A good game with some huge flaws.

[Danielsan2000]

King's Bounty is very addictive and I love the way the rage spirits were done, some of the spells are cleverly thought out and the whole scenario of the campaign has some efford put into it.

Perhaps the greatest flaw in my oppinion is due to an individual preference, I like to go through my games playing "iron man mode", normal difficulty, but without dying once. I usually take my time, explore every possibility available and with carefullness I have completed all Neverwinter games, Baldurs gate, HoMM 5 and many others this way. Unfortunately this is impossible with King's Bounty, there are some battles where one doesnt have a clue in regard to the strength of the opposition.

A certain tower required me to pass a test early on, but having entered another test where I faced stacks of 300 with a little army I have simply turned down everything that includes attacking something which has no indicative in regard to strength value.

The other example is f.ex. upgrading an item, this is poor design, the idea is splendid but why cant we get some measure of how strong the items defenses are? This is the very first game to offer a challenge which is totally unknown before entering the battle, at least from my experience.

The gathering of troops is a pain, learning the ressurection spell the paladin has offers continuous gameplay early on without too much troop gathering, but many of the challenges require full strength and returning to the castle/inn to get troops constantly can be a real pain, but its manageable.

I would like to point out that I do like the game, its just the "unknown" encounters which are really putting me off.

[kennec]

agree about upgrading items. i tryed upgrade my staff at lvl 12 with an huge army and the gremlins that guarded the staff where insanly strong. not even with endless mana i could have won the battle.

mayby it should have an symbol showing strenght of the upgrading army like on the map. so u know when u are ready and have troops and leadership to win it . mayby scouting 3/4 should open it?

[phoenixreborn]

Pretty weak complaint. No one forces you to play "iron man".

[hickmanj]

This is lame to say the entire game has "huge flaws"

Correction: it has a minor (compared to most games released in terrible alpha stages - it is miniscule) minor flaw that you personally are bothered by.

Get some perspective.

Yeesh.

[Zhuangzi]

Yeah, it's not 'huge flaws,' it's 'one design decision I don't like.' :rolleyes:

Yes, the upgrade fights are frequently too hard. Yes, it would be nice to get an indication of approximately what level you need to be to win the fight. But that's it. One small issue, not 'huge flaws.'

Sorry if I'm starting to sound like a King's Bounty fanboy, it's just that this game rocks so hard I'm often left speechless playing it.

For mine, I have ONE thing that annoys me that I would like to see in a patch or expansion. I would like a screen that gives me the inventory of the various shops. This would be nice as I could see where I need to go to get a particular troop. It could work in the same way as the search for hulls/equipment in Space Rangers 2. :)

[Jobu]

I'm no fanboy of this game but I enjoy it very much. If you choose to play "iron man"...I'd love to hear from you a game...any game...like this one where you were able to go completely through it without having to reload a battle.

I don't think the designers frankly had your gamestyle in mind when they designed the game. Not that your opinion doesn't hold value...it's just I think you are in a very small minority.

[phoenixreborn]

I'd love to hear from you a game...any game...like this one where you were able to go completely through it without having to reload a battle.


I did it in Wizardry 8. Not on my first play through though. The game had a built in Iron-man mode (choice) that would only let you save when you were quitting. It is fun, but I don't make it a requirement.

[Saridu]

The game has no less than three revolving quick saves and auto saves at every castle for a reason!

This is definitely not an iron man game,you're basically playing a "challenge" which means you have to avoid all such combats and not complain about it ;-)

That said I actually agree with you that it would nice if a monster pop up window appeared (like the one when you hover over a mob) and if you have scouting gave you numbers and ratings etc

But that said it only takes a second to go - holy fook! How many mages/turrents? Sigh sorry archmage dude, guess I won't be able to suppress your staff yet and click the load button :)

[kennec]

i just upgraded my neckledge of fire magic. cost me all my stack so now i run around with giants only and use my rage and spells only at lvl 14.

fire magic +15% to +30%. with chaos 3 and all magic damage spells its one hell of of double nuke i can pull of first round. 2 times 2500 first round in fire raines on 3*3squares.

[stupidface]

This game does have flaws, but I don't think that they've yet been mentioned in this thread.

Those who are saying that there is a design decision that you don't like, and that your statement that you have found "huge flaws" is an exaggeration, are correct. It's not that big of a deal. :)

I like that the upgrade fights are unknown difficulty. Loading times are SUPER FAST in this game, and I like to be surprised. In the Adventure mode, your character could spy on the enemy troops to see their composition - but if he's about to enter a weapon's realm, how would he "see" what's lying in wait? It's just more exciting that way. :)

My only real complaint about the game would be that, compared to previous games from this developer, it has just a few less surprises. For example, those who have played Space Rangers 2 will know that all sorts of little mysteries could "hit" you at any given moment, and that certain bonuses or upgrades could be achieved by following long and seemingly unconnected quest lines or by doing a lot of far-flung exploration. More of that in King's Bounty would have given it much more replay value. And I would have loved to see a return of the text-based adventures that were available in SR2. But for the first game in a new series it is excellent! :)

This game is not really an RPG. It is a turn-based strategy game with RPG elements, just like the first King's Bounty. And that's okay - it's nothing bad, unlike being a FPS with RPG elements that steals the name of a brilliant RPG and adds "3"... ;) Nevertheless I think that this game is very good for playing Iron Man mode. You have to be very good and very cautious to survive playing Iron Man mode, or you will be dying and restarting the game. Isn't that the point of Iron Man mode anyway? How would Iron Man mode be rewarding if it was easy to never die? By playing Iron Man mode you are making the decision to play the game with a high chance of being forced to restart, that's how it works. :)

Anyway, I hope that when you talked about playing Baldur's Gate, you meant the real Baldur's Gate games and not the recent hack-and-slash junk. ;)

[hickmanj]

It's interesting to hear you mention Space Rangers 2. I also loved that game, but feel King's Bounty is superior in polish and gameplay. SR2 often felt a bit rough and too cobbled together at points....

I loved it, don't get me wrong, but love KB even more.... But, what is best is they are both great games that have gotten great reviews and will hopefully produce more of the same!!!!

J

[Hepasto The Terror]

Yeah, I too agree. It may be how the developers wanted it to be. This is a very good game and a lot interesting one.

About surprises, there are some small elements in game which surprise the player. Only bonus rewards could have been implemented. And one thing i noted, the way we follow to complete the quests does not really change the gameplay (like killing the ghost instead of baron), some rewards are lost and may be a little experience...

[stupidface]

I agree that KB:L is much more polished than SR2. :) But SR2 did have significantly more "pick up and play" quality, which I felt was actually similar in a lot of ways to the original King's Bounty that I played in DOS and on Sega Genesis. KB:L seems to more focused on definite progress, kind of like an adventure game or RPG; it's not as much of a "sandbox" as the other two games.

And that's fine, I'm not complaining. :) But it does mean that those games have, by design, a bit more replay value than KB:L, so maybe there are ways to compensate for that. Not in this version, of course, which is both finished and awesome, but maybe in a sequel or expansion.

For one, more random content, like in SR2. Strange stuff that you'll just stumble on or that could stumble upon you. The continents, dungeons, caves, etc., in KB:L are not randomly generated and I think the game is better off as a result - but the NPC's or the quests that they give could be randomized or "rotated," so that you would be faced with different characters and tasks each time you play the game. KB:L already does this with items and recruits.

Anyway, I'm not saying that the game has a "huge flaw," I'm just talking about a means of modest improvement. In any case KB:L is one of the best games I've played in a long while. It has more choices-and-consequences than most "real" RPG's, and I like that it doesn't "hold your hand" through quests or treat you like an idiot with tutorials and cutscenes as many console games/ports do.

[fell]

How difficult the game is depends on your strategy. There are a few broken strategies in which no "non hero" army will be able to beat you.

What they really need is an "auto resolve" feature so you dont have to wait for battles you know you will win.

ALSO the necromancy skill is freaking broken. It doesnt resurrect the proper % of each troop type. It like has that chance to raise that % from a specific type of troop. I have NEVER had two different types of troop raised. Such a worthless skill.

You should also be able to KEEP the troops you raise mid battle with Necro Call. I can understand being unable to keep the daemons/phoenix troops but Necro Call seems designed to allow the retention of your army.

EDIT: SR2 is an utterly awesome game but i was highly disappointed with the "price" of the updated version that amounted to a freaking patch with a couple new ships.

[Elizabeta]

Here is my take:

1. Total lack of "Quick Combat" option is a game-breaker! Heroes of Might & Magic 5 solves this in a sweet way.

2. Quests don't give any sort of cordinates! What gives?! It's sort of like this: Go from USA to Sweden and then buy a burger from my favorite place - - - ehh? Like you know where that is!!! Most quests are like that and i HATE it!!!

3. Bad optimization, just look on the "Arlania" map. Many games of today hide optimization in "high" computer specs. Consoles can't do stuff like that, so the point of the matter is: when one map "LAGS" and others don't then there is an issue. Heroes of Might & Magic 5 had NO such issues...

4. My English sure stink, but even I had made a better translation with a free Russian to English software from Internet. When I want Yoda talking I turn on Star Wars... sigh...

5. RPG for me is that you can solve things calm and nice without going rude and evil, well, in this game you are far to often FORCED to pick a damn rotten evil response to "keep going" - - - maybe this comes from this game beeing Russian in the core, but there is actualy people who don't want to "play" the Russian way :(

6. Orginal Kings Bounty is/was far more OPEN-ENDED in that you could re-play it how many times you wanted... It's not like that here becouse you are more or less FORCED to do things one way :(

7. Sexes: what with this male thingy??? Why is there no female counterparts? The orginal King's Bounty had ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, "we cannot have one becouse of the females the hero can marriage" - - - ok, but just code in some males the females can marry, or even better, why not let females marry other females, its just a game and I don't object it! "We cannot let you marry another female becouse then the code halters when you want to make kids" - - - doh, just do some sort of code *If female then 1, if male then 0*, then she can come up with a clever response or whatever...

Now I am FORCED to play the Paladin due to the fact it looks like a tom-boy female, but I am so angry I cannot be the mage *urghhh* - - - FEM POWER FOVEVER!

Before I end, even with all this issues, I LOVE THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its very good, so I don't bash it, its just it could have been better!

[stupidface]

I am glad that this game does not give exact coordinates for the Quests! :)

It requires that you remember things, or figure them out on your own. To have coordinates would make things too simple, as they were in Oblivion (Bethesda) due to the "Quest Compass." I do think, though, that the Quest Log should have given a little more information, like categorizing quests by the continent/realm that you needed to be on to do the next task - but having precise coordinates would take a lot of fun out for me.

I think good RPG dialogue choices should be about options more than about attitudes (look at Bioware's RPGs where you are stuck being either saintly, sadistic or boring - with none making any difference ultimately!) KB:L has a lot of good options throughout the course of many quests, some "nicer" than others. But there are only so many times and so many ways you can be "nice" when the game is all about battling armies. :)

I agree that a female choice would be considerate. Hopefully in the sequel they can offer this. Instead of "three avatars", maybe they could just have one avatar and you can switch the heads/gender and color scheme.

[Kolorabi]

Now I am FORCED to play the Paladin due to the fact it looks like a tom-boy female,

Heh, he does. Also, the mage looks... I don't know, "suspicious". I had to play the warrior (Bill Gilbert) because I didn't like the other faces. Sounds stupid, probably, but in an RPG I want a character I can identify with. So for the next game, I hope they let us choose a face ourselves. :)

[phoenixreborn]

Heroes 5 had major performance issues for some people. Can you play an impossible size map with no lag in ai turns? And Oblivion sucked.

I also disagree with the idea that the original kb was more open-ended. There was only 1 type of quest, kill the badguy, this kb has real quests with some choices.

I definitely agree that there should be female character choices, and there could be males to marry as well. You know, two guys get together they could adopt a dragon child...it's fantasy.

Some sort of quick combat would be nice, but the fighting is the heart of the game so I would want a clever solution.

[Elizabeta]

Playing Kings Bounty: The Legend feels very good *despite* the issues I have with it... :) The X-pack will hopefully fix lots of stuff.

[stupidface]

And Oblivion sucked.

I agree! KB:L is not even supposed to be a "real" RPG, and it is still a better RPG than Oblivion. :)

As for original KB being more or less open-ended, I see your point. I did not mean to say so much that it was "open-ended," so my use of the term "sandbox" was ill conceived. What I meant to say was that due to its almost total focus on recruitment, power-ups and battles, it was easier to start up and play through. Like the difference between Super Mario Brothers 1 and Super Mario RPG. :) This is not a fault or problem, of course, just a difference. KB:L is ultimately better than KB in every way, so I'm very glad that the development team got a hold of the license. Unfortunately some good old games have had their licenses for sequels go to bad developers lately... :rolleyes: First Baldur's Gate Hack and Slash, soon Fallout 3, maybe Planescape MMO next, or maybe even an Arcanum fighting game, who knows.

I have other ideas about improvements for KB:L in its expansion, but I will post these to the appropriate section of the forum instead of bumping this thread (which is kind of a silly thread to begin with.)

[Thasic]

Hey, if you like HOMM5, play HOMM5. This game is NOT HOMM5, it's Kings Bounty. I liked the HOMM series but this is a nice change with some original ideas. Enjoy it for what it is.