Kingmakers has the best version of medieval real-time strategy ever

First of all, Kingmakers looks like a normal chivalry-style sandbox tactics game. However, watch its first trailer a little more – around 23 seconds – and you’ll see a lot more.

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

The game, developed by Redemption Road Games (Road Redemption) and published by tinyBuild, is not just a strategy game. According to a press release, you play as a member of an elite task force who has been transported 500 years back in time to medieval England to prevent a future apocalypse. And you achieve this using your modern technology – from weapons to vehicles of all kinds and even airstrikes. In the trailer, you can see the player character driving into 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 in King Arthur’s court if it had been written by Quentin Tarantino or Eli Roth.

Besides the brutal levels of violence and blood, Kingmakers is, in many ways, close to being similar to other medieval real-time strategy games. Despite your technological prowess, you will still command armies consisting of thousands of soldiers at a time. The press release states that this will play out 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 strategizing and taking care of things yourself. Kingmakers also features co-op with up to three other players, and in this mode, each of you commands an army.

Kingmakers is expected to launch on Steam in Early Access later this year.