Having never played the original Royal Revolt game, I had zero expectations going into to this new sequel.

However, it looked interesting enough, and well... who doesn't want to be king for at least a little bit, so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Now, in my experience, it's often difficult to find a truly well executed tower defense game. Some are so boring, I'd rather be lectured by my husband on how to properly load a dishwasher (apparently, just throwing the dishes in there isn't an effective method) then have to endure another minute of monotonous gameplay. 

Thankfully, Royal Revolt 2 did no fall into this category, even if I was extremely hesitant when I first started playing it. At first, it seemed like it was going to be too complex. The tutorial takes forever to get through and after every new thing I was supposed to learn, my feeling of apprehension grew. Then, even worse... the tutorial just stops and I was left on my own to figure out what to do next. However, once I got over my initial panic, I was pleased to see that I caught on pretty quickly.

I wouldn't call Royal Revolt 2 a true tower defense game. It seems to be more of a melding of an action game and a defense game than anything. You  have a castle that you need to clean up and restore over time. Build and upgrade your castle facilities such as taverns and farms to help bring in more food and money. Train and upgrade new troops to help in your offensive and defensive plans. Upgrade your mage's tower in order to learn new spells. These are all typical tower defense roles.

Once you are ready for battle, however, you control your character and run around with your troops smashing things and fighting other troops. I admit, at first I really despised the view. It didn't let me zoom out so I didn't really know what was coming next and how to plan. But, once I got used to the view and the fact that I needed to run around with my troops smashing things, I actually really got into the action! It gave you a more in the action feel than most tower defense games. Instead of the strategist on the hill planning your attack from the safety of your tent, you were leading your troops into the thick of battle and waging war against your enemies. Yeah... I could get used to this.

Each time you attack another person's castle, you have a certain amount of time to make it down their pathway to their castle where you will hack at the gates until they come crumbling down or you run out of time... or die a terrible death. If you are victorious, you will pillage their gold and leave a very wealthy king, with money to burn on more upgrades for your own castle.

Royal Revolt 2 is a free game that, just like most free to play games, relies on the your inability to wait for things to upgrade to make money. You can use gems to quickly finish any upgrade instead of waiting the designated amount of time, and, of course, gems cost money. Normally, this annoys me to no end, but I will have to say that Royal Revolt 2 has a nice reward system that helps you, at least in the beginning, have a steady stream of gems coming into your treasure trove. Even after playing for 30 minutes or so, I still had a healthy amount of gems in my possession with plenty of ways to make more.

The graphics for Royal Revolt 2 were also a nice surprise. They were rich, well executed designs that most tower defense games can't match. From the castle graphics to the battle scenes to the easy on the eyes user interface, the overall look and feel of Royal Revolt 2 was extremely impressive.

Overall, Royal Revolt 2, while intimidating at first, was definitely worth wading through the game complexities. So get ready to launch your career as a king into overdrive as you prepare to demonstrate your fine tactical skills by raiding and pillaging neighboring kingdoms. This hybrid action / tower defense game will lure you in with its promise of riches and keep you enthralled with its rich graphics and complex gameplay.