Once Upon a Knight demo

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: CNET Staff

State-of-the-art graphics and the idea to fuse real-time strategy with an RPG still do not make a superb game here. Once upon a Kinght has some humor elements, which are supposed to work, but somehow they do not, and this spoils the impression. You are prince, and your task in RTS mode is to gather milk from gazing cows, build a basic set of structures, and produce units. Your units give odd comments like To work! To victory or Money is time, or is it that time is money? , all with some old English accent. Units slowly gain experience, and you have to go through long underground missions to level them up. There are two major types of units: melee and ranged. After some time playing we were annoyed by how quick ranged units get killed, so the best strategy here may be to build only fighters. In RPG mode you lead one character, much like in Diablo game. RPG missions are aimed at increasing the level of your main char and occasional NPCs that join in, but those levels hardly offer any variety. Unfortunately, the game does not start with something of interest, too: after a boring cutscene you will have to collect pieces of your armor in a single-hero quest with puzzles in the style find the lever that opens that door . On the plus side, Once upon a Knight is graphically advanced and features friendly interface as well as a good tutorial. Patient fans of RTS or Diablo-like games, that can afford loading over 400MB of data, may give this game a try.

Publisher's description

From Atari :

There are many medieval fantasy titles but none like the innovative Once Upon A Knight. Set within a world of treachery, nobility and milk (yes milk), Once Upon A Knight delivers powerful gameplay while never taking itself too seriously. It features extensive play with a comprehensive real-time strategy mode and exciting RPG modes. Throughout, Once Upon A Knight mixes hardcore depth and detail with a clever, tongue-in-cheek sensibility that appeals to a broad range of gamers. Forget what you know about fantasy titles--this one offers a milk-based economy, mothers-in-law, flying witches and secretive knights named Floyd.

CNET Editor's Note: This is a very large (442MB) file and may take several hours to download via dial-up modem.

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