Total Annihilation: Kingdoms

The game is played from a bird's eye perspective. Players choose between four factions - Aramon, Veruna, Taros and Zhon (As well as Creon, in the Iron Plague expansion), all of which start with a monarch, who is initially used to build structures and form an army. The monarch itself also possesses an array of spells which it can use to defend itself or turn the tide of the battle. While in single-player mode, victory is accomplished by following each scenario's objectives, multiplayer mode offers victory by the destruction of all the faction's units and structures or simply the monarch alone.

Unlike Total Annihilation, players utilize a single resource (Mana), which can be generated and increased by building resource-gathering Lodestones in special locations. However, like in Total Annihilation, players can recycle debris/carcasses of fallen units and structures as well as natural objects of the map, like trees and stones, to acquire instant amounts of mana.

Total Annihilation: Kingdoms is set on the medieval world of Darien, a mystic world previously ruled by the Kandrans, a civilization with incredible mastery of magic, but that quickly came to its downfall due to internal power struggles. Decades would come by before the inhabitants of Darien became reunited again, this time under the rule of Garacaius, a simple fisherman turned warlord and then a master of magic himself. At the apex of his power, and following the death of his wife, Lasha, he divided the empire's administration between his four sons and daughters: Elsin gained the rich continent of Aramon, Kirenna was awarded the islands of Veruna, Thirsha was delivered the jungles of Zhon and to Lokken was remained the wastelands of Taros.

The story for TAK begins shortly after the mysterious disappearance of Garacaius, which automatically led to the disintegration of his empire, but not before he instituted a law prohibiting the use of magic, except in the case of extreme necessity, which brought a grudging division between the brothers and sisters: while Elsin and Kirenna obeyed their father's wishes, expanding the military and economic power of their lands through pure commerce and science, Thirsha and Lokken refused to obey the law, continuing the practice of magic for their own interest and leisure.

Rick Sanchez reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Kingdoms is a well crafted, if a little dumbed-down, RTS title that offers good gameplay but not genre-advancing game design."

Mark Asher of CNET Gamecenter wrote that "Kingdoms didn't do too badly [commercially], but with a much larger development and marketing budget than TA's [Total Annihilation], it certainly underperformed when compared to that title."