chaotic, with everyone wearing the same, there is no difference in uniform between two teams, and the little arrow over the head doesn't do very good job. 
Also the I am not really fan of the cRPG progression system, the new player gets really unfair disadvantage, in all aspects, game experience, weapons and combat stats.
Overall, the game has potential, but for now at the current state, native Warband multiplayer is far more enjoyable.