Played this two years after finishing Warriors of the North. The combat pace is a lot faster than WOTN with battles lasting 3 to 5 rounds while the resources like Runes and Crystals are rarer. The dark side "gimmick" is also very good as it forces you to interact with units and races you wouldn't have in the previous games. Took me some 60 hours to finish the game on Difficult as a Vampire with the last 10 hours just wanting me to get this over with. I avoided all combat encounters and didn't bother finishing the Deluxe Edition content. The quest design is more complex in the sense it involves a lot of tedious walking back and forth. I finished the game with some 110 side quests done but I had many more remaining in my quest log with no patience to do them. This repetitive nature is exacerbated by how unstable the game is. Dark Side crashed more times for me than the rest of the Kings Bounty games combined. Thankfully there doesn't seem to be a main quest softlock bug like the one in WOTN. Overall I would only recommend this installment if you've finished all the other ones before it. Its not a bad game but its flaws overshadow a lot of its qualities.
