Analysis of Crown Wars The Black Prince for Xbox Series

The type of turn-based strategy He is not one of those who receives the most pitches. But it’s true that when you have a game of this type, a lot of fans get involved. There is always an audience predisposed to this type of game while waiting (myself included) for a new X-Com. Without a doubt, the title of Firaxis is the king of the genre and rarely other proposals come close to it. Join me in this analysis of Crown Wars The Black Prince to see how close or far this game is from the excellence we have in the Firaxis saga.

Although it is true that it is generally not fair to compare one game with another, we often look for references to know if we will end up liking this or that game. And without a doubt, because of what was played, the game of Artifacts owes a lot to what was established by X-Com. Thus, we are faced with a turn-based tactical combat game in which we control a squad of soldiers and we must achieve different objectives in a grid-based scenario.

The story will not be the main thing

But before we start with what’s strictly playable, a quick note on the story we’ll see in Crown Wars. As was announced in all promotional materials for the game, The “grace” of this game is that it takes place during the 100 Years War.. A war that England and France engaged in for over a century and, despite periods of peace and prosperity, its extension over time was the most recognizable aspect of it.

Despite a very interesting starting point, and adding a sinister touch with what we could call a light medieval fantasy, as soon as you start the game you will see how the story and what is happening takes a back seat and will not attract your attention. The fault for this disconnect between story and gameplay lies in mediocre cutscenes and low-level voice acting. Additionally, what should connect you to the historical context and actual conflict is limited to very long text boxes which, at first, can be a bit lazy to read if you’re not interested in the story.
SO, The story won’t be the most interesting thing about Crown Wars The Black Prince. If you come here, you need to stay for the combat and all things platoon conflict tactics. Let’s see if he understands.

Crown Wars and its playable mechanics

By now fully entering into playability, we see few new features (beyond the chosen “setting” and everything that derives from it) with games already released previously. We will manage a squad of up to 6 soldiers and we will have to face missions with several objectives. From eliminating all soldiers on the map to escort missions. Over time, these missions will repeat themselves, but we will not get bored since the scenarios will be different, giving rise to a different tactical deployment each time.

Each unit will have 3 action points, one of them being mandatory for travel. You can use the other two to move more, cover, shoot, attack, etc. So you can perform two attacks in the same turn. Or move more at the cost of fewer attacks. As often happens in these games, position will be key. Not only to succeed in our attack, but also to cover ourselves and, among several units, use group tactics that make your numerical inferiority irrelevant and your planning more powerful than the enemy’s strategy.

Some entertaining fights

There will be a good assortment of fighter classes (of all types, melee, distance, etc.). And each of them will gain experience by participating in combat. Additionally, if we have gold, we can recruit additional soldiers. Each of them will have their own skill tree and as they progress in level we will have to choose their improvements, always with two alternatives within the same class. We have a good number of skills, as well as items to use, whether healing or attacking (with buff/debuff included).

All these fights will take place cards which in my opinion are perhaps a little long, and I might have preferred more compact maps where movement doesn’t take up as many squares until you find your enemy or cover. I think with smaller maps the fights would have been made even more intriguing and raw.

Managing like fighting

And what will we do when we are not fighting? Well as one of the 4 kingdoms available (Eguiraz, Laruzun, Villantin or Montvérac) We will have an estate that will serve as our headquarters. Here we will have several buildings that will help us in our work. From the church to shelter and care for our wounded soldiers to the barracks where our troops can improve. We have a decent number of buildings (which will gradually be unlocked) and these, in turn, can be upgraded to make them more effective and lead to a wider improvement in our troops.
And there will be no shortage of the “world map” where we will see the entire extent of the territory and there we will have to manage the different expeditions towards missions (main or secondary) where our platoons will take several days to cover.

Something hard at first

What seems so far to be a good playable approach is visible spoiled by certain aspects which do not help the solidity of the game. There are several negative aspects that did not convince us. Of Tutorial which isn’t as clear as it should be (although anyone with experience playing this type of game will hardly need it) until a very unbalanced difficulty, making the beginning of the game a somewhat strong barrier to entry for those less familiar with this genre. Although it is true that as the hours go by it becomes a little more enjoyable thanks to the possibility of improving your troops, the beginning will be quite hard.

Fortunately, we will have the possibility to save the game at will, also having automatic save locations. And we recommend saving often. Not only because of the difficulty, but also because of the length (in my opinion) of some battles. He always knows how to waste 40 minutes of play because of a bad decision in the last part of the fight.

Performance and visual

In the technical part of the game we are faced with some decent graphics. Of course, both the level of dubbing and certain animations leave something to be desired and this is where the technical seams are most visible. The scenarios are correctly detailed and when playing with the zoom we did not notice any drop in quality. Of course we suffered drop in frame rate which is not justified by the graphic load of what is seen on the screen.

Additionally, the cutscenes also have a frame rate that does not match the standard of current games. And even more so knowing that the graphics load is not demanding at all. For this reason, and in short, we are faced with a graphically correct title but which has some slight performance issues on Xbox Series.

Analysis of the Crown Wars: Conclusions

Eventually, Crown Wars The Black Prince It won’t be a GOTY candidate but it will be can entertain thirsty fans of “X-Com” type games for many hours.. Despite slight production flaws, the combat and handling of everything about it is entertaining. This, yes, those who are less accustomed to these proposals may suffer at first due to its poorly balanced difficulty and very unfriendly tutorial