Totally not regicide: Kingshunt Alpha Impressions

With Starcraft 2 officially on ice, real time strategy games for the enthusiasts seems to be at an all time low. Perhaps it needs to blend with other genres to kickstart some life into it? In Kingshunt, RTS is blended with the MOBA and tower defense genre, with its alpha having concluded. Its currently available on Steam, brought to you by Vaki Games, with an expected release date for some time in Spring 2021. So, what’s the game like?

BASIC MECHANICS

As mentioned, Kingshunt combines a variety of genres in 5 v 5 player rounds. The alpha only had one map, two phases and four heroes, with each phase lasting a maximum of 12 minutes. Players are divided into Defender and Attacker teams.

Each player will have access to the Utilities menu, as well as buffing runes. You obtain utility “tokens” on achieving certain criteria which you can check on the left of the screen:

• Time: A token will be given after a certain amount of time
• Minion/hero damage: Deal a certain amount of damage to minions or heroes to obtain a token
• Player kills: self-explanatory

Meeting all criteria will grant all team members a token as well. Runes, in the meantime, are obtainable over time. If you kill or assist in kills, this timer will be reduced. Runes effectively work as skill points to buff your heroes.

THE CHOSEN MANY

The currently available heroes all are able to dodge and sprint (both using stamina), have four special abilities and their regular attack. The alpha limits only two of the same heroes in a team, which I’m curious to see if eventually it’ll force all unique heroes once there’s more variety. All heroes will have their health, armour and stamina; armour will be depleted prior to health. Other players can heal you, or you can pick up health orbs from specific locations on the map. Heroes themselves are broadly categorized into Damage, Tank and Support roles.

DAMAGE

The Demigod is the melee flavour, using his axe in his skills to deal damage to enemies in a small AOE. He’s able to pull frontal enemies to stun them, or charges forward to launch enemies. His axe can also be used to slam the ground to launch frontal enemies while dealing massive damage. Enchantress is ranged, able to charge up her blast to deal more damage. She’s also able to do some soft control by slowing enemies in the vicinity of her orb, or buff her and her allies’ attack speed and movement speed. Otherwise, she’s able to call down a meteor in an area for massive damage.

TANK

The Knight is a melee tank. With his Frenzied Combo, he can attack by swinging his sword three times which you need to time correctly. That doesn’t sound very “tank-like”, nor does his Valiant Leap skill, which sees him leap to a location to stun and damage units. He is, however, able to cast Impenetrable Shield to defend himself from all frontal attacks, and Aegis grants maximum armour to all nearby friendly players, which fades over time.

SUPPORT

Legena is a ranged support hero, with the ability to heal other players as well as herself. She’s able to also blind and damage enemy units, or even steal a portion of enemy health to distribute it to wounded friendlies.

TAKING TURNS

The Defenders have to, well, defend the Guardian in each phase, building towers and structures to support them. You’ll be starting out with 8 utility tokens to build or buff the towers accordingly. These towers are manned by AI; should the AI be all defeated, then the tower will also collapse. The AI have shields to protect them from ranged attacks, which will get whittled down over time in battle.

There are long-ranged AOE damage dealing towers, short range for massive single target damage, barricades to draw aggro and buffs to give health and armour regen to units within an area. Limited, but it is an alpha right now anyway. The Guardians that Defenders need to protect can protect itself too, able to attack enemies within its designated area with its own moveset. Should a defender be under attack by another player within its sphere of influence, the Guardian will pursue the offender. Destroying the Guardian will move the match to the next phase.

Meanwhile, Attackers would seek to destroy the Guardian, and take down enemy towers along the way with their minions. You’ll be starting out with 7 utility tokens, with access to the utility menu to summon and buff minions. To ensure your other minions aren’t mere cannon fodder, you can summon a Banner Minion to protect them from tower shots. It won’t be able to deal any damage, but will be able to retreat to protect other minions should its assigned squad all die.

Orc Minions have regenerating armour, and are stronger than the regular dudes. You can buff your lackeys’ speed and armour with tokens. They’ll automatically move towards Guardians and attack nearby enemy players in the lane they are summoned in. You can’t simply flood one lane, as lanes have capacity limits. Attackers themselves can carry banners to block tower shots. Should these banners be dropped, Defenders can put them on cool down by being close to a fallen banner and sending them back to the Attacker’s camp.

LOOKING FORWARD

When you’re in a full team, the game is plenty of fun with lots of potential. However, like with typical team-based games, it gets frustrating when people go AFK or leave the game entirely, and it’s quite hard to continue with one less player. Considering the synergies of skills, building and minions, teamwork is important!

Defending might sound easy, but don’t worry, it’s not. Every hero also has their own pros and cons, which is good so far. You don’t get to choose whether you’re attacking or defending while in the lobby, which will probably change in future builds. As a last note, placing towers is fairly time consuming, so as with a typical tower defense,  you’d like to find the optimal spot for placements.

So far, so good. If any of this interests you, then you should head over to their Steam page to check it out, and see when the next public build will be prior to the game’s release.

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