Giveaway of the Day - King’s Smith 2

The following is an edited Kings Smith Review; both games are basically the same so I’ve used the original review with some adustments to take account of some changes (such as the addition of a relaxed mode)

King’s Smith 2

Installation:

The downloaded zip file is 106Mb, so if you are on dial-up it may take a while to download. Once unpacked you will find a read me with the conditions of use and a dual activation/set up module. Installation is simple – click on the set up/activation file, and then select the path you wish your game to be installed to. The default path depending upon whether you have a 32bit or 64bit system will be:

C:\Program files\KingsSmith (32bit)

or

“C:\Program Files (x86)\KingsSmith2 (64bit)

The installed file is 186Mb in size and shortcuts are installed to both the desktop and start menu programs list. There is also a shortcut an uninstaller if you wish to uninstall the game.

Introduction:

You had lived a peaceful and honourable life on a castle as a royal king’s smith. But malicious betrayal changed it all forever. As a young blacksmith Anya try to figure out what happened and why have you been taken out of a royal court. Despite your memory loss you will slowly discover hidden plans beyond your kidnap. Kingdom is in danger and King needs your help! Travel and learn new patterns, meet many strangers and discover power of rare magic cards. Punish the betrayal, save kingdom from danger and become the King’s Smith once again!

King’s Smith is a new time management game from Running Pillow, the developer who has previously given us the original King smith plus Galatron.

The Game

As with the original King’s Smith, King Smith 2 is a time management game which is simple and straightforward to pick up the game play easily. When you first start an account (you can set up multiple accounts, so this game is ideal for the whole family) there is a simple tutorial that walks you through the stages of the game. The graphics are cartoon like and well done though not as crisp as games like Farm Frenzy another popular time management game. ( You can get Farm Frenzy and Farm Frenzy 2 free 24/7 from MyPlayCity). The game is fully mouse controlled and will save your progress up to the last completed game. It will not save progress part way through a level. The game has two modes Timed and Relaxed, which you can access via the options menu. In timed mode you can earn Gold, Silver or Bronze stars depending upon how long it takes you to complete a level. In relaxed mode you can still win these awards, and at the very least you will win a bronze award even if it you go over the allotted time for a bronze award. From the options menu you can also change the music and sound effects volume as well as choose to play in windowed mode. By default the game starts in full screen mode.

You start the game via the levels map which is divided into four regions, Mystic Wood (where you start), Monkey Island, Deep Root and Royal Cliff. At the bottom of the levels map you’ll find buttons that give you access to the Shop, Cards and Patterns as well as the Options Menu and a back button (which takes you back to the main menu). The first three buttons are locked at the start of the game.

As the blacksmith you must buy rusty, old equipment from the vendor in the wagon. He will offer many types of wares at different prices. You will be able to tell whether the price is good or not by the thumbs up and down. If you turn down the price another wagon soon appears. Occasionally there is also a blackmarketeer, who will sell you improved goods for a good price. After you buy from the vendor, you place your rusty part on a stone pedastal (near the top middle of the game arena) where it will create revenue for you, or alternatively put it in your workplace. (the building with the outdoor kiln to the top left of the arena), a worker will leave their home (a toadstool like building) and work on your piece. you may require consumables such as iron which can be purcased (assuming you’ve accumulated enough cash) via the circular buying platform at the bottom of the palying area to the left. you can buy items singly or in various amounts, the more you purchase in one go, the less each piece costs. Occasionally there will also be sales where you can purchase consumables at a much lower rate. It’s well worth buying in bulk when these sales appear. in the mean time only purchase what you need. Once completed, you hang your ware either back on the stone pedastal or sell it at the bottom right. People will come look at your goods and offer money for them. You can haggle with the price. To help you a thumbs up or down will appear telling you whether the price is good or not. Do remember to move any equipment that you placed in the smithy once it has been repaired otherwise you’ll be losing valuable income. You start with 3 selling pedastals, but as you progress new pedastals become available and new types of buildings for making gold or jewel encrusted wares also become available. The more you process an item you’ve purchased, the more profit you will make. Try to get the most expensive items on the stone pledastals as they will create more revenue for you at regular intervals. There is an indicator that will let you know when revenue is going to be credited to you.

Like other sim games, the stats are all on the bottom and you will get audio confirmation for many actions taking place. As the play progresses, more items will be offered for you to repair or improve then sell on or earn cash by keeping the equipment. In addition, you will need to buy raw materials that are on sale often, and build more buildings to expand your business. Blueprints for new buildings will become available throughout the game which you can access via the patterns button at the lower part of the levels map. Occasionally the raw materials can be purchased at sale prices; this is the best time to purchase your raw materials. Later in the game you can purchase power ups that improve the amount of discount you can get. It will get quite busy as you progress, but upgrades from the shop will help ease the work load occasionally, for example you can upgrade your house to a mansion which increases the number of workers from a maximum of 8 to 15, which helps to speed up the conversion of rusty old wares to shiny ones thus speeding up the ability to make cash via the pedastal or sales platform. Once you meet your goals, which are listed to the top left of the screen, you go on to the next level. The end of level stats board will count up all your resources. these are allocated points which are then converted to gold coins, which can then be used to purchase upgrades or new items to buy. At the end of each level you are also awarded crystal coins which are worth more than gold coins. You can also upgrade the vendors wagons so that they sell more items to you each visit. There are more options to choose from like gold swords, more buildings to erect and employees to hire. There are four areas to complete each with several stages, so there’s lots to accomplish in this cute looking time management game.

You can replay any level that you’ve already unlocked. A great way to better ypour score, or improve on the medals you may have been awarded.

Oh yeah, i nearly forgot, watch out for the animals. they can cause your production to grind to a halt if they enter any of the buildings. you have to make them friendly by repeatedly clicking on them. Initially it can take up to 20 clicks to calm them down, but you can purchase tools to help calm them down quicker via the shop, where you’ll find several other ‘power ups’ to help you accomplish your tasks, as well as the usual upgrades to buildings etc.

Features:

• Manage your own smithy.

• Enjoy immersive atmosphere with deep storyline.

• Discover rare magic cards and powerful spells.

• Reclaim your lost King’s Smith title!

Images:

I’ve uploaded around 150 screen captures showing most of the tutorial screens. you’ll get a very good idea what to expect from this game by checking out the slideshow and the video. you can check out individual images by clicking on the grid button to the bottom right, just above the film strip; you need to hover your mouse over the bottom of the screen to see the fim strip. This will show you a grid of all images. You can increase the size of the thumbnails via a slider, or click on individual images to bring them up full screen.

Follow the link below to see a slideshow of the images. For some reason I’m unable to post any images in the review any longer. The coding doesn’t work. I’ve checked back to previous reviews where images were posted and none of them show any more. whether the owners have made changes to the site to block images I do not know; the only rationale I can think of is page loading for those that don’t have fast internet connections. I’ll post the review over in the forums later today as i think a review with images is much more informative.

Video:

The following is a video of King Smiths 2 game play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6gFbp752U8&feature=player_embedded

PC System requirements

• Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS Leopard
• 900 MHz processor
• 3D graphic accelerator
• 512 MB RAM

Conclusion:

Don’t let the quaint graphic fool you into thinking this is a simple game. Initially the game starts off quite slow. slow enough for me to enjoy playing this game. (I rarely enjoy time management games as I like to play at my own pace). I liked the ability to be able to haggle with your vendors and clients for a better price. The game reminded me a lot of the Farm Frenzy series which is about the only time management game other than this one that I really like.

The game was easy to learn and play thanks to the straightforward tutorial that is devoted to the first level, though it continues whenever something new is introduced into the game. The game started off a little slow initially, but soon speeds up. I found the game play was quite addictive. The cartoon characters and background were entertaining and the music appropriate, though as mentioned below, you can change this to whatever you fancy if you wish. The easy going speed and the graphics are ideal for the family game and I think you’ll have lots of fun playing together with this game. It’s worth an excellent 8 out of 10 or even maybe an 8.5 for family orientated game play and a riveting game plan. (I rarely give games 8 or more, so this being from a genre I don’t usually play would indicate that I think it’s a very worthwhile game to keep in your games library. I’ll definitely be keeping this one. Thank you to Running Pillow and the game giveaway team for giving and finding this little gem of a game. The main difference between this and the original is the addition of a relaxed mode. (that’s really unusual in a time management game, which is why I gave this a 8 instead of a 7.5).

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Additional Information

Music:

If you don’t like the in game music, or feel like a change (changing the music to some of your favourite music can help towards the enjoyment of playing the game) you can easily change the music by swapping the music files for ones of your own. You will need to rename your music files to the ones found within the installed games music folder because they are in the .ogg format. This is easily done by using one of the many freely available converters. There are several audio converters to be found in the freeware library. I would back up the original music just in case you run into problems; but, if you forget you can always install the demo and use the music from that if required.

You’ll find the music files by following the path:

C:\Program files\KingsSmith2\resources\audio\music (32bit)

or

“C:\Program Files (x86)\KingsSmith2\ resources\audio\music (64bit)

If you need an audio converter you can find several free audio converters via the following link:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/cat/Audio_Video_Audio_Encoders_Converters/

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Other similar games:

You can download several time management games from Gametop though they have recently changed their format and appear to have lost a lot of the games that used to be free.
You’ll find Time to hurry, Dream Cars Samurai Last Exam, Funny Miners, Ancient Rome, Lovely Kitchen, Wendy’s Wellness, Travel agency and Cake queen.

http://www.gametop.com/category/time-management.html

You can still get loads of time management games from MyPlayCity now. There are over 30 available including the following titles:

Cake Shop 2, Fashion Craze, Nanny Mania, Beach Party Craze, Magic Farm: Ultimate flower, Cake Shop, Wendy’s Wellness, Jenny’s fish Shop, Lovely kitchen and Farm Frenzy 1 & 2. All of the MyPlayCity games are available from the following link:

http://www.myplaycity.com/free_time_management_games/
Please do remember that the games from both sites will open up your browser when you close the game down, but it is totally innocuous. You may also find that during the installation process check boxes will appear indicating tool bars and even your home page may be changed, but you can stop this by un-checking the box. Gametop are increasingly resorting to pop ups as well, so ensure your pop up blocker is primed. All that said, the games from both sites are safe and of a good quality, so if you’re looking for more time management games for free, they are the places to visit.

Please allow me to install the game to a folder of my specification.
Setup.exe installed to ‘C:\Program Files\KingsSmith2′ without me being able to change this to my preferred directory: ‘C:\Games\KingsSmith2′.

……………………Moderator comment………………….

Yes you are right’ we should be given the option; that said, you can easily copy the folder over to your games folder. You will of course have to redo all the shortcuts. The desktop shortcut is simple to create (right click on the games executable then select ‘Send To, then from the drop down menu select Desktop (shortcut)} If you still want Start Menu/Program shortcuts and you’re not sure how to create a shortcut within the Start Menu/Programs list I posted a short tutorial in the game discussion forums a few years ago that tells you how to create one, basically you just have to find where all the shortcuts are kept for the program listings.