King's Bounty is out - 90% review from Gamespy

[Zhuangzi]

This game is freaking fantastic.

I have been playing it solidly for 5 days now (at least 20 hours, possibly 30) and I doubt I am half way through the game. I find it hard to stop playing.

I am playing on Hard, and it's Hard but not impossibly so.

I can't recommend this highly enough for anyone who liked Disciples 2. Really this is a worthy replacement for Disciples 3.

 

[Micmu]

Ordr'd!
If you lie, you die, Zhuangzi.

I find it hard to stop playing.

"Just one more turn!!" games rock.

 

[pkt-zer0]

I am playing on Hard, and it's Hard but not impossibly so.

Good, seems like "hard" is the "normal" difficulty, i.e. challenging, but playable even your first time through the game.

I can't recommend this highly enough for anyone who liked Disciples 2. Really this is a worthy replacement for Disciples 3.

Why Disciples? I haven't played much of those games, but they seem to have had much more simplistic combat, whereas a large part of KB is the tactical battles.

 

[Oarfish]

Got the full version a couple of days ago, its very addictive with a good level of difficulty and no handholding - holy crap did I get a beating when trying to remove a curse from an artifact.

Translation is occasionally a little bit Borat - "You annoying rock, I go talk to wizards", but that sort of adds to the charm if anything. It's great to see the genre so solidly improved, especialy after the horror that was HOMM5.

 

[Annonchinil]

So what's a good difficulty for someone unfamiliar with the genre?

 

[Kingston]

Woah, a good game? Is it on par with HoMM2/3? I thought I'd never see the day.

 

[Ausir]

So what's a good difficulty for someone unfamiliar with the genre?

There are still gamers unfamiliar with HoMM?

 

[gromit]

"Just one more turn!!" games rock.

Damn this month so much; I can't decide if I want to lead griffons and knights or beaver-pelt-funded guerrillas, and I don't really have time for either!
/

 

[A user named cat]

Surprised that many are playing on hard difficulty. I have it on normal and even then a lot of the battles are tough as hell. I'm finding myself dodging quite a few battles that look overwhelming.

 

[Balor]

It depends on how you progress your game. For instance, you'd better explore the swamp before heading to Isles, otherwise you'll surely have your ass handed to you by pretty much everyone.

 

[Troll]

i'm playing it on impossible... damn the game is catchy. Most people play it on hard simply because the hard of today is the normal of yesterday.

Anyway, some tips - first time explore all the maps available, running from monsters and taking as much treasure as possible ( especially leadership ) then gradually take on the weaker monsters. Remember you can store up to 3 squads of your army in every castle so use more types of creatures - personally i had access to the cavaliers which are defended by an insane amount of creatures for a lvl 1-10 hero - i lured them away, then run past them, bought the units and ran, with their help most of the fights were with zero losses

 

[Elwro]

Damn this month so much; I can't decide if I want to lead griffons and knights or beaver-pelt-funded guerrillas, and I don't really have time for either!
/

Personally, I'm heading in the beaver-pelt-funded guerrillas and genocide of the natives direction this month.

 

[Zhuangzi]

I'm playing on Hard because I played the demo for about 20 hours - i.e. six playthroughs. I am glad I picked hard because the game is a moderate but not overwhelming challenge. Just as I like it. On Medium, I believe that money is basically not an issue. This is not a good thing for a game, IMO.

The comparison to Disciples II is because I love that game intensely. Yes, the tactical battles are more complex in King's Bounty but the 'fun factor' was the same for both. And I've never played the HOMM series - only the HOMM V demo which I disliked to the extent that I couldn't be bothered getting the full game even when it was heavily discounted.

Honestly, this is one of the best strategy/rpg games in many years. It's very stable, has few if any bugs due to the fact that the English language release is version 1.64 - i.e. the Russians have been beta testing it for the rest of the world these past six months.

 

[Trash]

Blankets?

Damn this month so much; I can't decide if I want to lead griffons and knights or beaver-pelt-funded guerrillas, and I don't really have time for either!
/

Personally, I'm heading in the beaver-pelt-funded guerrillas and genocide of the natives direction this month.

That sounds awesome. Which game you talking about, birth of america or colonisation?


Playing KB on medium is a pretty chalenging task so far. Many battles are just too insane for me, though indeed the money is no problem what so ever. Those keeper fights still butcher me. [/img]

 

[Elwro]

Re: Blankets?

Damn this month so much; I can't decide if I want to lead griffons and knights or beaver-pelt-funded guerrillas, and I don't really have time for either!
/

Personally, I'm heading in the beaver-pelt-funded guerrillas and genocide of the natives direction this month.

That sounds awesome. Which game you talking about, birth of america or colonisation?

Colonisation. Though what I'm reading here is a bit worrying.

Unfortunately, I just found out that it comes out in Poland in November :-(. Though it'll thankfully be bilingual so I'll have access to the English patches without delay.

 

[The Dude]

Wow, this is probably GOTY for me. Having a blast playing a mage, although it's a bit on the easy side on medium. For some stupid reason I cleared the swamp (with great help from Fireball lvl2 and the chest of rage) before going to the forest. Now it's just too easy. Maybe I should start over, haven't decided yet. Protip for eurofags such as me that haven't bought the game yet: American proxies are nice.

 

[Kingston]

That's the gamespy reviewer who wanted all Fallout fans to die btw. Never forget.

 

[Selenti]

Really good game, gave me that fuzzy warm nostalgic feeling of... "holy shit, this game doesn't suck".

I really don't know why people say the translation sucks, maybe the demo was different, but I only see translation errors like once every 1,000 words. On top of that, the writing is actually very good, so even when it's not perfect english it's 10x better than almost every other RPG released recently.

The wife feature is also pretty cute, I have a feeling some people would hate how "gamey" they made it, but I like the whole family thing having statistical bonuses (and thus a reason to go for it), rather than just being some e-masturbating socialization sim.

 

[Zhuangzi]

The wife feature is also pretty cute, I have a feeling some people would hate how "gamey" they made it, but I like the whole family thing having statistical bonuses (and thus a reason to go for it), rather than just being some e-masturbating socialization sim.

I had to laugh at this. People complain about the sex cards in The Witcher as being sexist or whatever, but IMO the wife thing in King's Bounty is worse.

I mean, you marry a girl and then she starts pestering you for kids. Okay, we'll have a kid. A few days later it's born and it gives you some kid of bonus. +3 Attack, nice. But the kid takes up space in the wife's inventory, space that could be holding a special sword or artifact. And then the wife asks for another kid, then another. Finally, she has four kids and no space for holding artifacts. And some of the kids are a waste of space - who needs +4 scrolls anyway? And that pirate chick Mirabella looks hot. So what do you do? Tell the wife you want a divorce...but she gets 1/5 of your cash, right? Bummer. Okay, upgrade your bartering skill, buy lots of crap you don't want, ditch the wife and kids, sell the stuff you bought at 1:1 value, and hey, Mirabella!

I don't think I've ever played a game where your wife and kids can be regarded as a powerup.

On the subject of game's difficulty, Medium is too easy precisely because money isn't an issue. The only 'problem' the player will have is that some fights will still be too hard. Well, guess what? King's Bounty, unlike Oblivion, doesn't auto-level the enemies or any bullshit like that. Yeah, you have to *gasp* scout them out to see if you can take them or not. Those upgrade fights are way too hard early on, which is an indication that you need to wait. The crypt area in Marshan Swamp is much harder than most of the enemies in Verlon Forest.

This is a game that encourages you to find the fights that are appropriate to your level, and to go back to the earlier area when you are ready. Not only that, the game encourages you to use different troops in different areas, i.e. pirates in the Freedom Islands and Dwarfs in Kordor. This is because of various modifiers such as the wife Mirabella who improves the attack of pirates, as well as things like a barrel of dwarven beer that improves the morale of your dwarves.

This is a game that manages to be both simple to pick up and deep enough to reward strategic thinking.

 

[zodden]

Wow guess this is my next game unless I pickup War online first.

 

[gromit]

Re: Blankets?

Though what I'm reading... is a bit worrying.

I've started to read some stuff too, a lot of it dealing with parts of the game that weren't transparent / reached yet... half-implemented mechanics, nonsensical Rebel Sentiment changes / losses (or at least in dire need of explanation,) the coast-to-Europe issue on the included maps, and apparently a very questionable build-up of the REF with an oppressively gamist solution, without looking very hard. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds, or that I at least don't notice until the patch is out. It reminds me far too much of when I asked my buddy why he didn't like Thief:DS, and he said "it was fine up until (level after the one I had finished that evening.)"

 

[Spectacle]

I suggest playing king's bounty now, and waiting for colonization to be patched/modded. The core of the game is fine, it should be great fun once the issues are ironed out. I wonder what the playtesters were smoking though...

 

[Selenti]

The wife feature is also pretty cute, I have a feeling some people would hate how "gamey" they made it, but I like the whole family thing having statistical bonuses (and thus a reason to go for it), rather than just being some e-masturbating socialization sim.

I had to laugh at this. People complain about the sex cards in The Witcher as being sexist or whatever, but IMO the wife thing in King's Bounty is worse.

I mean, you marry a girl and then she starts pestering you for kids. Okay, we'll have a kid. A few days later it's born and it gives you some kid of bonus. +3 Attack, nice. But the kid takes up space in the wife's inventory, space that could be holding a special sword or artifact. And then the wife asks for another kid, then another. Finally, she has four kids and no space for holding artifacts. And some of the kids are a waste of space - who needs +4 scrolls anyway? And that pirate chick Mirabella looks hot. So what do you do? Tell the wife you want a divorce...but she gets 1/5 of your cash, right? Bummer. Okay, upgrade your bartering skill, buy lots of crap you don't want, ditch the wife and kids, sell the stuff you bought at 1:1 value, and hey, Mirabella!

I don't think I've ever played a game where your wife and kids can be regarded as a powerup.

On the subject of game's difficulty, Medium is too easy precisely because money isn't an issue. The only 'problem' the player will have is that some fights will still be too hard. Well, guess what? King's Bounty, unlike Oblivion, doesn't auto-level the enemies or any bullshit like that. Yeah, you have to *gasp* scout them out to see if you can take them or not. Those upgrade fights are way too hard early on, which is an indication that you need to wait. The crypt area in Marshan Swamp is much harder than most of the enemies in Verlon Forest.

This is a game that encourages you to find the fights that are appropriate to your level, and to go back to the earlier area when you are ready. Not only that, the game encourages you to use different troops in different areas, i.e. pirates in the Freedom Islands and Dwarfs in Kordor. This is because of various modifiers such as the wife Mirabella who improves the attack of pirates, as well as things like a barrel of dwarven beer that improves the morale of your dwarves.

This is a game that manages to be both simple to pick up and deep enough to reward strategic thinking.

I guess what I meant was... in other recent "fun" RPG-lites like Fable, the whole wife or husband thing was just a tacked-on thing that ran up to you, danced in your face, and screamed, "HEY, LOOK AT ME, YOU CAN GET MARRIED..." and then it does absolutely nothing. It's just there so they can say it's there.

Whereas with KB it just feels like a natural part of the game, not intrusive at all.

 

[Kraszu]

I rather like it gameplay useless, as I can just not care about it at all.

 

[Heresiarch]

Wow, this game's soundtrack is damn epic + beautiful. The music in the elven lands are so haunting. There's even HOMM2 opera stuff there!