I often see Knights of Honor 2: Sovereign brushed off as not worth it but in the 2 years since it's release the devs have done a ton of work to polish it off and though I do think the battles are really lacklustre and in many ways the game does feel like a remaster rather than a sequel I think there are some decent hours of replayable campaign gameplay here. What do you think? Is KOH2 worth playing in 2024? I'd love to hear your thoughts below! And subscribe to the channel for more videos just like this!
I tried it and wanted to like it, but as you say: It felt much more like a remaster than a sequel. I started with the HRE, and it didn't took long and much conquest, until I won the game with all advantages. Maybe with Crusader Kings I'm nowadays accustomed to more complexity than a 'kind-of-remaster' of an 2004's game has to offer. 😟
My Answer: NO 1. Stupid AI - (Why can't the game randomly select a country (counries) that will become your opponent(-s) and behave like another player?) 2. No battle like total war 3. Cant control AI army in battle vs Player
The game map is better than total war. the building tree is better than total war. politics and diplomacy are better than total war. I ask the developers to add battles like in total war or better. then this game will be the best game.
I have actually been playing this game quite a bit lately, mainly as the Roman's and Levonian Order. And honestly I have had a lot of fun. If you just take it for what it is and dont expect any mind blowing mechanics, you can have a lot of fun with it. Definitely has some issues but what is there is a good bit of fun for dozens of hours
Yea that's cool but there are basically a total of three mods for this game. And they are simply just balance mods. There are no overhaul mods for this game. The modding scene for KoH2 is really lackluster and almost non existent.
@@user-cu3jk6qx5w because the devs did not make map moddable for some reason only they know, they realised a game with completely weird borders and did not even give a map editor
I like the game but my two biggest qualms which explain my low playing hours are: 1: replayability issues. The world feels less alive when factions feel generic the way they do in the vanilla game 2: lack of mods. This links with the previous issue as mods normally resolve this issue in games. Paradox vanilla games are also far less interesting without mods.
And very importantly, it's half price a lot of the times, so at 20+ euros this is incredible value. Just did a new game earlier today with the island of Crete (called Candia by the venezian colonizers in 1300) and it's a lot of fun to start as the underdog and get the opportunity to start grabbing a couple of provinces around you to start growing into a real kingdom. Really love this game.
Since a lot people gave it only a shot, i've played over 500h of this game, multiplayer is so fun especially if you play as enemies(frenemies at best) with your friend. A lot of people and this video have missed that you can, at any time, start a new game using an existing save game as the time period. Blew my mind when i found it. Instantly loaded up a save where i had a crusader state vassal, and started anew but playing as the vassal. It was a tough challenge to start over when the other kingdoms were far ahead but it was fun Last but not least i almost exclusively play on Very Hard to have any resemblance of difficulty. It can get tricky if you overlook something and can end up waging war against 4+ kingdoms so there's that
This is one of the best games playing up until now been playing for 12 years knights of honor 1 and knights of honor 2 these games are awesome. The best province to choose is Winchester or london choose them if u want elite troops in koh 2
Definitely have a love/hate relationship with this game. The whole battle limit can be very frustrating, and I still have issues on figuring out how to diplomatically create vassels (like EU4 or CK3). But still, every time I play this game, it turns into like 7 hour gaming sessions. Definitely loose track of time a lot while playing😅
I haven’t played since launch not because it’s bad but because there are so many games I want to play but can’t play everything at once but I’ve noticed they’ve been doing updates lately so I’m eager to see what has changed since the launch
I have spent hundreds of enjoyable hours playing KOH2, and I waited for YEARS for the sequel to KOH to release. I was disappointed with the manual battles, and I haven't played the game for months now. I will check out some of the mods to see if there have been improvements in that arena. Another problem that I encountered was NOT producing sons. It seems pretty hit or miss if the better half can produce a son or just cranks out a bunch of daughters. Pretty important in a dynasty-driven game.
I know there are mods that add this to total war but, I have been wanting a more complex population systems. Finally the AI won't just make doom stacks of Praetorian Guard/*enter tier 4 troop here*.
i feel like most probably won't do much diplomacy, warfare in general is fun. but the long game is interestigng as well. spy + diplomat + diplomacy is dangerous although slower, you can basically take a full country over time without any actual combat, marry a child to another kingdom, kill the king and you basically can inherit land.
When I played, there was a very serious bug: when one nation declared war, all the others declared war too and sent troops simultaneously. It was impossible to circumvent this situation, either militarily or diplomatically.
doubt it's a bug. if 1 nation declared war to you and it is in an alliance with others. other nations are automaticly in war with you aswell. offensive and defensive pacts are reason for this behavior
I wish there would be a Mod which would do some Artwork Upgrade. Especially the symbols and pictures of the courtiers look very much like in 2000s game
Loved the first Installation. The second title sadly never hooked me. Even it is just more of the same in many ways with some new ideas. A big minus is the new OST. The original one gives me chills over and over again when i play the first title.
Its global RTS. And the part which belong to the global map are worth indeed. If u wanna good looking battles like in KoH1 and functional ones..its not worth. And imo that was the special of KoH1: A global RTS game with battles similar to TW. But yeah..if you can arrange urself to solve the battles by A.I. so the game is nice to play and catch the feeling of KoH1. At least the battles arnt solved intermediatly so can "watch" them and even reinforce your army.
@@TheTerminatorGaming can you do a video to how to start and get stronger in the beginning of the game?? And the best mods for the game like you do to total war??
That's strange. This kind of stuff mostly happens in the late game. The easiest way to avoid this is to have at least two diplomats and constantly send them to diplomatic missions to improve realtions with any faction that even slightly dislikes you. In the late game you can level up these diplomats to max level in lightning speed. So just send them to work and no one will ever decalre war on you unless you choose otherwise.
Honestly, its a very insanely epic game, my only sorrow is that there is really minimal variety, I get Christian vs Muslim world, but still I sometimes would love to do Hungary specific stuff, then Italian city states, then some Balkan but all just feels the very same. Also some historical names and maps are sooo terrible, Kolozsvár is called Cluj is a thing, but Pozsony or Pressburg called Nitra, which is an insanely important city in Hungarian history and adding full random areas to it which never belonged to Hungarian kingdom in these ages, really really destroy my historical immersion. The game tho I love, the economy, the design all is great, just if historical stuff, diversity, battles able to handle more than 2 armies, and diplomacy being more sneaky and influence would get fixed.... this would be among my most favorite strategy games ever.
Play when it released. While the campaign and it machenic is good. The battle is horribly arcade. Like having a bunch of plastic soldiers smash together. They need to rework the battle if they want any chance to challenge TW or CK. But the real time movement is gold. I much refer this over turn in TW
I love this game, found it incrdibly engaging. But I really think it needs a mod explosion like TW because after 150 hours I dont find a single reason to replay. I know battles arent the the main thing, but they really are awful after a while. I can buy simple, arcade battles, but if you are going that way make them spectacular and fun
I played this game a couple months ago and the problem i had then was This games like a vast but shallow pool. And i wohld love if its features were deeper rather then being so surface lvl and cuz of that i deleted it 😊
i played and loved the original game, i just dont trust when a game is getting a new instalation and so much time has past. next year it will be 20 years since the original
the biggest problem with this game are every kingdom are pretty much play the same there's no unique units for certain factions, there's a crusader event but it's very barebone.
They did not even add a lot to religions, compared to first game this one has JUST ONE new branch of existing religion... lame. Like seriously paganism is still one religion, no one does this anymore
I've had a couple of playthroughs since release but I have not played enough and I have not played recently since a few major patches have been released. That said I have not manually played one single battle yet because they are so universally loathed :/
so battles still suck, thanks for the warning, as it will probably never get good, its leaving my wishlist for good. (Yes, I am simple minded, Empire management is just the necessity to fund my armies so I can crush my enemies in glorious battles 😜 )
@@riccardocappelletti9652 best for KoH would be something like larger map of Europe with more provinces, more religions like even paganism would be made into more branches, more diplomatic options, culture map mode, claims map mode and more starting dates like ealier times
knights of honor the first version was really fun . this version is sucks .. i wish they only to keep same old version just upgrade it to we can used it on our new technical and high resolution computers no need to change any other stupid additions
It may be their design choice which is just bad imo, like "lets just remove all smaller cultures that can't be placed into any larger group, these aren't important" which is just lame design choice
I often see Knights of Honor 2: Sovereign brushed off as not worth it but in the 2 years since it's release the devs have done a ton of work to polish it off and though I do think the battles are really lacklustre and in many ways the game does feel like a remaster rather than a sequel I think there are some decent hours of replayable campaign gameplay here. What do you think? Is KOH2 worth playing in 2024? I'd love to hear your thoughts below! And subscribe to the channel for more videos just like this!
To be honest, the downsides have completely put me off. 🤷♂️
I tried it and wanted to like it, but as you say: It felt much more like a remaster than a sequel. I started with the HRE, and it didn't took long and much conquest, until I won the game with all advantages. Maybe with Crusader Kings I'm nowadays accustomed to more complexity than a 'kind-of-remaster' of an 2004's game has to offer. 😟
My Answer: NO
1. Stupid AI - (Why can't the game randomly select a country (counries) that will become your opponent(-s) and behave like another player?)
2. No battle like total war
3. Cant control AI army in battle vs Player
The game map is better than total war.
the building tree is better than total war.
politics and diplomacy are better than total war.
I ask the developers to add battles like in total war or better. then this game will be the best game.
This looks like a sponsored video to me.
I have actually been playing this game quite a bit lately, mainly as the Roman's and Levonian Order. And honestly I have had a lot of fun. If you just take it for what it is and dont expect any mind blowing mechanics, you can have a lot of fun with it. Definitely has some issues but what is there is a good bit of fun for dozens of hours
Also love that the game has workshop integration so u can play it the way u like it with mods.
Yea that's cool but there are basically a total of three mods for this game. And they are simply just balance mods. There are no overhaul mods for this game. The modding scene for KoH2 is really lackluster and almost non existent.
@@user-cu3jk6qx5w because the devs did not make map moddable for some reason only they know, they realised a game with completely weird borders and did not even give a map editor
I like the game but my two biggest qualms which explain my low playing hours are:
1: replayability issues. The world feels less alive when factions feel generic the way they do in the vanilla game
2: lack of mods. This links with the previous issue as mods normally resolve this issue in games. Paradox vanilla games are also far less interesting without mods.
And very importantly, it's half price a lot of the times, so at 20+ euros this is incredible value. Just did a new game earlier today with the island of Crete (called Candia by the venezian colonizers in 1300) and it's a lot of fun to start as the underdog and get the opportunity to start grabbing a couple of provinces around you to start growing into a real kingdom. Really love this game.
Since a lot people gave it only a shot, i've played over 500h of this game, multiplayer is so fun especially if you play as enemies(frenemies at best) with your friend.
A lot of people and this video have missed that you can, at any time, start a new game using an existing save game as the time period. Blew my mind when i found it. Instantly loaded up a save where i had a crusader state vassal, and started anew but playing as the vassal. It was a tough challenge to start over when the other kingdoms were far ahead but it was fun
Last but not least i almost exclusively play on Very Hard to have any resemblance of difficulty. It can get tricky if you overlook something and can end up waging war against 4+ kingdoms so there's that
This is one of the best games playing up until now been playing for 12 years knights of honor 1 and knights of honor 2 these games are awesome.
The best province to choose is Winchester or london choose them if u want elite troops in koh 2
When I played when this game release, i found out that the battle is horrible, so I just refund the game
i kinda like the game but never played out the battles is jsut a civ game to me
Me too, too complicated. But now i enjoy it
@@thanhtam299 does battle become better?
The battles in the first game were sooo much better
@@barcasu3960 I think they take too much time to resolve.
Definitely have a love/hate relationship with this game. The whole battle limit can be very frustrating, and I still have issues on figuring out how to diplomatically create vassels (like EU4 or CK3). But still, every time I play this game, it turns into like 7 hour gaming sessions. Definitely loose track of time a lot while playing😅
What's the battle limit?
I haven’t played since launch not because it’s bad but because there are so many games I want to play but can’t play everything at once but I’ve noticed they’ve been doing updates lately so I’m eager to see what has changed since the launch
Thank you so much for this well inform video, learned a lot and will be get This game soon!
Why is this game not more popular? It looks perfect….
Perfect? How?! The map makes no sense, borders are so wrong. Anyone who has seen Portugal more than once would be repulsed by its borders in the game.
@@velvet3784 fair enough
Walmart Crusader Kings
@@wilhelm7450 🤣
I have spent hundreds of enjoyable hours playing KOH2, and I waited for YEARS for the sequel to KOH to release. I was disappointed with the manual battles, and I haven't played the game for months now. I will check out some of the mods to see if there have been improvements in that arena. Another problem that I encountered was NOT producing sons. It seems pretty hit or miss if the better half can produce a son or just cranks out a bunch of daughters. Pretty important in a dynasty-driven game.
"Producing sons" is an hilariously accurate term XD
I know there are mods that add this to total war but, I have been wanting a more complex population systems. Finally the AI won't just make doom stacks of Praetorian Guard/*enter tier 4 troop here*.
2 months late but you should do one of these for Old Worlds. CK3 meets Civ. Thanks for the vid sir!
awesome review ❤
thank you. I will check it out again next year when more mods improve battles.
i decided to give this a try again. any tips or tutorial videos would be great. ALOT to learn here lol
What a beautiful review. Well done brother, just what I needed.
Picking it up for Birthday ! ^___^, will there be DLC(s) ?
Probaby no, game paused in a way
most underrated grand strategy game
i feel like most probably won't do much diplomacy, warfare in general is fun. but the long game is interestigng as well. spy + diplomat + diplomacy is dangerous although slower, you can basically take a full country over time without any actual combat, marry a child to another kingdom, kill the king and you basically can inherit land.
When I played, there was a very serious bug: when one nation declared war, all the others declared war too and sent troops simultaneously. It was impossible to circumvent this situation, either militarily or diplomatically.
doubt it's a bug. if 1 nation declared war to you and it is in an alliance with others. other nations are automaticly in war with you aswell. offensive and defensive pacts are reason for this behavior
Like in when you are playing as Milan(M2TW) a mission is given"Should Take Settlement of Ajaccio..."[I will consider this offer...].
I wish there would be a Mod which would do some Artwork Upgrade. Especially the symbols and pictures of the courtiers look very much like in 2000s game
Loved the first Installation. The second title sadly never hooked me. Even it is just more of the same in many ways with some new ideas. A big minus is the new OST. The original one gives me chills over and over again when i play the first title.
Its global RTS. And the part which belong to the global map are worth indeed. If u wanna good looking battles like in KoH1 and functional ones..its not worth. And imo that was the special of KoH1: A global RTS game with battles similar to TW.
But yeah..if you can arrange urself to solve the battles by A.I. so the game is nice to play and catch the feeling of KoH1. At least the battles arnt solved intermediatly so can "watch" them and even reinforce your army.
I played the game but after a while of playing all the factions declared war on me no matter what i do
I could not understand that????
Hmm strange! Much more balanced now I find
@@TheTerminatorGaming can you do a video to how to start and get stronger in the beginning of the game?? And the best mods for the game like you do to total war??
That's strange. This kind of stuff mostly happens in the late game. The easiest way to avoid this is to have at least two diplomats and constantly send them to diplomatic missions to improve realtions with any faction that even slightly dislikes you. In the late game you can level up these diplomats to max level in lightning speed. So just send them to work and no one will ever decalre war on you unless you choose otherwise.
What difficultly level are you playing on?
@@basileusp5494 normal
Honestly, its a very insanely epic game, my only sorrow is that there is really minimal variety, I get Christian vs Muslim world, but still I sometimes would love to do Hungary specific stuff, then Italian city states, then some Balkan but all just feels the very same. Also some historical names and maps are sooo terrible, Kolozsvár is called Cluj is a thing, but Pozsony or Pressburg called Nitra, which is an insanely important city in Hungarian history and adding full random areas to it which never belonged to Hungarian kingdom in these ages, really really destroy my historical immersion.
The game tho I love, the economy, the design all is great, just if historical stuff, diversity, battles able to handle more than 2 armies, and diplomacy being more sneaky and influence would get fixed.... this would be among my most favorite strategy games ever.
masterpiece🤩
Play when it released. While the campaign and it machenic is good. The battle is horribly arcade. Like having a bunch of plastic soldiers smash together. They need to rework the battle if they want any chance to challenge TW or CK. But the real time movement is gold. I much refer this over turn in TW
Its an awesome game, but battles are a bit abstract. If they had something like Mount and Blade 2 battles, this game would be top-notch.
I love this game, found it incrdibly engaging. But I really think it needs a mod explosion like TW because after 150 hours I dont find a single reason to replay.
I know battles arent the the main thing, but they really are awful after a while. I can buy simple, arcade battles, but if you are going that way make them spectacular and fun
I played this game a couple months ago and the problem i had then was
This games like a vast but shallow pool. And i wohld love if its features were deeper rather then being so surface lvl and cuz of that i deleted it 😊
i played and loved the original game, i just dont trust when a game is getting a new instalation and so much time has past. next year it will be 20 years since the original
Bro i have a problem in Twa when i downoald a mod The game never opens or the mode shuts down by itself
the biggest problem with this game are every kingdom are pretty much play the same there's no unique units for certain factions, there's a crusader event but it's very barebone.
They did not even add a lot to religions, compared to first game this one has JUST ONE new branch of existing religion... lame. Like seriously paganism is still one religion, no one does this anymore
I doubt it sold well which is a shame. That would have let to more DLCs.
I think the battles are awful. If they do a KoH3 it needs to have great battles.
I've had a couple of playthroughs since release but I have not played enough and I have not played recently since a few major patches have been released. That said I have not manually played one single battle yet because they are so universally loathed :/
No thanks. I'll pass
Best game from Bulgaria
The battles are horrible and especially a disappointment when you knew KoH 1
so battles still suck, thanks for the warning, as it will probably never get good, its leaving my wishlist for good. (Yes, I am simple minded, Empire management is just the necessity to fund my armies so I can crush my enemies in glorious battles 😜 )
UNFORTUNATELY there are not so many mods for this game
There is not much to mod, apperently map is not moddable so you can only mod things like effects, bonuses, buildings
@@velvet3784Knights Of Honor 1 has an amazing World Scenario Mod. Sadly we won't see it with KoH2.
@@riccardocappelletti9652 yeah although I was never a fan of world scenario, it made it so Italy is like one single province
@@velvet3784 that was the best scenario
@@riccardocappelletti9652 best for KoH would be something like larger map of Europe with more provinces, more religions like even paganism would be made into more branches, more diplomatic options, culture map mode, claims map mode and more starting dates like ealier times
Great game, the battles are a problem tho
bah! not as good as ck3, not as good as tw battles, not as detailed as hoi4.... why did they do this game?
Only if the battles and combat was great like total war
Worth but not for 45 usd lul
Bro, its not a good game. Its a shallow map painter with a scavenger hunt side game for resources. Meh
knights of honor the first version was really fun . this version is sucks .. i wish they only to keep same old version just upgrade it to we can used it on our new technical and high resolution computers no need to change any other stupid additions
No Albania... go figure
It may be their design choice which is just bad imo, like "lets just remove all smaller cultures that can't be placed into any larger group, these aren't important" which is just lame design choice
Not for $60something
Cd keys has it on for like $3 atm
Oh.. Another one of those... :/
First
Stupid game.