I really enjoyed this game. Like Age of Wonders and Disciples, this game is about wandering around on an overmap, then fighting turn-based tactical battles on a grid-based battlefield. Unlike those games, King's Bounty never takes itself too seriously and the cartoony graphics are enjoyable to look at while you explore. Combat can be hard if you are unprepared, but there are skills you can get that let you gauge the strength of enemy forces from afar before you engage. If you're not strong enough there's plenty of other things you can do in the meantime to level up and increase the size of your army. There's not much of a tutorial, you might have to restart a few times to figure it out. Thankfully the beginning is quick and easy. Lots of fun, and well worth a few bucks.
I never really liked the puppets in SC3, and some of the sound effects are terrible (the sound that you hear when you move between Star Systems reminds me every time of my toast popping up in my toaster) and the music is crap. That said, this game is still a ton of fun and aptly continues the story set up in Star Control 2. The new alien races are well thought out, their combat capabilities are fun and the 4X-lite style of star system management is really easy to get into. Before long you'll be cranking out Doog ships like crazy. The best part about this game is the story and the characters. I still find myself quoting lines from the game, Daktakbackpack is a common utterance in our house. And XChaggers. It's well worth playing through because despite its flaws, it has great gameplay and a fun story, and that's what it's all about.
This game is a fun blend of puzzle-solving, combat and role-playing and hearkens back to the Ultima Underworlds and Dungeon Masters of old. The sense of satisfaction at finding the entrance to a secret room after an hour of searching can't be beat. Watching my minotaur deal the death blow to a giant crab brings a huge grin to my face. The grid-based movement and combat seems strange at first after 15 years of playing free-form FPS games, but there is a lot of strategy involved and I have come to love this combat system. The atmosphere is great. Dark, creepy, the sounds you hear through the walls. And when your torch starts going out... and a troll charges you out of the dark... I found it well worth it to have my mage learn "Light" ASAP to avoid such nasty surprises. And there are so many different ways you can play this game. Different character classes and combinations make for great replay. You might be able to solve all the puzzles the second time through but wait until the level editor comes out...
Civilization with magic instead of a technology tree. Still addictive 15 years after I last played it. Tons of replay value in the different mages you can choose, they make for a much different game than the different leaders in Civilization. And you can make your own custom mage if you want. There are two planes of existence to use, the regular plane and the magic plane. Most mages start on the regular plane, but if you are crafty you can colonize the other plane, build your armies and then conquer them all... There are so many different ways to play this game it's still great fun long after it was developed. No turn-based fantasy strategy game has come close to matching it since. It's easy to play, not too complicated and can be as deep or as simple as you like. If you hate the tactical battlefield, you can let the computer play it for you although if you take control you can sometimes pull off some amazing feats, beating the odds with great strategy. So much fun you'll wonder how "one more turn" turned into another hour!
I'll be blunt. The first hour I played this game I almost quit because I couldn't figure it out, and kept dying. But I persevered, actually read the manual (!) and proceeded to kick a lot of monster ass, make my way through a unique, beautiful and amazing gritty fantasy world and carefully consider every choice I made, because even the little ones count. The best part is that your choices are not cartoony good versus evil kind of choices. They are realistic and really challenge you to ... gasp... ROLE PLAY your character. What would I do? Would I rescue the women trapped in a burning building, or chase the evil bastard who locked them in there? Would I kill a troll who likes to cook elves? Or help him with his relationship issues? Would I lie to my king to cover my own butt? Or be bluntly honest? There is no right answer to any of these choices... they are just choices, and you live with them for the rest of the game. I love it. Yes, the game has some flaws. The awful tutorial phase may turn off some people. Some of the witcher signs are too strong, others are nearly useless. I kind of miss group style. But my complaints are minor. This is a great, action-packed game that is still a true RPG. The characters are interesting and multi-layered. The NPCs all have names and populate a world they seem to make their own. The monsters are scary and fun to fight. Alchemy is even more fun, and crafting is fun too. There are a lot more swords and armour you can find, make and wear. The game suits whatever play style you like. And it has a lot of replay value. You must make a choice in the first act which affects the second and third drastically. And there are three character development paths you can follow, magic alchemy or swordsmanship, making for three different game experiences. Overall, I love this game and recommend it to anyone who likes action RPG games, especially ones with a great, complex and compelling story.
No other game lets you smuggle blow-up dolls to pirates in a hidden system, then smuggle drugs back to the core systems to make obscene amounts of money. How cool is that? I blame this game for my lack of interest in studying during my senior year of high school. But it was totally worth it. I have looked in vain for games since Privateer which had the same freedom. Freelancer? Close, but not quite. Darkstar One? Almost. But no arcade physics space sim I have ever played gripped me like this one. Forgettable story (I remember some kind of alien gun thing at the end and that's about it) but who cares. Ignore the story and become a master trader in a big cargo hauler, or a bounty hunter in your slick, death-dealing pirate hunter. Whatever you want. I have the floppy disk version in a box in my shed. Now I can have the GOG version too!
The Verdict: A unique, excellent RPG with fun real-time combat, a great story and setting and wonderful music. Should be in any RPG and action gamers' collections. The Good: Unique, immersive storyline and setting with the ability to make choices. Fun combat, cool monsters, beautiful music and good voice acting. Alchemy is fun, and crucial on harder difficulty levels, adding a new level of strategy to combat. The Bad: Why even have knives and axes other than to look cool hanging on your character? Some glitchy combat. Too many drowners (but you can get a talisman to repel them if you are sick of fighting them). Possible to break some quests or do them out of order. The Long: The story and setting in the Witcher are so unique and good that they alone make it a great RPG. But the choices available to you and the huge number of side quests make it even better. The combat is fun, although I don't know why they even bothered putting weapons other than swords in the game. And some of the quests require some pointless backtracking. But those are minor annoyances in a great game. The setting, characters, music and storyline are so memorable that I found myself totally immersed in the world and felt like I was playing a really good book. And the freedom to make whatever choices you want, without being tied into a cliched "light or dark" choice path, really immersed me in the game. I made choices because I wanted to on a case-by-case situation, not because I wanted to get more dark side points or something. And the way they affect the game world was interesting to see. I bought the original edition on a whim, because it looked different. I loved it so much I bought the digital version here so I can have the fully-patched up director's cut in one easy to use file. Plus it's so good I wanted to support the developers one more time. For $5 or $10 you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal for one of the best RPGs ever made.
It is possible to play this game as a "special needs" ogre... and the dialog changes accordingly! How cool is that? Fun crafting, magic is a bit overpowered but play technology for added challenge if you think it's too easy. Great settings and sandbox feel. Love the story, and lets you be as good or evil as you want. In fact, the characters you can have join you check your alignment first. I haven't played this in years because it's a royal pain in the a$$ to get running on Windows XP and higher. But GOG did it for me! Yay!
