HomeFeaturesReigns: Three Kingdoms
I wish I could cheat Reigns: Three Kingdoms like a Choose Your Own Adventure bookSwipe left, swipe right, ach, won’t someone just show me a good time?
Swipe left, swipe right, ach, won’t someone just show me a good time?
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
Reigns: Three Kingdoms | Out Now on Nintendo Switch and PCWatch on YouTube
Reigns: Three Kingdoms | Out Now on Nintendo Switch and PC
This plays out mostly as a series of binary decisions. Events, encounters, conversations, policies, and such are presented as a a stack of cards, which you drag left or right to make your choice. Do we side with rebellion? Should people be able to buy their way out of of prison? Do you agree thinking is cool or do you call a scholar a nerd? Do you help a fisherman expand his business? Which child do you bet on in a game? Do we ban alcohol for soldiers? Wanna marry someone? Wanna follow this cat? Swipe to decide.
Some decisions start or advance quests, whether that’s working towards gaining power or helping someone bust ghosts. These stories can be fun diversions. Many decisions increase and decrease your four meters: Supplies, People, Military, and Virtue & Morality. Usually, you’ll swap one for another. If any meter gets too high or too low, someone will off your character and you’ll reincarnate in the simulation as a cousin. This does preserve your campaign progress, though many decisions recur in each life. This quickly becomes tiresome, and it undercuts the fun of choosing your own adventure.
I did enjoy discovering the many pretty illustrated meter deaths, the first time |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
Attacking with my monkey ends the turn, no matter how many moves I have left, so it’s best to hit a rotation which slams down its big numbers in my final move |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
The marketing billsReignsas “Tinder for monarchs” and sadly, from what friends tell me of their Tinder experiences, that might be not far off. I started out swiping with big dreams of adventure and intrigue and it was fun for a while but I’ve had my fill of frustrating repetition with too little pay-off. And it probably would be more fun if, rather than focusing on it at my PC, I idly swiped about on my phone while watching Columbo.
Reigns: Three Kingdoms is out nowon Steam, priced at £2.49/€2.99/$2.99. Andon Switch. And on phones through Netflix, somehow, for some reason.
