I found surprisingly few battles during my time with King's Bounty 2, either coming upon them out in the wilderness, or triggering combat during quests. I scoured the world pretty thoroughly for encounters that would train me up for the harder battles, but even after fighting supposedly weaker groups of enemies, I would often come away bearing significant losses. Balance fixes have been promised for the finished game, and I hope they apply to the combat, as the difficulty ramped up sharply after I entered the Crown Lands. If every member of a unit perishes-say, if all four of your golems turn to mulch-then you'll lose them forever and have to swap in units from your reserve, or else track down a recruiter to buy replacements. The game is good at informing you about the potential outcomes of your actions, so I would often chew on turns for ages, trying to minimise my losses the best I could. You position your units, and then take turns with the enemy to whittle down everyone's health bars, while your hero chips in occasionally with a powerful spell. While previous Bounty battles took place on tiny hex-based grids, here those grids have been expanded, and embellished with different levels of elevation, and various line-of-sight blocking obstacles. They're there, in your back pocket, as you clomp around the world, popping out every so often to dutifully fight on your behalf. In King's Bounty, you hire nameless soldiers to do your dirty work, including human swordsmen and archers, beasts such as wolves and bears, and even undead skeletons and ghouls. When you do choose to engage in combat, you're told exactly which enemies to expect, and how strong they are compared to your current party. If I didn't find much humour in the writing, then it's here in the game mechanics, as 1C retains the series' essence in its brave new 3D world. But the absolute best part of the glowing barriers is that the bandits or skeletons, bears or elemental creatures will scamper out and waggle their weapons as you approach the border, like playground bullies in a Beano comic strip. There's no time pressure to engage with baddies, nor any risk of a surprise attack as you serenely wander through this fantasy world. Remember those enemies I mentioned, the ones waiting politely behind their glowing barriers? It's a feature common to games with strategic maps, and I admire developer 1C Entertainment for using it in a more grounded setting, even at the risk of undermining the sacred immersion. However, if you approach it from another angle-as an ambitious reworking of the core King's Bounty concept-there's more to be hopeful about.

Over 100 new quests and 15 new locations.From what I've seen of the game, I think it will suffer when compared to modern open world RPGs, for which a 'living, breathing world' is of paramount importance.

New units, artifacts, and rage abilities.

New companion system (different companions for each character).They must unite against the Light or face extinction! The heroes exchange vows and share antique artifacts, then gather their armies and march to fight for the very survival of their race. They come together in the depths of the Black Cave, where many centuries ago races of Light imprisoned Ancient Evil. All must join him or perish.įates of the three heroes are sealed. Young Daert leaves home to seek allies among the other Dark races. A young Demoness named Neoleene, still mourning the death of her royal father, and her small unit of devoted imps is all that stands in the way of the invading horde.Ĭastle of the ancient Morton clan is threatened by an army of vampire hunters. He vows to return with a stronger force and retake his homeland!Īrmies of human knights invade the land of Atrixus. Orc-Baghyr, the greatest living Orc warrior, is forced to flee with a handful of loyal followers.

After winning the battle of Tristrem, arrogant elves plunder Orcish villages, desecrate holy shrines, and massacre the innocents. Become a fearless Orcs warrior, lead and heal your troops as a Demoness, or use dark magic as a fearsome Vampire. Time has come to join the Dark Journey to the other side of Teana and visit a mysterious part of the world never before seen by royal bounty hunters.įor the first time in King’s Bounty series, players will be able to choose their hero’s race as well as class.

Kings bounty the legend heal troops