| Kohan: Ahriman’s Gift (K:AG) is a prequel to the popular Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns (K:IS) title released earlier this year. K:AG is not an upgrade or expansion pack -- it stands alone, so you don’t need to own the original to play. Like it’s precursor, it’s a worthy effort. Think of it as Kohan II, because it has taken all the best features of the first version and polished each one.
The game combines real-time strategy and fantasy elements in an entertaining mix. Your goal is to restore the world of Khaldun to peace by fighting as either a Kohan committed to the Creator or as one who serves the Shadow, the arch-nemesis. Either way, your victory will bring order. Along the way, make sure to balance the economy, technology and military tracks.
The game is quite feature-rich, and the development/production team has gone to great lengths to polish it. Here are the new numbers: - 5 campaigns
- 7 game types (such as Deathmatch, Bloodbath)
- 8 multiplayers max (LAN or Internet)
- 30 opponent AIs
- 40 new maps
- 70 different heroes
- 75 technologies
- 90 units
- 100 different spells
It all adds up to an impressive list. Each of these is an improvement over K:IS. Add to this functionality a fairly straightforward map editor and a cheat toggle, a devoted fan following and numerous Web sites, and the depth of the game becomes apparent.
One of the best parts of the game for newcomers remains the detailed and inviting tutorials. The game designers have bent over backwards to cater to those who are unfamiliar with the genre, providing a safe environment for learning the interface. First-time users can become entirely familiar with the game’s nuances before venturing out to be slaughtered on the battlefield by the cunning artificial intelligence (AI).
The game also features slick documentation that is thorough and well written, plus a sturdy quick-reference card containing keyboard shortcuts.
Kohan is a very challenging game. Even with the economy balanced and soldiers digging in, you never really feel safe. Skeletons, bats, giant hounds and all manner of pests can erupt out of the darkness at any time. The Fog of War begs to be explored, with numerous artifacts, ruins, amulets and treasures. The technology all sounds good after awhile, but you can’t have everything. Fiendish.
The AI is clever enough to let you think you’re winning when you’re not. You can be off to the edges of the map, conquering nest after nest, until the opponent quickly moves in for the kill on your main city. Expect to get beat a few times even at the easy level if you are trying the game for the first time.
One of the best features is still the ability to zoom the gameplay up to 400% speed. I live to hear the hammers of the engineers as they nail together an outpost or mine at top speed. Another inspired addition is the creation of zones around villages and units. An ailing squad can restore its health to 100% if it can get back into the Zone of Control around an outpost or town. And units in Kohan don’t stand around doing nothing while the enemy sneaks by. First, units will fortify themselves and dig in. Second, if their zone is pierced by an enemy unit, they’ll fight.
There are still two annoying features: - If you click a lot moving the troops around, the voice response becomes repetitive
- You have to adjust the game speed every time you leave a lesson in the tutorial or advance to a new campaign, no matter how many times you have set the speed the way you want it.
Still, those are nitpicks and not much to quibble with. Because you have so many different units available to create your squads, there must be thousands of combinations to explore in K:AG. You can count on having to work hard to ever play the same game twice. And if that’s where good games are heading, I’m all for it. | 
