Is this game anything like Heroes of Might and MAgic?

[Sol Invictus]

Thanks for the mini-review. I like the fact that the Player is forced to consider army losses and can't just throw his units into the meatgrinder without a thought. I am really looking forward to the game. Your English is quite good by the way.

[WannaLearnEnglish]

Thanx Good, but not perfect. There ought to be errors, point some of them out.

3. Graphics: technical issues.

3.1. 3D Style.

Another difference from HoMMV is that in KB 3D is forced upon you. In HoMMV there was 3D camera, but I always turned on "classic camera" with 2D view from above and with the North in the proper position.

Here in KB there is no such thing as classic camera. You're FORCED to walk 3D, DOOM-style, be lost in directions, and do all those Chest-scrolls-stuff-searches real 3D-way. Build-in maps are rather sketchy. Game designers even do not allow one to look at the picture a little bit higher from above, helicopter-view camera style. To avoid us players to walk good old 2D style Although would it be possible, it would speed-up the game process significantly.

Probably, game designers thought that it would embed one into proper "game athmosphere". Well, maybe they've right. Map is handmade and most of the building are unique. At first I was troubled, but eventually learned every corner of the map, and can give good "driving directions" (turn left, then turn right etc) to anyone. But again, these are RPG elements. To strategy-lover they're alien.

3.2. Just some Lyrics notes in between the lines

There are some nice 3D-moments also. E.g. I remember how I was staying ON THE HILL near the Temple, somewhere near the entrance to the Graveyard. I just cheated one monster, won a hard battle against another one, but lost half of my tiny army. Enemen Guy Castle was clearly seen on the horizon DOWN THERE in the Valley. In spoilers I've heard there're some good units available. But quick monsters of "deadly" rank were moving galore in between. So I turned back, and postponed my visit to the guy. Which proved correct aftewards, since in MY map there were NO these cool units in that Castle, and I couldn't hire Skeleton Archers that were there instead, without Army Morale losses at that moment.

However the hill was not very high. I would STRONGLY ADVISE game designers to make good hills with REAL PANORAMIC views. A good hill with panoramic view would help me to accept this 3D enforcement stuff, otherwise I'm (frankly speaking) fed up with it.

3.3. Video demands

One of the consequences is that my 7600GS graphic card works well only in 1024x768 and low-profile settings. In fact, HoMMV in true 3D mode is also pretty video-demanding. But there 3D-walk was neither obligatory nor really necessary. Even if for some reason one wanted to walk around 3D-style, there were no running real-time monsters around, and low FPS was tolerable.

Here in KB not only moving Monsters, but also superb hand-made graphics of the game demands and deserves more. Luckily, time of insanely expensive 8800 series looks to be over, and NVIDIA-AMD war has produced a decent mid-priced product of almost equal power, 9600GT. That card (silent versions available !) I would probably buy, solely for KB reasons. The game picture looks significantly better in 1680x1050 (or one can rather say: "looks significantly worse in 1024x768") although FPS is too low to play on my current system.

As for STARFORCE, I had no problems with it. Never asked me for stupid letter "codes", never tried to connect to internet or something. All one needs is to keep the disk in tray. I've heard that STARFORCE protection misbehaves on old or unusual CD/DVD-drives. I'm using new ASUS SATA CD/DVD-drive, that is widely availiable for about 30 bucks or so.

3.4. Small Letters problem.

Letters are very, very small. After 4 hours of the game strained eyes are guaranteed. I understand that a good artist should have good attention to the details, and therefore is a natural-born petite lover. But I'm just a player and not only have to look at the artist's works, but also have to read what these story-tellers wrote. Also, I really READ all those hitpoint-damage information etc.

Dear KATAURI, please recall that these are NOT petite letters in WARRANCY contract ! I swear I wouldn't use them to suit the designers and claim damages Just let me SEE them, not just look at them !

[KingImp]

Here's a question. Can you tell us what this unit is? (5th from left, 3rd from right)




Of all the unit screenshots, this is the one that most intrigued me.

[WannaLearnEnglish]

Originally Posted by KingImp

Can you tell us what this unit is? (5th from left, 3rd from right)

This alleged guy is a Black Knight of Undead Race.
Left to right: Skel Warrior, Ghost, Vampire (can turn into the Bat, and alter his parameters and picture), Necromancer, Black Knight, Skel Archer and Skel Dragon.

There are only 5 levels of units, compared to 7 levels in HoMMV. Also, in HoMMV it was almost mandatory to use higher-level units from one Castle/race. In KB you hire more or less whoever you want, or find available. There are only minor uncompatibilities, most of them are untolerance to undeads/demons.

I find it cool, player is fully responsible for the kinds of units he hires, and for the army balance he creates.

Levels of the units are to be understood quite differently in KB. In HoMMV there is a strict order, every race have two units of each level. It's due to the Races AND Castles system. In KB there are no proper Castles and therefore no such order. Each unit is unique and separate. His "level" attribute is mostly for reference. High level units usually have more intelligent abilities and more hitpoints, low level units are just mass-damage fighters that die easily.

In fact one can forget about "level" attribute completely. The only known usage is with some spells. E.g. "frighten" spell frightens, and frightened units do not attack units whose level is higher than theirs.

"Race" is also just a not very significant attribute. Consequently, different races have different numbers of units of each level, and many cool units are of no particular race (AKA neutrals).

One can hire all units of one race, and earn high morale, but it is a peculiar choice. A good choice for Paladin is to learn "tolerance" skill instead and hire undeads and demons to fight for his Holy Case They may be evil in nature but good in fighting. Or Robbers(Marauders), since Paladins also need money. Or marry a frog and earn bonuses to Spiders and Snakes in your army. Just do not kiss this frog, one guy advises, she will turn pretty woman, yep, but where are you bonuses then? Only very lame players play with all-humans Is it a kind of humor from game designers? I dunno...

[phoenixreborn]

Originally Posted by WannaLearnEnglish

Only very lame players play with all-humans Is it a kind of humor from game designers? I dunno...

But but, that's how I beat the original game...thanks for infos.

[lostn]

Thanks for the excellent review WannaLearnEnglish. That sheds a lot of light on the game.

[phoenixreborn]

Makes me want it.

KingImp that looks like a death knight or a hero or something like that.

[it-ogo]

As Wanna said it looks closest to HOMM series though player can not posess multiple heroes and realty like cities. So while HOMM is essentially an empire simulator, KB is a personal adventure of the protagonist. I think therefore they call it RPG rather then strategy. Personal statistics is different from HOMMs but not much more complicated and tends to universality.

My personal overall impression: very pleasant gameplay but completely one-time. There are nice hand-made maps, nice dialogs full of soft irony, many small nice ideas here and there still nothing revolutionary.

There is no sense to make random map generator because you can have a good strategy on random map while adventures should be hand-made only. The same is about multiplayer: no reason to do.

[WannaLearnEnglish]

OK guys, I did it! Pal/Normal/Verison 1.0 till mid-dwarves, then Patch 1.4 till the end.

Here are some corrections to my review notes:

1. Interface

Interface is good, but one haS //thanks Sol !// to know some hints that could be found (currently) either on internet or by trying. And NOT in manuals. E.g.

1.1. Pressing ALT in the battle mode is very important. Although it works differently in different patches.

1.2. R-Clicking on smiley in Unit information window shows Moral Bonuses. (at least in patch 1.4) (See also important moving hint at the end of this post)

2. Patches

Patches (fortunately or unfortunately) not only fix the bugs but also alter many other things that make the overall balance of the game SIGNIFICANTLY different patch-to-patch. As far as I understand, at this moment there are essentially THREE versions of the game:

2.1. Original version and early patches.

There was a "bug" in damage formula. Damage from low-levels to high-levels was a way too big, but was ABRUPTLY reduced with D-A>30.

This produced an interesting and INSANELY efficient tank-n-damagers tactics. Low level units were hit-dealers that exploited this "bug", attacking everyone with D lower than their A+30. A High-level unit, called a "tank", with his Defense (plus hero's defense as usual) bigger than 30+attack of enemy unit, was supposed to get every computer's units hits. This avoiding Computer to use this bug to his advantage.

It was interesting to see how some people understood this new reality directly from their battle experience, and adjusted their tactics accordingly. And yet some other people who refused to trust their eyes and trying to play "good old" HOMMV-style

E.g. one guy noted that his Swordmen stack tanks well ONLY in "defend" mode. Now we know the answer: defend adds only 5-6 to defense, but in his case D-A was lower than 30, but became greater than 30 after 'defence' and altered the damage formula.

2.2. (Starting probably with patch 1.3.) Game with "damage formula bug" fixed. My Patch 1.4 belongs here, and its a different game.

2.3. They say Patch 1.5. alters game balance even further.

All money-gold balances issues are somewhat changed, chest's gold increased etc etc. High levels availability at the beginning are cut.

Also, they did a lot to make the game not that easy till the very end. People say that initially, after dwarves locations one could hire a packs of dragons-giants and play auto-battle mode till the end. Game designers probably took proper measures, since it did not worked for me in 1.4 patch.

3. Moral issues.

As far as I understand, Moral issues are still not set in their final form. All-humans Bonus line is commented in files, so there are no moral bonuses for all-humans. However there ARE bonuses for All-Dwarves and All-Elves.

There are only five dwarves units in the game and they form a kind of "preset melee squad" for players who do not want to make teams of their own.

Moral issues of Elves are more complicated. Here one can exerscise his team-making skills. But it's Elven (driad-based) teams that REALLY rule. Or you can make no-male teams for Inferno Invasions, so that local succubs do not mix up with your army's males 'Agni ring' is probably a single most important artifact of the game.

There are also a kind of "robbers" subrace in human race and spiders-snakes and dragons subraces in neutrals.

So, contrary to what I said before, there actually ARE Race-n-Moral issues in this game, but they are not that simple, not given in manuals, are hand-made and may be subject to further changes.

4. Videocard

Game became SIGNIFICANTLY more robust with patch 1.4. I take my words on video back, 7600GS is reasonably playable at 1000x1600.

5. Bugs.

I had no 'crash' bugs in the beginning, neither intention to install any balance-altered patches.

However somehow in mid-game the game became increasingly crash-prone. I thought it's my hardware problem, since it was ok in the begining. But it was the patch that solved the problem.

Also, in many locations one can move through ONLY with arrow keys.

6. One last good hint (to my patch version though): do not spend your Magic crystals too easily. Unlike Runes, they are deficient till the very end of the game. Keep in mind that a useful third-level spell takes full 20 Crystals to learn. And also there are numerous spells of little or no use.

[Sol Invictus]

Thanks for the info.

I assume that you still want corrections to your English usage, so I will make you aware that the sentence after Interface; where you use Have; should be Has.

The Interface is good, but one has to know...

If you used a plural pronoun, such as We instead of One, then you could say:

The Interface is good, but players have to know... or The Interface is good, but players have(should) to be aware... or The Interface is good, but players need to know...

I will be the first to admit that I am not a a perfect English speaker; being from Eastern Kentucky; so I am very hesitant to give anyone advice on how to use English correctly, but I must say that you have an outstanding command of the English language. There are so many different ways to say the same things in English, that I don't know how anyone can master it; especially someone who is not a native speaker. Hopefully, I have not offered improper advice myself.