Demo reviews:

[Daystar]

The following is my fairly short review of King's Bounty.

If King's Bounty were a person, I would voluntarily and gladly make love to it, repeatedly and in many different positions. It is that pretty. There were NO graphical glitches AT ALL, the music was good, all the art felt very old school and at the same time it was in stunningly rendered 3D. And (for some reason this matters a great deal to me) there are battlefields with BUNNIES hopping around in the corners of them. Bunnies. Fluffy, Hoppy, Bunnies.

In worship of the Royal Snake: It is WONDERFUL. it is this giant blue snake thing, excellently animated, good in combat, so so so much fun. And when it retaliates against an enemy attack and kills the stack, it shakes the rattle on its tail and looks at the corpse of it's enemy. If it could talk, you can tell what it would be saying: "That's right."

The music is good, the AI is clever, and the feeling of the game is very simmilar to "Dark Lord of Derkholm" or "The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land" by Diana Wynne Jones.


I encourage others to post their reviews/reactions as well.

[The Incarnate]

Having waited for this game for almost a year it seems, to finally download the english demo was a sweet release for me today. Right from the start I noticed exceptional stability within the game..no glitches, crashes, lockups. The graphics were next for me and again i was VERY impressed especially when viewed from maxed zoom out. I am running the game on my maxed resolution of 1280x1024. My specs are Dell xps 400...running a Pentium D 2.80 ghz dual core, 3 gigs of ram. Graphics card is a brand new shiny GeForce 9600 GT and it is running this game like a government mule! Flawless performance on maxed settings.

Graphically, the game is beautiful. High fantasy settings..dark woods, castles, moats, small villages. Plenty of enemies to engage, as well as plenty of treasure to loot. Amazing after the advent of World of Warcraft, several games since then have adopted the cartoony, lushly colored fantasy style of Warcraft. It is evident here as well, and if you liked those beautiful vistas from WOW, you will not be dissappointed here.

Moving through the world in real time really brings home the RPG side of this game. Plenty of quests and errands to go along with exploration of the world go together like chicken and rice.

What would a game like this be without combat. Combat begins by either you coming upon a group of enemies in the real world or vice versa. The warring parties are then transported to a battle arena which apparently changes based on where you were when combat is initiated. Combat takes place on a hex grid and in TRUE turn based fashion. No hacking and slashing for all of Diablo Heads. Here you are encouraged to THINK about tactical strategy. Take your time...savor the battle...isnt that the reason all of us turn based freaks play these kinds of games. TBS rocks!!! Play this game and you will see why.

In closing I forgot to mention, myriads of spells and powers which totally rock. Not to forget the Rage Powers! The two in the demo are kick-a$$!!! I read a report from somewhere that this game was a labor of love for the developers. This is very evident during the demo. A subtle, quaint, and most charming world has been created. What storylines I have read in the demo, have been charming and funny and do exactly what they are supposed to do, meaning sending you on a dangerous quest into a dark forest, rid some ladies garden from evil plants, or to help on ailing hunter rid himself and others from a werewolf curse. It is truly an outstanding game.

Kudos to 1C and Katauri for taking the time and effort to make a game that so many old school gamers such as myself will find irresistable to put down. Should this be your first foray into fantasy themed TBS, not a better game awaits you. Upon playing through the demo I found myself feeling like I did the first time I ever played The Legend of Zelda on NES. Or the first time I ever played Pool Of Radiance, or any of the Bards Tale series. And shall we not forget the first time any of us played the first Heroes of Might and Magic or most ultimately....Kings Bounty! Again thanks to everyone that has been working on this project! Kings Bounty: The Legend represents what was best about gaming from a time now past and invites you to explore its stunning world while keeping hope alive that PC gaming is not dying!! It will never die!!

(.P.S).....all of this just from the demo...lol!!!

[Stever717]

Taggart says " DITTO! "

[Imperial Dane]

Well i would be cautious about calling this a review overall

But my Impressions from the Demo were fantastic, i mean where should i start?

The graphics while perhaps not the newest are used to their fullest extent with beatiful textures, great scenery and lovely little villages, the portraits themselves are excellent as well.
I mean one can stare at the scenery for quite some time and never get bored with it.
You have the aboveground forests and waters, open and happy and the more darker and sinister woods out in the sides, you have darkened caves with the occasional ray of light and cellars and dungeons as well. Even the arenas have been given quite a lot of work
Spells are quite colourful as well without being directly gaudy.

If we go for the RPG aspects, Kings bounty shines as well, while not having any stat heavy system, it does have a lot of text, quests and choices, allowing for some nice roleplaying if that is what you want (i know i want it ) and overall a lot of effort has been put into it with item descriptions and plenty of possibilites of delving into background lore if that is what you wish.. the only thing i miss here would be descriptions for the units themselves, like in Heroes V just to use an example, where beyond just stats there would also be some background info on the units.
And the english is impeccable so no need to worry there.

Combat is nicely done as well with several clever ideas added into it, beyond just having chests there are other things that might appear to change the battlefield, different sorts of altars and statues that might aid you or your enemy with equal chance.
I also liked how horsemen were capable of charging themselves if they had the movement to do it..

and the skill trees were fun as well, i quite liked the fact that certain skills could greatly change some of the units under your command giving them new abilities, although as far as i could see those were a rarity. But i quite liked being able to give my bowmen fire arrows.

The only actual problem i encountered was a tiny music problem in the game where it once in awhile would stutter heavily for a few seconds, but then everything just returns to normal.

So to sum it up, plenty of fantastic stuff.. my only complaint is that there isn't more if it like descriptions for the units

But definately a must have game if you ask me

Edit: But i must not forget to mention that exploration and having a good eye is rewarded as well, as if you look around you'll find plenty of eggs of different sorts and other goodies

[Ryder]

Great game, of that there is no doubt. Almost everything about it oozes class. My favorite quest was the one with the cursed ring. They way you have to make it uncursed, who would of thunk it? It's good because it's different. Dont have to praise it anymore, the previous posters have done that for me.

My only complaints are

1. The camera movement. Is it at all possible to have the camera in a fixed position behind the hero or something?

2. If I click somewhere on the map that is behind some trees for example, I want the hero to follow the path to get to that point, not run up to the trees and then stop.

Maybe I've been spoiled in H5 with that last point.

Counting down the days for the release. Gotta go and play another class.

[markgil]

sounds like this game is living up to expectations and then some!

how many expansions are planned for KB btw? i thought i read that there were going to be at least 2.

thanks.

[Coin-coin le Canapin]

Hi ! o/
I've been waiting this game since a long time.
I loves Heroes of Might and Magic serie, as well as Age of Wonders.
There is no new AoW game, and I didn't play HOMM 5 a lot, because it was released too early (too much bugs and stuff), and I didn't play it again even with the released patches that fixed that.
So, I'm very happy to see a new game based on the same concept.
I've played the demo with a mage, and next with a warrior. With this second character, I think I've finished all the available map (locations, monsters, quests) in normal difficulty mode. I've also finished the two first trainings in the castle (level 3 and 6).

So, let me share my opinion. But before, please excuse me if my explanations aren't good, english is not my native language. :]

First, the real time makes the map gameplay more "smooth". The bad point is that the real time doesn't have any real implication in the game.
When you play a mage, you can just wait all as you want until your mana increases to the maximum (even if the rage decreases...)
It also seems that there's no monster respawn or stuff like that. The game seems to be kind of... timeless, and it is sad.

The dig ability is funny, but it really should have a ~1 minute cooldown or something like that, because you can move and press D all the time without paying attention at the clues (the light rays).
The skill trees are a good idea too, but the skills are maybe too much conventional. Difficult to judge their true effect without playing the full game.

The graphics ROCK, and there are tons of nice details. the illustrations are beautiful. The musics are nice too, but the sound effects (fights and so on) are too much... Soft. They have a lack of "power", if you see what I mean.

The talks and descriptions are well written and often funny (the hero's appearance with the cart wheel and pot, the baby taking "his place in your heart and in your wife's equipment slot"...).
The camera : I don't like to have to moving it all the time... and the keyboard controls for the hero are a good idea, but it turns too slow (the hero AND the camera ).

Actually, the game seems to be very good, and I think I'll buy it for the release.

Oh, and just a question to finish : is it normal that Evil Shoal spell is that powerful in the demo ?




edit : oops, I didn't see the thread about reviews, if a mod can move my message...

[hawker]

Rage abilities in the demo are very powerful, because in full game you're not getting them until a couple of quests (and levels) later.


I wish the demo had a goal of some sort, and that the quests that lead to unaccessible areas were changed.

[Imperial Dane]

How is picking up treasures blank ? Sure you get no choice, but there is always the chance that you get something else than gold.

But again, quite happy with the demo and the only thing i felt was lacking was some background descriptions for the units, i mean they have them for the items, so why not units ? Could be used to explain bits and pieces.. like why emerald green dragons apparently hate giants

[LordFess]

Remember we are reviewing a DEMO not the FINISHED GAME...IMHO this was a VERY,VERY,VERY nice oportunity for me to try the game out. In fact as DEMOS go it is probably the nicest DEMO I have played in many years...I offer my thanks to all that had a hand in making it available to me so I could see that I am getting much more than my money's worth. I just feel like I have hit the jackpot with this one in every way!! Thanks again!!