In addition to this, Cavedog adds 3D terrain and units and a Monarch unit which represents you, the player. Contrary to the GameSpot review, Kingdoms is a beautiful game. The art in the game, from the packaging, to the menus, units, movies and maps come together to form one smooth, cohesive, visual 'adventure'. Each unit, with some exception, is distinctively modeled and animated. The graphics engine, however, is painfully jumpy, especially when unit counts get higher, on most of today's systems.
Hardware acceleration does little to improve the framerate, though it adds some cool effects.
Let's not beat around the bush, though. The sound effects are terrible and the music is far too passive to affect the game at all. The four drastically different races is what really, makes Kingdoms great. Cavedog attempted to break the races up into the four classic elements, earth, air, fire and water. In doing so, they made four races that play very differently.