Knights of Honor II: Sovereign Reviews
A rich, complex and ultimately satisfying grand strategy game, one that will keep you company for dozens upon dozens of hours while you lead your favourite medieval civilization towards victory.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Knights of Honor II: Sovereign does quite a few things right, though it could use more polish for many aspects of the game, starting with the voice lines that generals get.
As it stands, Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is a massively impressive feat that will delight many strategy fans. The medieval setting is beautiful and immersive, and the different paths to victory are a great mechanic keep players on their toes. Since some victory paths, like securing resources for a kingdom advantages victory, can take time and effort to achieve, this also adds a healthy dose of challenge and flexibility to the overall experience. You'll often find yourself having to re-think a strategy mid-playthrough as wars break out and foes close trading deals. While this type of gameplay may not be everyone's cup of tea, it will certainly be challenging and energising to those that don't shy away from some statistics and resource management.
I think as long as you know what to expect going in… this could well be a fantastic game. If you like fiddling over the minutia of your empire then you will probably love this game. If like me you'd prefer a bit less worrying about the small stuff to your rule… perhaps give it a miss.
Sovereign is not the next big entry in the grand strategy horizon and it isn't even trying to be: simpler and more approachable than most of its rivals, the game feels a bit hasty in some of its core mechanics and in recreating the historical context, but it's enjoyable nontheless.
Review in Italian | Read full review
This year was quite plenteous for strategic games, and Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is among the finest, if not the finest genre entry.
Review in Russian | Read full review
As accessible as I’ve ever seen serious strategy gaming, Knights of Honor is still strategically interesting, gorgeous to look at, and still offers plenty of challenge. It hasn’t been compromised in any significant way for the sake of accessibility, and really, this is just a very good example of a publisher finding a genuine and worthy niche to occupy within a very mature and saturated genre.
A decent alternative if you want something in the style of Total War. It is characterized by comparable, quite complex management, but poor AI in the campaign and less successful battles. It offers some interesting options, but on the other hand, several elements are underdeveloped and unbalanced.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is the kind of game that confuses me with its existence. It’s not for newcomers with its real-time world map on top of real time combat. Even slowed down to turtle speed, it’s still a lot for someone who’s never played a game like this to start with. Especially with the complete lack of a worthwhile tutorial to lead them through the game. And it’s definitely not for genre veterans, given they’ll have played ten games that do everything better than this one.
Knights of Honour II: Sovereign is a difficult but rewarding game. A sequel nearly 20 years in the making that creates an intricate gameplay loop, improved with well-made interconnected systems all well tied together with fantastic UI and great sound design to create a full and unique RTS experience.
Knight of Honor II has been quite an amazing title, perfect for newbies and old strategists alike. Strategically interesting, with a remarkable visual design but it has an AI that leaves something to be desired and sometimes in some events it can be unfair. Even so, the title has managed to be quite a success, a title that shortens the distance between civilization and Crusader kings, leaving a great taste in the mouth.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Knights Of Honour 2: Sovereign is a game that takes patients and a strategic mind, a dash of luck would not go astray either. You will make bad decisions that could just about bring your whole kingdom crumbling to your feet, and if that happens just try again. Just beware however you will need time to play this, either a lot at once or in short intervals over a long time, this isn’t a quick skirmish and the games one this is a long term, put plans in motion and prepare for a long winter type of game. Yes, you can still just play for the fun of it, though with friends would make that easier and more enjoyable. For the hard-core strategist, this game will show you just how good you are and will make anyone who loves that sort of competitive aspect or challenge to their skill giddy with excitement.
Black Sea Games had the self-proclaimed goal of making an accessible grand strategy game. And they did succeed. Knights of Honor II - Sovereign does many things right by leaving out complexity that makes games from e.g. Paradox Games very hard to start. Besides this obvious strength the game stays very close to its 2004 predecessor and doesn't change much. This isn't a bad thing but a bit more bravery wouldn't have hurt. Juggling diplomacy, economics, military and the clergy makes for an immersive and fun experience. Besides the real-time battles that leave much desired Knights of Honor II doesn't make any big mistakes and is a very solid bridge between Medieval: Total War and Games like Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings.
Review in German | Read full review
Knights of Honor II: Sovereign definitely immersed me into medieval times filled with hundreds of historical kingdoms to explore and lands to conquer. The “Total War” RTS combat style didn’t really stick due to the abundance of management tasks that take priority over combat, but the game has plenty of resources, politics, and tech trees to discover. It felt good once you get used to the routines of trying to make your kingdom the best in Europe. With exceptional presentation and hours of replay value, this is an RTS you can’t miss.
Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is a solid entry in the grand-strategy genre. The historical accuracy of the game is impressive, but flexible customisation options allow for plenty of replayability.
Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is a precious RTS gem and one of those games that we don't get to play very often. It simply is a gift from Black Sea Games and THQ Nordic to the RTS fans. From town-building to micromanaging diplomacy can't get any deeper than this.
Overall, Knights of Honor 2: Sovereign is a fun and well made addition to the grand strategy market. It was always going to be tough to stand up to the leaders in that genre, but the game makes a good case for itself, and I enjoyed my time playing it overall. With a few additional quality of life features over time, and hopefully more content moving forward, it can live up to its full potential and maybe even rise to the throne itself.