Posted February 05, 2024
At first I wanted to write some randomly ramblings in this post. After I finished the game, I decided to make this my review.
At the end of my first couple of hours in the game, I was ready to call it quits and leave a 2 star review (for effort). Within literally the first minute of the game, I found that my character Aivar's dialogue felt mismatched with the jailer's. It was like they were not talking to each other, but rather responding to a narrator who was describing what the other was saying. Speaking of which, why was Aivar in jail? The character selection screen very clearly said all three main characters were going to a meeting. I head out and find a winter wonderland that reminded me of Skyrim but not as good. Riding the horse almost made me sick, so I spent most of the first map on foot. The first village I came across was completely abandoned for reason that I never found out. Instead of people, I found bunch of junk in scattered containers whose sole purpose was to be sold for gold with a single holding down of the space key. I found that Aivar, not being a mage, could not resolve the first power/finesse choice using finesse. Finally, as the last straw, I found that the tactical camera rotation could not be changed. It always rotated opposite of how I like to do it, even if the keys were unbound. I was fed up.
Lucky for me, I bought King's Bounty 2 Duke's Edition when it was a bit more expensive. Since I spent a bit more money than it costs now, I thought I spend a bit more time with it. The final bit of Albian Highlands, the snowy introductory area, was starting to get good. I was beginning to forget about my camera rotation complaint. Then I arrived in Marcella and the game just exploded before my eyes.
After completing the game pretty thoroughly, I'll share what I like the most about the game, and its most glaring problems. I will stay away from what the game isn't, I know there are a lot of complaints about that, and focus on what it is.
+The world looks pretty and fun as long as you don't look too closely. Right out of Marcella, you see an erupting volcano in the distance and a giant statue straight out of the Lord of the Rings. The color is vibrant if not that nuanced. The houses, whether in the city or the villages, feel well-proportioned and uniqued laid out. I never got the sense that anything is cookie cutter. On the other hand, the grass and many shrubbery have no collision detection. You just clip right through them. In one egregious case, the body of a villain who died floats a good six inches above ground. It's almost comical. The world is nice to look at, but it's easy to break immersion if you look closely.
+The music is generally unobtrusive with a orchestral melody that is both light in volume and presence. In rare moments though, hauntingly beautiful vocal scores will play for brief periods. The music is nothing extraordinary but the game uses what it has very well. It's good enough that I don't regret buying the Duke's Edition. The music has a tendency to periodically cut out. It's rare enough not to be distracting but noticeable.
+The main story is simple and predicable for a veteran gamer or consumer of this type of story. However, weaving around the main story are side stories that are frequently a bit unusual. An undead mage holding vigil over an abandoned village. A damsel in distress who turns her back on her coward of a lover then insists on getting him back. A troll who finds intelligence and whose first action after finding that intelligence is... I will let you discover it for yourself. It's a lot of fun. I don't remembe a single fetch or kill X quest, except one where you have to find several colorful chickens.
+I think more than the story or the quests, the writing is what sets King's Bounty 2 apart from many games, turn-based strategy and RPG alike. It's not edifying, or florid, or even very high quality. However, it is imaginative, unapologetic, and a lot of fun. I will remember for some time a totally minor dialogue between two nobles in Baron Dupont's estate, that some players will miss completely, and goes something like, "Has our gallery project kindled his interest, do you think?...He promised to introduce us to some new models... How timely, the previous ones were frightfully inflexible. Their screams were such a distraction... Have you tried using cadavers?...I have, but the rigor mortis ruined the tableaux." It is not just what is said, but how it is said. I have never heard a more brilliant relevation of the dark depravities of the ultra high society. There are dozens, hundreds perhaps, of little side conversations like this. There is even a running journal by a young woman, named Folie, infatuated with the prince of the game kingdom, that describes how a simple merchant's daughter look at the events and places that you experience. Her journal can be found in most of the game's important locations.
+Now let's get to some gameplay. This type of collecting units for an army then fighting on hex based tactical maps is old school. Two things about King's Bounty 2 stood out to me. First, it is surprisingly deep. For example, I have always considered it beneath the player's dignity to work with tanks that use some random skill and somehow the enemy suddenly ignores clearly higher priority healers and DPS and go after the tank. Tanks in this game has very limited aggro keeping, easily dispelled. Each tank can typically keep aggro for one turn at most twice per battle. However, units that pass/leave hostile zones of control get hit, but they don't stop. An aggroed unit passing through multiple hostile ZOC, even just for a turn, may get killed. There are numerous examples like this in KB2: clever use of seemingly elementary skills. Second, terrain not only matters a lot in this game, you can actually strategically alter it to your advantage. You can start many tactical battles by stepping inside a combat zone in the game world. Many such zones can be approached from different directions. if you enter the zone from a different direction, you start the battle at a different place on the same tacitcal map. For some battles, this can make a big difference. Admittely I have not played too many games like KB2, but this is the first time I have seen a feature like this.
+There is a quest involving 12 pre-made battles that introduce different tactics possible in the game. It has to be one of the best tactical tutorials I have seen in a game. Not a tutorial of mere mechanics, but actual challenges that test your application of nifty mechanics.
At the end of my first couple of hours in the game, I was ready to call it quits and leave a 2 star review (for effort). Within literally the first minute of the game, I found that my character Aivar's dialogue felt mismatched with the jailer's. It was like they were not talking to each other, but rather responding to a narrator who was describing what the other was saying. Speaking of which, why was Aivar in jail? The character selection screen very clearly said all three main characters were going to a meeting. I head out and find a winter wonderland that reminded me of Skyrim but not as good. Riding the horse almost made me sick, so I spent most of the first map on foot. The first village I came across was completely abandoned for reason that I never found out. Instead of people, I found bunch of junk in scattered containers whose sole purpose was to be sold for gold with a single holding down of the space key. I found that Aivar, not being a mage, could not resolve the first power/finesse choice using finesse. Finally, as the last straw, I found that the tactical camera rotation could not be changed. It always rotated opposite of how I like to do it, even if the keys were unbound. I was fed up.
Lucky for me, I bought King's Bounty 2 Duke's Edition when it was a bit more expensive. Since I spent a bit more money than it costs now, I thought I spend a bit more time with it. The final bit of Albian Highlands, the snowy introductory area, was starting to get good. I was beginning to forget about my camera rotation complaint. Then I arrived in Marcella and the game just exploded before my eyes.
After completing the game pretty thoroughly, I'll share what I like the most about the game, and its most glaring problems. I will stay away from what the game isn't, I know there are a lot of complaints about that, and focus on what it is.
+The world looks pretty and fun as long as you don't look too closely. Right out of Marcella, you see an erupting volcano in the distance and a giant statue straight out of the Lord of the Rings. The color is vibrant if not that nuanced. The houses, whether in the city or the villages, feel well-proportioned and uniqued laid out. I never got the sense that anything is cookie cutter. On the other hand, the grass and many shrubbery have no collision detection. You just clip right through them. In one egregious case, the body of a villain who died floats a good six inches above ground. It's almost comical. The world is nice to look at, but it's easy to break immersion if you look closely.
+The music is generally unobtrusive with a orchestral melody that is both light in volume and presence. In rare moments though, hauntingly beautiful vocal scores will play for brief periods. The music is nothing extraordinary but the game uses what it has very well. It's good enough that I don't regret buying the Duke's Edition. The music has a tendency to periodically cut out. It's rare enough not to be distracting but noticeable.
+The main story is simple and predicable for a veteran gamer or consumer of this type of story. However, weaving around the main story are side stories that are frequently a bit unusual. An undead mage holding vigil over an abandoned village. A damsel in distress who turns her back on her coward of a lover then insists on getting him back. A troll who finds intelligence and whose first action after finding that intelligence is... I will let you discover it for yourself. It's a lot of fun. I don't remembe a single fetch or kill X quest, except one where you have to find several colorful chickens.
+I think more than the story or the quests, the writing is what sets King's Bounty 2 apart from many games, turn-based strategy and RPG alike. It's not edifying, or florid, or even very high quality. However, it is imaginative, unapologetic, and a lot of fun. I will remember for some time a totally minor dialogue between two nobles in Baron Dupont's estate, that some players will miss completely, and goes something like, "Has our gallery project kindled his interest, do you think?...He promised to introduce us to some new models... How timely, the previous ones were frightfully inflexible. Their screams were such a distraction... Have you tried using cadavers?...I have, but the rigor mortis ruined the tableaux." It is not just what is said, but how it is said. I have never heard a more brilliant relevation of the dark depravities of the ultra high society. There are dozens, hundreds perhaps, of little side conversations like this. There is even a running journal by a young woman, named Folie, infatuated with the prince of the game kingdom, that describes how a simple merchant's daughter look at the events and places that you experience. Her journal can be found in most of the game's important locations.
+Now let's get to some gameplay. This type of collecting units for an army then fighting on hex based tactical maps is old school. Two things about King's Bounty 2 stood out to me. First, it is surprisingly deep. For example, I have always considered it beneath the player's dignity to work with tanks that use some random skill and somehow the enemy suddenly ignores clearly higher priority healers and DPS and go after the tank. Tanks in this game has very limited aggro keeping, easily dispelled. Each tank can typically keep aggro for one turn at most twice per battle. However, units that pass/leave hostile zones of control get hit, but they don't stop. An aggroed unit passing through multiple hostile ZOC, even just for a turn, may get killed. There are numerous examples like this in KB2: clever use of seemingly elementary skills. Second, terrain not only matters a lot in this game, you can actually strategically alter it to your advantage. You can start many tactical battles by stepping inside a combat zone in the game world. Many such zones can be approached from different directions. if you enter the zone from a different direction, you start the battle at a different place on the same tacitcal map. For some battles, this can make a big difference. Admittely I have not played too many games like KB2, but this is the first time I have seen a feature like this.
+There is a quest involving 12 pre-made battles that introduce different tactics possible in the game. It has to be one of the best tactical tutorials I have seen in a game. Not a tutorial of mere mechanics, but actual challenges that test your application of nifty mechanics.
Post edited February 20, 2024 by Unfallen_Satan
