Deep, engrossing game that expands on the original, but still feels fresh and new.
That being said, this is one of the best games I've played. It is sophisticated and unique. Its a novel, role playing, dungeon crawling, real time strategy game all wrapped in one. It is dark and anything but cheesy. The voice acting a music is perfect for the darkly gorgeous landscape. The story lines are captivating. The fighting is good, but the addition of magic makes the strategy more compelling than games like total war.
On that note, this has almost nothing to do with total war. Their in the same genre, but similar only to the degree that all RTS games are similar. I love Shogun 2 for the quicker battle focused game play. King Arthur provides deep story telling elements that don't exist in other game in this genre.
Last note is, if you haven't played the original King Arthur, you should start there. There may not be another release, and after playing one, you'll be dying to get your hands on a second.
I hate that neocore released this game without better QA. It probably would have scored an 8 if it wasn't for the game launcher issues, and many more people would have bought it.