Kingdom
Review

Kingdom (2015) is a retro-look strategy game where you must defend your town from the nightly attack of zombies as you develop your technology and civilisation day by day. But unlike other tower-defence games – where you set up defences and fend off waves of attacking forces – there’s no access to any statistics so you must discover the best strategy by trial and error. As you incrementally advance, you discover new technology and eventually sail to safety on the next island.

Junior players will enjoy the compelling jeopardy of each night and the thrill of discovering new weapons and defences. The simplicity of the game’s trial-and-error strategy makes it accessible to a wide range of ages. Playing with a sibling or parent expands the enjoyment and defensive options.

Playing for the first time in single-player mode helps you gain some understanding, but this is a game about making decisions without all the information you might want. Children enjoy making notes about the effects of different expansion options and plotting their next move. Then, moving to two-player mode, you can work efficiently together to develop your civilisation. Talk and communicate about each decision and use the extra pair of hands to get things done more quickly as the game progresses.

There are different versions on different systems

• Kingdom Classic is on PC and Mac.
• Kingdom New Lands is on PC, Mac, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, iOS, Android
• Kingdom Two Crowns is on PC, Mac, Xbox One, PS4, Switch

Our examiner, Jo Robertson, first checked Kingdom 3 years ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 6 weeks ago.