King's Bounty II

It is a really good game, obviously given a lot of love but review bombed and abandoned too soon. They barely missed the bar - given few months more development might make it a success. What they missed: - too many bugs at the time of release (after patches there are no game breaking ones now) - UI from consoles barely stitched for PC - large, but too few 2 locations - they should make them smaller and add another 2 - writing not as good as most of the previous iterations - the ending, cliffhanger TBC in never released DLC? What is good: - beautiful, atmospheric level design - intriguingly foreseeing story at the time of release (pandemic) - overall good game design - battles, spells, units, etc. - nice music (although not as good as Lind Erebros' from previous games) A real shame that it got released too soon, review bombed and abandoned. If it weren't bug ridden, had 4-5 smaller islands/locations, complete story at least after a DLC, it could be a big success. There are some rumours that it was acquired lately, so there is some chance of continuation. I really hope so as I miss to come back to that world. I believe it could be purchased by fans and brought to success yet.

Honestly, I don't think this game deserves all the hate. I completed it and enjoyed every second of it. The combat system is very addictive and challenging. The world exploration is fun and rewarding. The weakest point of this game is its story. It is indeed one of the most boring stories I've seen in video games. Very early in the game, I stopped reading dialogues completely. Thankfully there are hints that tell you what dialog choice leads to what outcome. You just select choices based on your preferred path (anarchy, force, etc...). In a nutshell: great addictive and challenging tactical combat system, with satisfying progression. Boring story and terrible dialogues (yes, they start the game with "as you know").

Solidly "good," for what it is. The heart of the game has a lot of potential, and every problem the game presents comes down to two things: 1. It's not a AAA developer. You're not getting Dragon Age voice acting, or Unreal Engine polish. 2. It was fairly clearly rushed out of development. There are technical issues (the horse is a pain, mouse sensitivity is insane, a lot of the world is very same-y, etc. The weirdest choices in the game are the strange middle ground everything ends up in. It doesn't know if it wants to be a Bioware RPG, or a throwback to KB1 (which...it isn't. If you want it to be, you'll be horribly disappointed) and HOMM. Because of that, some things just...don't work as well as they should. The skill trees have dead/sink spots, the balance of spells and some units are off, etc. See above. It needed more time in the oven. It expands on the lore of the original King's Bounty (not Legend), and it does it...surprisingly well. But it has that same on-rails feeling of the 90s, and not as sandboxy as HOMM. Dialogue trees/choices are a good example. Your skill trees are dependent on moral choices, but they're very black/white. More complexity in the writing would've done this a world of good. As it is, it's...very ok. The story isn't life-changing by any means, but it's better than your average JRPG or 3D Skyrim wannabe. Gameplay: it gets repetitive toward the end. Better spell balance, better choices, and more unit and skill variety would've made this something very good, if not great. This is to Dragon Age and KB1 what Elex is to Fallout. It has the low/midrange dev jank to it, it's lacking some polish, but at its heart, and in its gameplay, it's made with a lot of love, and it shows. 3 stars for the game as it is, extra star for the love that clearly went into it, but loses a star for a lack of polish and finishing that leaves it from being one of the classics of the genre.

After only 4.5h I've realized I am forcing myself to play this thing. I've heard all about it not being like old KB games (Legend, Crossworld etc.)., so I waited for heavy discount before buying it. For 10€, how bad can it be? Well, bad. Let's start with positive: It's a better game than Dark Side. In that it actually works, sound exists, quests work and it's not a broken mess. Let's move to negatives: - It's sooooooooooo boring. Everyone tries to act super serious while giving bland quests, having bland facial expressions, books are bland, lore is bland, characters are god awful. - Story is a mess. You're accused of poisoning a king. But a bad thing happens near capital so prince wants you to investigate it so you're out of prison. And even that would be fine if anything else made sense or was interesting whatsoever. - Combat is slow and not very fun. Gone are the days of massive weak stacks (oh glorious pixie stacks with 0 health and unlimited damage that evaporate if anything hits you, oh how I miss ye), it's small stacks of basic units with nothing but basic attack (or one special one), melee, range and magic. You can also cast f*** all spells, even with a mage. Which is understandable, since spells are only powerfull thing in the game - Massive environment with nothing, absolutely NOTHING, in it. Ever played Dragon Age: Inquisition and spent minutes going from A to B doing nothing? Got there, talked to NPC, then had to go back? Yeah, a lot of that here. Except movement is painfully slow, even on a horse. - Speaking of horse. MOTION SICKNESS WARNING WOULD BE WELCOME! WHAT THE HELL?!?!?! I genuinelly couldn't touch camera at all while riding horse. It wants to auto-correct at even slightest of movement, so it's jumping up, down, left, right, made me, literally, sick in the stomach. Only way to use horse is to not touch mouse while riding. This is not a good Kings Bounty game. This is not a good game. Even at 75% discount, I made a mistake buying it. Avoid.

Have e few hours in, and a decent game all around. Turn based combat with a lot of overworld exploration. Not bad to sink a few hours into after the AAA FPS games become frustrating and you just want to relax without someone wall hacking you or using invincibility hacks.