![]() ![]() No Xbox Live Avatars in the PC version of Keflings. It's the kind of pace rarely set by videogames, and I found it refreshing. Sooner rather than later, I'd be back to build again. ![]() After spending an hour or so in Kefling-land, I'd turn it off and do something else for a bit, but my thoughts would eventually roll back around to my ever-growing kingdom. But neither of those things are necessarily negatives, because the game seems purposely designed to gently push you away and then pull you back in. And as the blueprints balloon in size and the projects become more complex, the thought of starting yet another building can be somewhat overwhelming. Much of the gameplay is repetitive and routine, which can grow tiresome after too long at the controls. Like a puzzle, A Kingdom For Keflings is the sort of game best approached in short, concentrated bursts. Keflings is more like a city sim crossed with one of those tabletop 3D puzzles your grandparents think you're so fond of. There are no enemies waiting in the wings to attack you, there's no timer ticking feverishly away, and there are no real consequences for doing things any particular way (even if you flub a building or component, you can always break it down and recycle its parts). There's a lot of management that goes on in A Kingdom For Keflings, but it wouldn't be quite accurate to call it a strategy game. As you can imagine, things quickly become quite complicated, and soon you'll have a cluster of buildings all doing different things and a gang of Keflings scurrying about their business. You can only build certain components at certain workshops, and you'll need to build those as well. So, for example, if you want to build a school to make your pliable little friends smarter, you'll need to unlock its blueprint (usually by building a precursor structure) and then follow it to build the required components out of the materials you've gathered. Trees must be turned into planks, rocks must be cut into stackable stones, sheep must be sheared and their fiber spun into cloth, etc. All these materials can be harvested by you or your Keflings and turned into building supplies, but it's not as easy as chopping down a bunch of trees and making a house appear. Scattered around the colorful 3D map are natural resources such as pine trees, stones, sheep and patches of precious crystals. And any good contractor will tell you, construction is as much about managing a constant and complex flow of people, materials and components as it is about actually building things. At the opening of the game, you're informed that the poor little blighters need a town built and that you're just the giant for the job. You, the player, are a towering giant with a knack for getting things done the old-fashioned way: delegation. Keflings are just your average medieval villagers who are hopelessly inept at building things. Aside from a lack of Xbox Live Avatars and a smoother framerate, it's basically the same experience. Keflings was first released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2008, and NinjaBee has now released it as a PC download (for $9.95 as of this writing). ![]()
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