King's Bounty: The Legend

I loved the original King's Bounty game back in the 90s C64 era. Somehow I missed this perfectly cut gem back in 2008. So bought it and it did not disappoint at all. It is a timeless game, an evergreen that aged well and even 12 years after release it brought around 70 hours of fun gameplay for me. There is actual humor in the game, which is very much needed in the current arid, desert like environment most of the games have to dwell in. Story is mostly told via text, but it's digestible since it's varied and brings humor into the mix. Animations and graphics are stellar, the tactical aspect is quite ok, if you have some brains and do not want to kill a dragon by five drunken peasants asking it to give you his heart. It's also devoid of repetition. You never have to rebuild your army just because you have succeeded in one of your missions (eyeballing HOMM). All in all it's a perfect tactical experience. It's like a many headed hydra, where each head provides something unique to the mix. Time to grab a horde of beholders and thousands of peasants to strike fear into the heart of your enemies!

Despite simple tactical maps, there is a good amount of strategy and tactics to be had in KB, thanks to skills in three different character classes that let you approach battles differently, 5-6 distinctive races with some very creative unit abilities, a large number of spells that draw on mana, a separate set of spells that draw on a different resource called rage, and items you equip that alters certain game mechanics. Here are a couple of simple examples. I adopted a strategy where through the patient use of just a couple of spells and units, I frequently ended a battle with more units than I started. When faced with some really tough enemies highly resistent to most of my spells, I found I could place a trap that normally only damages them when they walk on that hex, and drag them onto that hex with my dragon. As the initial novelty wears off, you may feel your tactical play falls into a rut in the mid game. Rest assured that there is a major difficulty spike about 2/3 way through the game, involving dragons and demons and single stacks of sometimes a thousand enemy units. It was initimating. Then I realized I could, through a combination of predicting how the AI acts, spells I didn't use before, and some new units' special abilities, fight battles better than I did before, with more predictable control of the battlefield. No longer was I just nuking clumps of enemies with fireball. Overcoming that difficulty spike was a very rewarding experience. King's Bounty's tactical battles compliment its charming presentation for a engaging and fun experience. The only downside worth mentioning in this limited review is the game could be too long. Some tactical battles feel repetitive. That's not unique to this game, but some games do better. Blackguards, for instance.

This is all the management and collecting and tactics of Heroes of Might and Magic but with a much more dynamic rather than static concept. You aren't building houses and breeding creatures, you're finding places that house your units (sometimes going on quests to unlock them) and after you pay for them with gold and leadership (which you increase over the game by exploration or leveling up your character) they will serve you faithfully in the numerous battles to come. Enemies are dynamic too, moving around on their own accord, so powerful enemies can sometimes be outrun or even tricked and avoided to get at what they guard. Quests are everywhere and surprisingly deep, like one that seems to be an ordinary 'kill the monster' quest that has the option to hear things from the monster's side of the story! King's Bounty is absolutely charming. The animation, the design, the little touches are just brimming with love for this genre and this world. Units all have unique actions for when they defeat a stack of enemies (the priest kisses his amulet, the vampire does a sword flourish) and there's morale and specific unit behaviors to consider when you combine differing types of units into one army so they feel alive. Humans don't like fighting beside undead. Berserkers you can't control at all so they just rush into battle by themselves. Some units are scared of other units and panic, attacking at random. It's addictive to see what units are out there, how they interact, what spells you can find to aide them. It all revolves around exploring and moving, it all looks crisp and beautiful, the music is catchy (if a bit repetitive) and thankfully changes in each location and battlefield type. If you like Pokemon, if you don't mind a few iffy translations that don't break the game, this is a wholly unique and captivating fantasy adventure!

This is my first turn-based RPG, although I have tried demos of them a few times in the past. I was always put of by the learning curve and the seeming repetition. With this game I got over feeling like an idiot within about 45 minutes. The gameplay is so addictive that I sit down for 45 minutes and lose a whole afternoon. I know others on the site think this isn't the best of the turn-based RPGs, but for a beginner, it's just about perfect. With 3 characters to play and 4 difficulty levels and (I guess) something like 50 levels, this should be playable for hundreds of hours. I've only reached level 12 on my first time through, and have probably spent 30 hoursso far.

I truly enjoy this game. Many reviewers have many different opinions on what makes a truly good cRPG, but on its own, this game is fun. The graphics are fantastic--to bright for some, too cartoony for others, but they are light and sharp and get the job done magnificently. Sound is great, and the soundtrack is infectious but blends well into the background of the game. Controls are easy enough, and they are intuitive, especially for veteran RPGers. The combat is fun and fast turn-based action when a monster encounter occurs. There are enough choices in the skill trees to decide what you would rather build up first. The world map (or maps, really) are big and plentiful enough to offer a variety of locations to visit and beasties to encounter, and getting around on the map is easy. As has been said previously, the combat can be a bit unforgiving at first, and there may be a steep learning curve at the beginning (especially for newcomers), but the battles are fun, so it never feels like a grind. Later on in the game (but not terribly far in), you can acquire skills that let you know what kind of enemies you may be running up against, and know whether or not they are too powerful for you, so that you can avoid them until you are ready. There are SO MANY quests in this game, and it is fairly open-ended, so that you do not have one path to glory, and no one quest is necessary in order to proceed in the game; you can choose what kind of "life" you want to live in the game, from becoming a brigand, to being the king's crusader, and lots in between. Performance-wise, I run this on a MacBook Air with mouse control at the highest resolution, and I have no problems or framerate issues. Overall, if you enjoy RPGs, then this is one you should definitely add to your collection!