Tiger Knight: Empire War

Tiger Knight: Empire War
Developer(s)	NetDragon
Publisher(s)	Oasis Games
Composer(s)	Hitoshi Sakimoto
Engine	Unreal Engine 3
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4[1]
Release	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X WW: October 24, 2016 PlayStation 4 WW: TBA
Genre(s)	Real-time tactics, Action role-playing game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer, Cooperative

Tiger Knight: Empire War is massively multiplayer online game that mixes real-time tactics and action role playing in a large-scale wars primarily from the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China. It was released on Steam as free-to-play (and shortly early access) in August 2016.^[2] The game is being developed to be compatible with virtual reality (VR) platforms.^[3]

Tiger Knight: Empire War is an exciting action strategy PVP game which reenacts large-scale warfare set circa 200 BC. Featuring meticulously recreated battle equipment and weaponry, Tiger Knight: Empire War will transport you back to the brutal era of melee combat.

Each player leads an army, and while the focus is on player versus player (PVP) gameplay, the game also features a player versus environment (PVE) mode. Battles take place between hundreds of player-controlled units. The game focuses primarily on unmounted combat at lower levels, and mounted combat at higher levels, with simultaneous focus on the communication, strategy, tactics as well individual performance.^[2][4]

Game Features

1. Reference and Innovation Tiger Knight turns to classic PC games for reference and adopts a third person RPG operation mode, so that players can control their mouse to attack or parry. Combo attack, charge attack, charge and penetration, all these techniques compose the fast tempo of this game.

2. Command and Strategy Tiger Knight is the first war game that integrates melee strategy and action competition. It resurrects various ancient war troops and strategies. Players can fight battles by commanding troops and adjutants.

3. Restraint on Weapons and Armors Tiger Knight employs a unique method of calculating damage and defense. Damage is classified into several types according to weapon types and attack methods-- chop, crush and pierce. Armors are offered in cloth, leather, iron and composite materials. Weapons will have specific effects when paired with distinct armors. Damages are also different depending on locations.

4. Realistic Battlefield Numerous famous battlefields reappear in Tiger Knight, each of which has its own combat strategy. Players should choose appropriate strategy according to the battlefield.

5. Various Collection Modes In Tiger Knight, there are 10 upgrade modes. Each mode contains 5-10 troops. Players unlock and upgrade by obtaining experience, prestige and copper, recruiting adjutants from famous heroes in the Three Kingdom Period and training them in different skills and formations.

6. Numerous Equipment Players can unlock equipment such as armors, weapons and horses. There are more than 1000 armors and weapons, 50 horses and horse gears in Tiger Knight. Players can choose weapons with different lengths or damage, cloth armor, leather armor and iron armor.

7. Unique Adjutant System Players can not only unlock soldiers but also recruit famous adjutants. Adjutants have different capacities, special formations, skills and different levels of loyalty. Improve their abilities to win the battle.

Game Background

The powerful Eastern Han Dynasty stepped into the darkness night. The imperial power was weak and fragile. The Kushan Empire, lying across the Central Asia and Southern Asia, was split into several small countries after countless brutal wars. The Parthian Empire, stretching across the Eurasia, was gradually weakened by the wars against the Roman Empire that was stuck in the endless civil wars and the invasion of the barbarians. During this period, warlords got opportunity to rise up. In truceless times, you can command soldiers or fight by yourself to win the warfare and become a valiant hero.

Gameplay

Each player make customized character, and learn to master parrying, attacking, and shielding in four directions.^[5] Weapons and armor have different protection attributes (cloth, iron, leather) and damage types (chop, crush, pierce), bringing the different restraint relations. Adjutants (well-known Chinese generals) have different capacities, special formations, skills and different levels of loyalty.^[6]

Factions

Currently there are 3 main factions, all based on the Three Kingdoms of the ancient China - Shu, Wei, and Wu. The Kushan Empire, Parthian Empire, Roman Empire among others are under development.^[2]

Each main faction has a specific soldier class with unique features. Players choose which class which subsequently contains a type of soldier the person can utilize during battle.

1. Shu - Infantry / Crossbowmen: Have good defense and middle range, but poor attack range and speed. Mainly use short swords, axes, and shields. The crossbowman have mid-long range accuracy, long range defense, but slow load speed. They can be upgraded to ranged cavalry with mid-long range and good close combat.
2. Wei - Polearms / Cavalry: - Have high health, defense, and anti-collision, but poor mobility and close combat. Mainly use pikes, spears, and halberds. Mostly used for anti-cavalry. Cavalry have strong assault and collision, but are not flexible in prolonged close combat. Mounted Archers have good middle range, view and mobility, but poor accuracy, damage and defense. During the long-term wars, Wei infantry maintained the tradition of troops of the Central Plain. Wei infantry equipped with heavy armor and long pike became the main force to in resisting the cavalries. The infantries recruited numerous elites from the Central Plain while Cao Cao conquered the place and turned it into the cornerstone of Cao Wei.
3. Wu - Infantry / Bowmen - Have high attack damage, attack speed, movement, but lowest health and armor-defense. Mainly use large wooden "Paddles", short weapons (like swords) and shields. Bowmen have very long attack range, good load speed (rate of fire), but poor melee and anti-collision capabilities.
4. Rome - Infantry / Strong

Modes

Command Mode: PVP Mode (with soldiers) with 10-14 players, who individually command 1 adjutant and up to 40 soldiers at most to defeat enemies. This mode supports a 200 VS 200 battle and includes two sub-modes, Conquest and Siege.^[2][6]

Duel Mode: PK between generals (without soldiers) supports a 16 VS 16 battle and contains six sub-modes. Players can fight individually or in teams. Each bout lasts for about 15 minutes (or 80 kills).^[2][6]

Epic War: PVE Mode easy/normal/hard (cooperation between teams) players join as a team to fight with the AI in realistic simulations of famous battles from the Three Kingdoms Period. The difficulty of PVE mode is divided into three levels: easy, normal and hard.^[5][6]

All the modes give a combination of main general experience, troop experience (except Duel Mode), copper (basic currency), prestige, and exploit (only Duel Mode).^[6]

Development

The game uses the optimized Unreal Engine 3, as well as the PhysX physical engine and HairWorks hair dying skills and advanced action motion capture skills so that every element of Tiger Knight restores the true history. The game restores numerous famous battlefields during the era of the Three Kingdoms, and each piece of weapon and armor is made according to antiques.^[7] The music of the game was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto with ancient musical instruments.^[8]

Reception

The game received positive early reviews. They praised the combat system, various modes and music, while noted poorly optimized graphic quality, English translations and latency issues which could be fixed in the future patches.^[5] It was considered similar to games like Mount and Blade, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and Dynasty Warriors.^[9][10]

System Requirement

Minimum:

1. OS: Microsoft Windows 7, 8 ,10 32bit
2. Processor: 3.0 GHz Dual core or equipment
3. Memory: 4 GB RAM
4. Graphics: directx9 compliant graphics card with 1024MB RAM
5. DirectX: Version 9.0
6. Network: Broadband Internet connection
7. Storage: 10 GB available space
8. Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Recommend:

1. OS: Microsoft Windows 7, 8 ,10 64bit
2. Processor: 3.7 GHz 4 core or equipment
3. Memory: 8 GB RAM
4. Graphics: directx11 compliant graphics card with 2048MB RAM
5. DirectX: Version 11
6. Network: Broadband Internet connection
7. Storage: 10 GB available space
8. Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Game Roles

• General

The role of General is created by all players at the beginning of the game; players can depends on their preference to design their General’s appearance, and purchase variety items to dress him up.

• Adjutant

Adjutant plays a role of assistant of players, who can offer formations with different units to increase the battle power. At the meanwhile, adjutant has a better battle power than ordinary units to fight with enemies. In our future plans, we will add adjutant nurturance system that players can cultivate their adjutants.

• Troop

Players can take control of the most powerful 3 armies in Chinese history- Wei, Shu, Wu. Each army has boasts its own strengths and weakness, which allowing players to choose the forces that best represent their battle strategies. These 3 kingdoms bring the archers, infantry, cavalry which can lead by players’ in game character-General to fight. Moreover, there will be more different kind of army will be release in the future, such as Roman army and Barbarian.

External links

• The Tiger Knight Official Website
• Tiger Knight in Steam
• Tiger Knight Facebook

References