Konung 1 + 2

As far as concepts go, these games do something a little different than what I'm used to in that you need to command villages to really advance further in the game. Some characters can use diplomacy... other need to use force... and some are a blend. You get to hire lots of mercenaries/cohorts (and they are pretty much a necessity) and build up your group and your villages. Those villages start to give you tribute after a while. It was also pretty cool to get a Nordic vibe from a game like this... I don't recall any other game doing that. Potion crafting was a nice touch. Lots of magic items to bolster your character and his minions. That being said, combat is pretty bland in that you just click and everyone swarms/shoots the target. Anyone can be a target and that means big mistakes if you forget to sheath your weapon. "Man I got a lot of good loot! I should sell it to the... STOP KILLING THE MERCHANT!" So you should save constantly. Not just for that reason... but because occasionally you run into an enemy that will completely wreck your world. Movement and gameplay are pretty slow if you don't know how to speed up the game. There really isn't explanation or tutorial on how to do anything in the game so you have to figure it out yourself. Story is pretty gimmicky "Dude found an all-powerful artifact, got corrupted, someone needs to stop him, and that someone is you" and never really develops from there. When you assign people to villages, they take the merc with the highest appropriate skill. So if you don't want to lose that person in your party you have to do some fancy party reassignments to give up the guy you want. Grinding is pretty essential in both games... whether it be for tribute, skill gains, or leveling up. It was pretty fun for a while but it got pretty underwhelming fairly quick and wasn't for me. Beat them, deleted them, won't be going back.

Konung 1 - Always enjoyed this game. I'm a person who quite enjoys squad based rpg's and this was one of the first ones I played when I was younger. Its a little rough around the edges but its well worth it in my opinion for a somewhat unusual but good rpg set it Scandinavian lands (Also unusual but good). Pro's Squad-based combat/party gathering (Can get a bit chaotic though). Very interesting dialog and quests (Not quite the usual rpg dialog). Settlement mechanics are a nice twist for this kind of game. Doesn't hold your hand. Cons Help can be hard to find as much of the online information is in russian/etc but there's enough that you shouldn't struggle, try gamefaq's. Can be a little slow due to the player character's speed (Press + or - to slow or speed up the game to avoid this). Konung 2 - I've played a lot less of this one, seems like it'd be really good as its got a lot of interesting stuff going on, but also seems rougher around the edges. Would love to get into it but just seems a bit tooo rough for me. (That said if you like the first you may easily like the second).

Konung games, what actually are named Knyaz (Prince), are a number of interesting yet deeply flawed games. I didn't played Konung 1, because characters can't run in it and i hate it. As for Konung 2: For starters: their RPG system is awful, worst of all — equipment is tied to stats. Companions don't level up from quests, worthless skills are present in character's skill tree. I reccomend new players to take a bunch of healling berries from the ground and to plant them somethere else, like near town's entering point. If you trow plants on empty ground (like on grass) and exit the town (maybe on a game day, I don't know) you will find an interesting feature: after you take the flowers you had put some time ago and exit this map, upon returning (after some time) you will find what this plants are now spawning from the place you put them. To heal the squad you should press Ctrl+LBM on PC's portrait. The best skills are healing and alchemy (don't know their names in English version, in Russian they are Знахарство и Смешение зелий). «A» button makes squad to attack the enemies, use it. Generally you must to do the quests and drink wisdom potions (though they are more useful for companions). Alchemy skill develops if you just do the alchemy. If it's not developing — put some points in intelligence. Same with healing skill. In the end, Koung 2 is a good game in Pseudo Early Medieval Russian Setting, what is brutal in beggining and easy towards the end. Sadly Konung 3 isn't on GOG. I woud have bought it.

For those with technical difficulties, check the GOG forum for this game. I couldn't find useful help literally anywhere else; I couldn't get the game to play at all until following the advice there. I played this game when it first came out. I still have the disk. Like another person said, this game has a whole pack of flaws. But it's not fair to judge it by today's standards either. It is best understood as a game similar to the old Final Fantasy or Phantasy Star games in the sense that you'll be far better off if you grind the early game in order to power up your character so you can use some decent equipment. And level your alchemy to 500 asap. Also like those old FF and PS games, Konung still delivers a totally unique story and world experience. It does some really cool things for its time: for example, after going through a quest to defeat a zombie queen who used an evil ritual on a village's temple and turning all its people into undead, you can repopulate and rebuild the town in order to have the new town elder to build you a bridge to cross into the next set of zones. This is a game that explains very little to you, so for me the fun was in figuring it out. Once you get the hang of it, it gives you an extremely satisfying feeling of going from feeble to formidable.