Kingdom Two Crowns release date announced for PC and consoles, including Switch
Co-op! New campaign settings! No more permadeath!
The new Kingdom game Two Crowns - called so because it introduces co-op - will be released 11th December for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch. The game will be included in December's Xbox Game Pass.
Kingdom is the whimsical, medieval, pixelated, side-on, settlement-building survival series. I reviewed the original Kingdom back in 2015 and was smitten, and the series has only improved since then. The idea is you slowly build better defences through the day while protecting them against an invading horde by night. It's mysterious, it's difficult, and it's fiendishly compelling.
Two Crowns' headline addition is co-op: couch co-op for all at launch, and online co-op for every platform except Switch at launch because it's still being explored. Co-op works by there being two monarchs in the game - two crowns - each controlled on one half of a horizontally-sliced TV screen.
Two Crowns' other big addition is new settings for campaigns. The first of these, available at launch, is a Japan-inspired Shogun campaign, and there will be more settings added after launch. "These aren't reskins," an announcement post stressed, "they are settings that offer different strategies to ruling in Kingdom," and they have completely new environments, items and characters. There's a glimpse of the Shogun campaign in the trailer below.
The other change of note is the removal of the permadeath mechanic in Kingdom; "death will still be your best teacher", the announcement post said, "but you won't be punished as severely as before."