For many long-time gamers (i.e., us old fogeys of the gaming world) the phrase King's Bounty may evoke a sense of nostalgia. The original game bearing this title was released in 1990 on a wide range of platforms (among them, two of the greatest of the 1980s platforms, including the Commodore 64 and the Apple II).
The original game spawned a very popular series that continues to remain a profitable IP even to this day. But the later games did not possess the feel of the original — the sense of something new and unique that the original King's Bounty brought to gaming. It was a surprise to me several weeks ago when a friend asked me about King's Bounty and if I'd heard of it.
"Of course," I answered, "I used to play it almost 20 years ago. I loved that game!" I exclaimed. "Well, there's a new one," he said. I admit I was skeptical at first. It's rare that a sequel lives up to the hype of the original, whether it is in movies or games or books. And for a sequel of a game that came out almost 20 years ago? Well, let's just say I approached it with a very, very critical eye.
But before I spent $39.99 on the game, I wanted to learn more about it. So, I went to the official Web site and read about it, checked out screenshots, read over community forums, looked up previews, and listened to two of my friends who were playing the game talk about how many hours of sleep they were losing. This, in addition to the rest of my research, was a preponderance of positives with the only item in the negative column being how much sleep I might lose if I did buy the game. Weeks later and many, many hours short of sleep, let me say that the decision I made to buy and play King's Bounty: The Legend was well worth it!
King's Bounty: The Legend was developed by Katauri Interactive, a Russian game development studio, and published by Atari. The game is listed as a sequel and contains features from the original as well as later games inspired by King's Bounty that fans of the genre have grown to enjoy.
The game has lots that you can enjoy, from excellent graphics to a good soundtrack, humorous quests, well-written dialogue, branching storylines, and no end to the number of enemies, allies, items, and spells that you can meet, fight, and collect along the way. But it isn't any one single element that makes this game so good and so enjoyable. Rather, it's all of the features packaged together, along with little things, that continue to surprise me or give me a good chuckle.
For starters, the game is based on the concept that you are a Knight (the Royal Treasure Seeker) serving your kingdom. In King's Bounty: The Legend, you are out to prove yourself to your king, make some money and a name for yourself, and solve the kingdom's problems while you are at it. But the king's problems aren't all there is. Other citizens of the kingdom, and even others throughout the world in other kingdoms or islands or caves or dungeons, have their own problems and concerns.
And these problems and concerns aren't always straightforward and sometimes take a while or force you to solve other quests first. And sometimes you must make the hard decisions and live with the consequences. One of the early choices that impressed me was deciding whether or not to attack a castle and kill its occupant for a vengeful ghost who claimed the castle's new owner had wronged him. Choosing to attack the castle, I ousted the ruler and put the ghost's former "son" on the castle's throne, only to discover that it wasn't really his son after all but the son of a dragon and the queen.
On the other hand, I could have very easily attacked the ghost and destroyed him, and I may just do that the next time I play through the game! There are numerous quests of this type throughout the game, and that keeps you always on your toes, always thinking about what the impact of your decisions might be.
Another aspect that your quest choices can have is your ability to find a wife. A wife in King's Bounty: The Legend is sort of like an extra character that has stats and can carry equipment for a time. Eventually she will bear you children, and each child reduces the number of pieces of equipment she can wear. But each child comes with his or her own statistics, often with buffs that you cannot get from equipment. Each wife has her own unique bonuses to your stats, and so some choices you make in quests can disable your ability to obtain a particular woman as your wife.
One key part of the game is the acquisition of items, artifacts and spells/scrolls. There are hundreds if not thousands of them available that you can buy, sell and loot. Some are useful, many are not and some can even be upgraded by fighting the spirits within the item. These items have the potential to become extremely powerful and also are often worth a great deal of coin.
Spells, unlike items and artifacts, begin as scrolls that can be used once and then are lost. But as your character learns more skills, he or she can begin turning those scrolls into spells. Spells can be cast many times using your mana (while scrolls directly use your magic crystals) and are not lost. In addition, spells can be upgraded as your category proficiency (order, chaos, etc.) improves. The higher the level of the spell, the more potent its effect and also the greater its cost in mana.
The graphics of King's Bounty: The Legend are truly amazing, though you will need a more modern video card to really see them and play the game in its glory. Unlike previous incarnations and related games, in King's Bounty you can zoom in fully and rotate your camera around at many angles, giving you a near-3D view of the world and of the battles. And the world is amazing in places, with breathtaking views of castles, mountains and distant lands.
But it isn't just the graphics that make the game's environment so wonderful; the music also is done very well. Classical compositions make the game's soundtrack worth having, and in fact, Katauri has made the tracks available on its Web site for download in mp3 format for fans to listen to even when not playing the game. The music themes change for each area you visit and can be light-hearted or dark and foreboding.
Combat is by far the biggest part of the game as you spend at least half of your time on the combat screen. The combat screen consists of a map of varying shapes and sizes, with terrain that closely resembles the type of terrain you were in on the main world but divided into hexes like an old-school miniatures game.
During combat, you have many tactical choices to make, moving your units around the map, determining where to place them, which units to attack and from what direction. Some units are better attacked from the rear or the flanks; others, such as Horsemen, do better when they have three or more hexes to charge their opponents (and this increases the damage they inflict). Units have special abilities they can use, which vary widely, and sometimes can make the difference of your success or failure in critical situations.
But the map and your units are not all that you have to deal with in combat. Objects, both interactive and non-interactive, often litter the map. These take the form of rocks or fallen branches or even statues or hives that cause trouble for any unit that comes close. These objects also cause problems with line of sight that ranged units require to attack your enemies and therefore require you to maneuver your units to gain a better view of the battlefield. Interactive objects also can take the form of chests, which most often contain gold. These chests are only available in the battle, and the enemy will often try to open them, denying you any extra gold.
Finally, in combat there is the Chest of Rage and the Spirits that reside within. This special artifact that you acquire through a quest contains four spirits (Fire, Ice, Water and Death) that you can take advantage of during combat. Each Spirit gains experience during battle, gains levels and can utilize a set of abilities to assist you. Some abilities are beneficial to you, others do damage indiscriminately but all are powerful, and as the Spirits gain more levels, so do their abilities.
There are few negatives to be had in King's Bounty: The Legend. But if I had to choose one, it would be the lack of a map editor and scenario creator. It is quite the popular topic on the official forums, but there has been no sign of one yet. Given that the development team is Russian, there are probably hurdles to overcome to convert it into English or prepare it for worldwide release. Also, since I haven't yet finished playing the regular game, I only casually looked for a scenario/map editor or third-party mods.
In all, I would highly recommend King's Bounty: The Legend to anyone who was looking for a game that offered many hours of entertainment at a pace that you choose. It was easy for me to play a session lasting 10 to 15 minutes to one lasting upwards of four to five hours. And with the pause feature (by pressing the space bar in combat or on the main map), you can quite easily get up and walk away from the game without having to worry about anything bad happening while you are gone (except perhaps one of your children taking control or the random power outage or the ever-so-rare alien attack).
So, head out to your local game store, grab yourself a copy and enjoy a really great game that lives up to its billing as a sequel to a classic game of the early days of gaming. You won't be disappointed.
