Kingmakers has the best twist on medieval warfare ever

Initial, Kingmakers looks like a normal Chivalry style sandbox tactics game. However, watch a little more of the first trailer – about 23 seconds in – and you’ll see so much more.

(Ed. remark: Spoilers below for the Kingmakers twist.)

The game, developed by Redemption Road Games (Way Salvation) and published by tinyBuild, is not just a strategy game. According to a press release, you play as an elite task force agent transported 500 years back in the time of medieval England to prevent a future apocalypse. And you do this by using your modern technology – from weapons to all kinds of vehicles and even air strikes. In the trailer, you can see the player character rolling over hordes of soldiers with their truck, an attack helicopter, and various weapons, including a shotgun and a sniper rifle.

It’s like Army of darkness without the mischievous demons, or A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s court if it’s written by Quentin Tarantino or Eli Roth.

In addition to the brutal levels of violence and bloodshed, Kingmakers is in many ways poised to resemble other medieval real-time strategy games. Despite your technological prowess, you still command armies consisting of thousands of soldiers at a time. The press release notes that this will run as a “real-time simulation with thousands of soldiers fighting simultaneously” thanks to AI controls that also track loyalty.

You can also switch between just determining strategy and taking care of things yourself. Kingmakers also offers co-op with up to three other players, and in this mode each of you is given an army to command.

Kingmakers expected to hit Steam Early Access later this year.