King's Bounty II

Why do so many games come without manual? In some cases that might not hurt, but here it does. The in game tutorial ist useless, and I had to search the web for answers. Not good that. Although I am a strategy gamer I had a hard time getting into the battle mechanisms. I recommend to newcomers: start on easy level. You can still switch to higher difficulties any time you want. A spell list, progression stats of each character etc. would have been helpful, too. The missing manual plus some other (minor) flaws costs KB2 a star. E.g. there is a particular side quest called the Scryers Trial, which is so difficult and unfair that I can only warn you: stay away from it unless you want to lose your mind (or at least throw your keyboard out of the window). Other than that I like the game. It combines what (in my opinion) are the center pieces of RPG’s and strategy games. The RPG-part: (re)search dungeons, follow quests and finally solve them. The strategy part: fight tactical battles. If, however, you wish to fight like in classical one person RPG’s, i.e. hitting your keyboard and mouse until they start smoking or if you wish to collect resources, build bases, defend them or conquer new ones you should look somewhere else. Graphics are okay, puzzles range from exceedingly easy to fairly interesting (with some stupid trial and error ones as well) and are rather not for hardcore puzzle solvers. All in all I found KB2 to be addictive, and it was a lot of fun to play.

The bad part: the ending feels rushed and you get a message like "continue exploring while the story gets finished" which was probably not the smartest idea, especially since the story feels kind of complete, even if leaves a door open to a sequel. Other than that it is pretty much what I would have expected from a King's Bounty game: a sequence of battles aimed at minimizing army losses, wearable items influencing you stats, leadership, a spellbook.. It lacks a tiny bit of the charm of the older games, and it seems like the development effort that went into a nice looking 3D world with voice acting is a bit of an overkill for the dull "Walk there and fetch that" quests that fill your journal... Overall, not a masterpiece, but something you buy on sale and you kill time with for around 30h.

This is a more chill, more swift King's bounty game. Sure there are many issues but overall a pleasant experience.

The opening dialogue scene is cringworthy. It's so unnatural, especially from the male prisoner. Who answers "what's your angle" to the guard asking him a question. Felt like a line from a 1930's weekly print crime thriller. Ya see, Johnny, keep your mouth shut and you'll be a okay, kiddo." It was not good. Immediately broke immersion. And it didn't recover as his very next line is equally out of place. And his appearance is out of place too. His hair and beard are very modern in style. I think this is a very poor opening for the game. I literally had to stop playing and begin a review to ensure I authentically captured the feeling the opening scene felt like. I literally just heard the "said no one ever" line. OMG. I can't believe this is the dialogue smart people chose for this genre game. Honestly. It's just, how can that pass at least like 25 people or something and no one thought it was this disjointed and atrocious? Anyways, it's pretty. So I'll keep playing.

I'm a huge fan of the previous Kings Bounty. This game I feel should be treated as an completely different series- it has a very Witcher 3 feel. Cons Graphic is very hit or miss with the NPC's, the frame shutters at times, and yes I wish their was a better way of moving around the world. Voice acting is very B grade for NPC's-like they are reading lines from their hand... but for me, I can roll with it- I just need a Mwhahahaha Evil!!! then I'll be happy. Pros The gameplay is quite enjoyable, I love how your units rank up and change- it makes you wish to invest with your starter units. The world is stunning in a skyrim/witcher way. Music is nice, and the battles are really fun and unique. Most of the units feel very different compared to previous titles reskins-(They do that with this title also very little though-Eagles- Fire Eagles) Otherwise- if you see this on sale, I'd give it a gander, once you are past the frustrating parts- you'll enjoy the game.