King’s Bounty II from 1C Entertainment is the long-awaited sequel to 2008’s fantasy roleplaying game King’s Bounty The Legend. You take control of one of three characters each destined to be the hero of the realm of Nostria. Warrior Aivar, descendant of a noble family and knight of the king’s guard, Mage Katherine, Countess of the rulers of Nostria’s rugged mountain region, or Paladin Elisa, a peasant girl from Lorian. Your choice alters your available abilities and accessibility of various areas throughout the game.
The main gameplay takes the shape of top-down, turn-based battles against various creatures found roaming the lands of Nostria; these can vary anywhere from bearded dwarves to colossal stone golems. Once you encounter a foe, the battle will then unfold on a hexagonal grid and you'll take leadership of the units you've acquired along your journey so far, both moving and attacking strategically across the various spaces, in similar style to XCOM. With every unit having various stats to determine how far they can move, how hard they hit, and the range of their attacks, these battles can be very strategic and enjoyable.
However, putting a single foot wrong can be very costly as a unit’s deaths is permanent and there's no way for them to return. Also, should all your units fall in battle, you must either reload a previous save to try again or explore the realm for extended periods of time to acquire a new army in order to proceed with the story.
In between battles you are presented with a third-person, open world cinematic experience, in which you are free to explore the realm of Nostria, finding chests and crates to loot, completing various side missions for Nostria’s inhabitants, and purchasing new units from recruiters that can be found in towns dotted across the map. Although there are activities to do outside of the turn-based battles, the world feels very barren, and this isn’t helped by the fact it takes an age to travel through it. The sluggish movement speed provided to the player and the horse being heavily restricted to certain areas leaves you wishing for a much better way to move your arse through Nostria.
If you're willing to invest your time learning the battle system and strategies to succeed in King’s Bounty II then there'll be some enjoyment to be found here. However, the game is very unforgiving with your time, forcing you to spend hours completing dull side missions and looting various places to level up your units, only for them to be slain in the next main mission battle you fight. Also constantly having to reload saves just to progress through the story feels very outdated.
Comments 15
Considering that it's been my most anticipated game in years, this is very disappointing. I think I'll buy it anyway and see for myself.
Edit: Having said that, I'm surprised the review doesn't bring up Heroes of Might and Magic or the previous King's Bounty, as this: "However, putting a single foot wrong can be very costly as a unit’s deaths is permanent and there's no way for them to return. Also, should all your units fall in battle, you must either reload a previous save to try again or explore the realm for extended periods of time to acquire a new army in order to proceed with the story" has always been the case
I hate permadeath especially the idea sounds like fun but some outdated designs sound like a downer
How does the game run on console? Your criticisms aren't really putting me off, standard rpg tropes it seems, but a poor port might.
@Balosi The game seems to run well apart from the odd frame rate issue in certain areas, nothing major to note really.
Not just permadeath, but “permanent permadeath”.
A little disappointing, I thought the game looked pretty interesting. I’m still gonna keep an eye on it post launch though.
Are there different difficulty levels? Maybe this is one of those times where playing on easy might be the most enjoyable way to experience this game.
@ATaco There is no difficulty options and no way to turn off permadeath
@Simon_Fitzgerald I think you're missing the point of the King's Bounty/Heroes of Might and Magic franchises. Permadeath of units has always been a core part of the gameplay.
Have you played any of the previous ones? Turning it off would be like making Souls games easy. It defeats the purpose of the game.
@naruball I've checked out a few other reviews and they are giving similar scores, even more rpg centric websites.
The main complaint seems to be that there is not enough of the the first games tactical fighting, to much rpg in between.
Ill admit that's concerning, but I love the series so much I'll try it anyway. Got well over 100 hours on the original and every spin off game.
Aw man. That's disappointing.
@Balosi yeah, I get that. That's why I was disappointed.
But the permadeath comment is beyond silly for this franchise. It's always been this way for a reason. The game is a lot like chess. (You know this already, so this is for others who haven't played King's Bounty games before) If you lose a unit, you can't get it back, so you have to find the best way to fight multiple battles and get the win while losing as few units as possible in the process because you will need them for the rest of the level. It's a core element of the franchise, so to see it being criticized seemed incredibly bizarre to me. To wonder why you can't turn it off is quite... ridiculous.
Edit: I'm looking at reviews on metacritic and it seems that they like it much more than this reviewer (which is fair enough, it's just his opinion; I just get the impression he's not familiar with King's Bounty/Heroes games and their point). Currently on xbox it has an average of 80 and on PC a 70. There is only one negative review so far. I think I'll wait for a few more.
@naruball yes the permadeath comments seem a bit odd given the game we are expecting. Losing units in games such as these are a given, they are just expendable pieces usually, like say civ 6 armies.
But I assume they must be treated differently in this game somehow, if the reviewer feels the loss of troops enough to comment on it.
Anyway, I've ordered the special edition from game (figured was only £15 more, might as well) I'll find out for myself tomorrow.
@Balosi if you don't mind, feel free to comment here when you do. I'd appreciate to know what you think of it. I'm definitely buying it. Just not sure if I should get it on ps4 or PC.
@naruball yeah I'll let you know what I think. I would've got pc, would've made sense as that's where I played the rest, but if there's a physical option that's where I'll go lol.
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