King’s Bounty: The Legend
Toward the end of the Atari interview, Eric and I were about to head on to Sega when I was stopped, if not dumfounded by a game. Being one of the biggest Heroes of Might and Magic fans on the face of the planet, I couldn’t help but notice a game that looked quite familiar to the recently released Heroes of Might and Magic 5. As I glanced a little closer, I noticed that the game was, in fact, exactly like Heroes of Might and Magic and I quickly recalled that the Heroes franchise was currently owned by Ubisoft. Strange thoughts began to enter my head and I began to wonder if the creators had moved on to Atari or if Atari had bought the license. Nonetheless, I was struck by excitement and awe as I waited to speak with the developer.
Finally, after grabbing our PR contact and heading for the game’s booth, I was given a lengthy demo of the game. In fact, it wasn’t Heroes of Might and Magic at all but actually a separate game known as King’s Bounty: The Legend. Now, I’d heard of King’s Bounty before, though I’ve never actually played any of the previous games. In fact, if I had known exactly how similar the game was to Heroes, I would have already bought all of the older installments despite their critical reception. In fact, as it turns out, the original King’s Bounty was actually developed by the man who created the Heroes series (he preferred tactics gameplay over RPGs).Thus, knowing that the game was indeed similar to Heroes for a reason, I was glued to the screen for the next 10-15 minutes as David demoed the game for me.
First of all, I noticed that the visuals themselves are very similar to Heroes 5 which is completely fine because they look great. Everything is hand drawn 3D so that the environments are very rich and vivid in color. Players control heroes that move around a map and conquer the world around them using any and all creatures that they encounter or recruit in their army (over 60 character types in all). Battles are fought on a hex grid (exactly the same was as in Heroes) and spells (150 in all) are of the exact same fashion as Heroes as well. Heroes in the game gain levels and equip artifacts just like its fraternal twin series and primary skills such as defense, attack, and intellect affect your battle outcomes. Even the creature stats are similar to those of Heroes of Might and Magic.
So what are the main differences between the games you might ask? For one, because King’s Bounty is not turn based, you can move unlimitedly and seamlessly (a very nice variation from the previous scheme). Also, the maps are far more expansive, including several different continents to traverse within one mission (up to 50 hours of gaming at times!). Character building is much more customized in King’s Bounty, featuring a tech tree that is very reminiscent of those from Diablo II. Also a nice breath of fresh air is the fact that the game supposedly has a great sense of humor. The only major downside I can see is that this game does not feature any multiplayer, but the game itself looks to be quite lengthy.
King’s Bounty: The Legend is set to arrive in the middle of August on PCs as well as on the 360, PS3, and DS(!) later on. I’ll definitely be set to play this title in a month and I’m stoked to be able to play a game so similar to one that I love. I’ll keep you posted when the time comes and will definitely be excited to review this addictive looking RPG.