I mentioned in my previous post something about a little game called Kings Bounty : The Legend. I enjoyed this game pretty much right off the bat and was hoping it would only get better. So far it has. KB is pretty much everything I liked when I first got into pc games and then into rpgs all rolled into one ball - and that ball is delicious. For CGW/GFW radio fans: "Its full of all that good stuff that was around before the internet."
Here is the breakdown of Kings Bounty: You create a hero (3 classes to choose from). The game consists of 2 modes: Adventure and Tactical. In Adventure mode, you move around a fantasy themed world by simple click and your hero will trot his horse over there. This part feels more like moving around an iconic-styled map vs some detailed real world. Everything is in kind of a "scaled-down amusment park" style. Not sure if that makes sense, so just go look up some pics. Anyhoos, from that map you will find several wandering monsters who you engage by simply running up to (or they will run up to you). That is where the game shifts into Tactical Mode which is made of a small sized hex-based map. Instead of your hero being on the field you are actually wielding units you've gathered from the many vendors across adventure mode. The enemy will have an army as well and you simply move your units around and do battle - turn-based style. Your hero's stats/gear will improve your units and you also dish out pretty powerful spells to alter the course of battle. Units are represented by "stacks" meaing its always on archer representing 30 archers - but like the adventure map, everything is done at an iconic scale - more like pretty chess pieces. When you finish with battles, you'll gain experience / loot which helps increase your characters abilties and field a bigger army. All classes can purchase abilties from 3 skill trees using a combination of 3 "rune" types (might/mind/magic). Each of the classes gains these runes in different amounts when they level but you will also find a lot in adventure mode.
The game sounds very simple and in fact it sort of is. Only after the first hour did I realize how much you need to think about your choices during battles. The game puts tons of abilties at your hand to beat enemies quickly but its up to you to unlock the strategies. With that in mind, it presents an incredibly deep and addictive combat system. The game has a pretty great balance to making you struggle then granting you that boost that gives you a bigger army or more powers and suddenly you are a god only to get so far and get knocked down again. That constant up and down is pretty classic stuff in terms of rpgs that are combat centric. Most games don't get it right which. I have no idea how you really are supposed to design a system that does that.
Anyhoos, back to the ball thing: Heroes of Might and Magic is probably the first tactical strategy game that I got into. This game pretty much gets the vibe of that game but makes it much faster paced. Battles rarely last longer then 10 minutes which makes them much easier to digest and encourages you to do "just one more."
I will say this: This game is NOT for everybody. If you have no interest in turn-based games...then don't apply but if you see anything I've posted hear that sounds appealing, grab it on steam for 30.
Oh and the game has some serious performance issues but its not enough to make you shut it off.
Oh Oh one last note: The effects in this game are some of the best I've seen. Great animations and use of particle effects. A little slow, but altogether very satisfying.
Beepity Boppity - I'm out!
