Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

 PC
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Softpedia
    Dec 6, 2022
    90
    Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is a good historical strategy game. It gives players lots tools to affect their world and quickly produces results that bear little resemblance to the real past. Kingdoms fall in spectacular fashion and players need to carefully play their hand to gain new lands without attracting the attention of powerful neighbors. I do think the knights from the title should have more ways to interact with each other and the world around them. But the mix of interactions, classic development mechanics, and tactical battles offers a strong mix of ideas. Knights of Honor II: Sovereign will be fun both for long-term grand strategy fans and newcomers to this genre.
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 24, 2024
    80
    Whichever path you choose, any can lead you to absolute control of Europe, and therefore the endgame. [Issue#324]
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  3. Digitally Downloaded
    Dec 14, 2022
    80
    As accessible as I’ve ever seen serious strategy gaming, Knights of Honor is still strategically interesting, gorgeous to look at, and still offers plenty of challenge. It hasn’t been compromised in any significant way for the sake of accessibility, and really, this is just a very good example of a publisher finding a genuine and worthy niche to occupy within a very mature and saturated genre.
  5. Checkpoint Gaming
    Dec 13, 2022
    80
    As it stands, Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is a massively impressive feat that will delight many strategy fans. The medieval setting is beautiful and immersive, and the different paths to victory are a great mechanic keep players on their toes. Since some victory paths, like securing resources for a kingdom advantages victory, can take time and effort to achieve, this also adds a healthy dose of challenge and flexibility to the overall experience. You’ll often find yourself having to re-think a strategy mid-playthrough as wars break out and foes close trading deals. While this type of gameplay may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it will certainly be challenging and energising to those that don’t shy away from some statistics and resource management.
  6. IGN Italia
    Dec 5, 2022
    80
    A rich, complex and ultimately satisfying grand strategy game, one that will keep you company for dozens upon dozens of hours while you lead your favourite medieval civilization towards victory.
  7. Finger Guns
    Dec 5, 2022
    80
    Overall, Knights of Honor 2: Sovereign is a fun and well made addition to the grand strategy market. It was always going to be tough to stand up to the leaders in that genre, but the game makes a good case for itself, and I enjoyed my time playing it overall. With a few additional quality of life features over time, and hopefully more content moving forward, it can live up to its full potential and maybe even rise to the throne itself.
  8. GameStar
    Dec 16, 2022
    78
    Knights of Honor 2 inherits a lot from its predecessor, both its strengths and shortcomings. But as Total War light it is convincing.
  9. Game World Navigator Magazine
    May 4, 2023
    77
    Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is by no means a perfect game, but it’s refreshingly original. Some of its concepts deserve to be adopted even by renowned studios like Creative Assembly. [page 48]
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  10. PC Invasion
    Dec 5, 2022
    75
    Knights of Honor II: Sovereign does quite a few things right, though it could use more polish for many aspects of the game, starting with the voice lines that generals get.
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  1. 3DJuegos
    Feb 22, 2023
    With Knights of Honor II: Sovereign! a very strange feeling comes over me: rather than a sequel, it feels like a very conservative and limited remake of the original title, which came out in 2004. It has a good strategic foundation, but it's stuck in the past.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 22 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 22
  3. Negative: 4 out of 22
  1. ankancr1
    Dec 8, 2022
    10
    This is a classic game and i think the devs has done a great job. It was fun!
  2. aoetje
    Dec 11, 2022
    0
    Knights of Honor 1 is my favourite strategy game of all time. 18 years waiting and 5 years in the making and all we got is a mediocre KoH1 HDKnights of Honor 1 is my favourite strategy game of all time. 18 years waiting and 5 years in the making and all we got is a mediocre KoH1 HD remake. Some of the key issues are: cheating AI , horrible semi 3d graphics , broken diplomacy , no workshop integration , host of bugs and errors in MP , questionable design choices , ton of tiny bugs, errors, defects and QOL issues , lack of historical accuracy , no UI scaling options , garbage performance/optimisation.

    To add insult to injury devs and mods have been very dismissive to issues reported, initially game launched with cheating AI, when this was reported to devs they down right attacked players reporting these issues saying they are noobs and they don't know what they are doing - but first patch that came out 2-3 days after release changed guess what? AI behaviour on easy and normal...why deny a problem exists if you patch it 2 days later?

    Also devs claim is bigger and better but its not true, you can't even control taxes in this game, you could in KoH1, that feature is even in Lords of the Realms 2 from 1996! but not KoH2...its a joke.
    Music is a downgrade, not all songs are bad but KoH1 had more memorable ones. Lots of features added for no good reason just to be able to say game is bigger.

    Only one game mode in singleplayer ! in 2022 you can only play basically one mode on the big map, where are small scenarios like maybe map of british isles, Poland? Spain so we can play unification scenarios?
    Where are custom maps? Map editor? Workshop integration for mods? How can they justify the price for a bare bones game.

    Graphics are now semi 3d, extremely poorly optimised, blocking you from being to zoom out properly to get a good look of your kingdom and the situation. Why walk away from beautiful pixel art that didn't strain players computers? Devs have shot themselves in the foot blocking a lot of people with weak computers from playing it. They had time to implement ray tracing tech but not optimise or produce good graphics?

    My advice is: wait 6 months for this to be patched, check it then and buy on deep deep discount. Hopefully devs stop being toxic and actually listen to genuine player feedback and improve the game.

    Very sad that such a potential was wasted by an inexperienced team with no vision.    … Full Review »
  3. PenetratorGod
    Aug 26, 2023
    5
    I don't know if it's because I played this after Crusader Kings 3 but I couldn't get into this game. I found it boring and there's not enoughI don't know if it's because I played this after Crusader Kings 3 but I couldn't get into this game. I found it boring and there's not enough content right now. Maybe I will try again in the future.… Full Review »
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