King's Bounty: The Legend Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 27 November, 2008

Royal flush.

Version tested: PC

Have you heard about this new RPG where you roam around a daft fantasy world? You take on jobs, get married, undertake quests and decide whether you want to carry them out properly, betray people, amass enormous fortunes - there's a remarkable amount of freedom, and it all becomes devilishly addictive as you promise yourself that, yes, you really will switch if off as soon as you see what's over the next hill.

But aha, if you just reached for Fable II, then stop it at once! Because through cunning misdirection, I've disguised the fact I'm discussing King's Bounty: The Legend instead. Clever me. It's a sort of sequel-remake to the 1990 wandering role-player that helped spawn the Heroes of Might & Magic series, and it's pure happenstance that it's landed at the same time as Lionhead's headline-grabber. Provided you're not dogmatically devoted to the lure of blockbustery third-person adventuring though, you'll find King's Bounty offers a richer and more diverse experience than the land of Albion ever could. It's also certifiably barking mad.

You're a knight in service to King Mark the Wise of Darion. Following a brief training session, which has more to do with determining your character type than explaining anything else, you're set loose in a lush fantasy realm and pretty much left to fend for yourself. Everything is viewed from a rotatable and zoomable aerial view, and you clip-clop around the scenery with the mouse.

Right from the start, there's a lot to see and do. Items litter the pathways and roads of Darion, while almost every building and character has some sort of task, quest or mission they'd like you to tackle. It is, of course, entirely up to you who benefits from your services - or you can just ignore them all and trot around, finding stuff. Your official title is Royal Treasure Hunter after all. Nobody said you had to share all your loot with the King.

'King's Bounty: The Legend' Screenshot 1

Let's see...there's a couple of Draculas, a phoenix, a skeleton, a sexy elf lady and what looks like a giant Necromicon. Just your average King's Bounty battle then.

It doesn't pay to be too passive though. Enemies are as abundant as items, many lurking right outside the King's castle, and combat is the fastest way to progress. You're not actually going to be on the battlefield though. Instead you rely on up to five combat units hired on your travels, each of which benefits from different aspects of your core stats. The number of fighters in each unit depends on your leadership level, so it's in your best interests to increase this statistic above all others. It's probably simpler to think of the number of healthy fighters in each unit as the health bar for a solitary warrior too, since that's how it's represented on-screen.

Despite that slightly confusing wrinkle, it's a system familiar from plenty of other games. Where King's Bounty stamps its identity on the tactical framework is in the sheer variety of humans, creatures, animals and monsters you can add to your army. It's not uncommon to go to war with a fighting force of archers, knights, bears, dragonflies and killer plants, and that's a pretty vanilla combination. There's an absolutely vast bestiary of species to both battle and buy, and the urge to see what you might be facing next is one of many cunning little fishhooks it sinks into your brain.

Also positively groaning with choice are the side-quests. Although, really, they're so abundant and engaging that the actual game story ultimately feels like a side dish to the surprising parade of smaller narratives you stumble upon as you wander around. These bite-sized sagas are just the right size, easily completed in fifteen minutes or so, but almost always lead you to the start of five more. It's another mental fishhook, keeping you baited as yet more gameplay hours slip past in a delicious blur.

Navigation can sometimes be a fumble, thanks to a camera that's rather too keen to revolve and spin depending on your movements. Coupled with a rather poorly designed map, this can make any concerted effort to reach a specific location more of a trial than it needs to be. It's almost as if the game wants to tug you from the obvious path and send you cantering into unexplored regions instead. A noble intention, but one that makes it a bit annoying when tradition dictates that you have to impose some sort of deliberate direction on your journey.

King's Bounty is also a game that rewards independent, adventurous spirits - it's every Choose Your Own Adventure book ever made, all stapled together so you can stroll from one page to the next at will - and the downside to this is that it's often frustratingly obtuse, giving you very little in the way of instruction or guidance despite the plethora of icons, gauges and menu screens that combine to form its dark heart. It's not nearly as complicated as it looks, but that doesn't excuse the fact you're left to work out the basic mechanics of a very deep game. Key elements such as the Spirits of Rage are just plonked into tiny buttons with no fanfare or illumination. Strip back the daunting clutter of options, insert some plain English explanations, and you've got a game with much broader appeal.

'King's Bounty: The Legend' Screenshot 2

Despite the top-down view, the environments are incredibly detailed. If you value hours and hours of fresh content over big shiny graphics, this is the game for you.

The notion of plain English also brings us to hilariously wonky translation. Often this simply adds to the oddball charm, like when your mentor declares "You were almost like a son to me - young, hot and certainly talented" or, should you opt to follow the magical path, the way your character enters one early battle with a cry of "Mage came!" Other times, however, the mangled syntax renders important information unclear, a problem made more prominent by the habit of cramming reams of dialogue text into a tiny window.

Right now, King's Bounty feels like a 10/10 game wriggling inside a slightly-too-wonky 8/10 game engine. None of its flaws are enough to dull the many pleasures of its impressively varied world, and the more time you sink into its meandering delights the more surprising the experience becomes. Rare are the games that have you muttering "Well, I didn't know that could happen!" after more than 30 hours, and the fact I could have written another 2000 words describing weird and wonderful moments you're best discovering for yourself is all the recommendation you should need.

9 / 10

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Picture of Dan.

About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (48) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Scimarad #1 3 years ago

    "...yes, you really will switch if off as soon as you see what's over the next hill."

    Well that couldn't have described Fable 2...There aren't that many 'next hills' to see over. Free-roaming exploration isn't it's strong point.

    Anyway, on to Kings Bounty. Sounds awesome!
    Edited by 1 at 27/11/08 @ 07:24

  • Eraysor #2 3 years ago

    Well that was a surprise. To the purchase-mobile!

  • Strifer #3 3 years ago

    The thing about Spirits of Rage is true. They show you an icon for something, and you're left wondering when the hell are you going to do something with it. The map is also slightly confusing at first, but they at least made it detailed, so you can move from landmark to landmark. It could have been more informative, though.

    I didn't know the English translation had such fun mistakes. In case anyone is interested, I recommend the Polish version as it is an excellent translation. It's almost as fun to read as it is to play!

    I can see where the camera part comes from. They could have given the player more freedom with it, but it is nothing worth fretting about. It is only slightly confusing during the first few seconds on the map.

    Finally, the review basically nails every single aspect of the game. Don't buy it if you have anything absolutely important to do beforehand.
    Edited by 1 at 27/11/08 @ 08:15

  • TriggerHippie #4 3 years ago

    "To the purchase-mobile!"

    :D

  • Trane #5 3 years ago

    "The notion of plain English also brings us to hilariously wonky translation. Often this simply adds to the oddball charm, like when your mentor declares "You were almost like a son to me - young, hot and certainly talented" or, should you opt to follow the magical path, the way your character enters one early battle with a cry of "Mage came!" Other times, however, the mangled syntax renders important information unclear, a problem made more prominent by the habit of cramming reams of dialogue text into a tiny window."

    Glol at this passage.

    Nice review Dan, I've never even heard of this game until now, but it sounds like great fun.

    I may have missed it, but does this have any multiplayer?

  • UncleLou #6 3 years ago

    It really is rather excellent.

    My only criticism would be that you feel a little detached from your character, as he doesn't appear on the battlefield, and the skills/spells you learn are hence a little abstract. I would have preferred to see my avatar, with collected loot and all, on the battlefield, especially as it's much more an RPG than the HoM&M series.

  • craziii #7 3 years ago

    this game is great, I enjoyed it greatly.

  • slackarse #8 3 years ago

    Oh no! That's evil, showing me a sequel to one of the most addictive games I've ever played. Goodbye life, it was nice knowing you.

  • marilena #9 3 years ago

    I'm really glad this is good. I was hoping it would be, but wasn't optimistic. It's going to be the next game I play :).

  • loopholezero #10 3 years ago

    KB is addictive as hell.
    yes, it's very enjoyable even in small chunks, but controlling yourself and putting it down before you fall asleep on the keyboard will be difficult. so beware.

  • Phattso #11 3 years ago

    Erm - not released until next February? I'm hoping there's another way to get hold of it earlier - from STEAM or some other service?

  • DanWhitehead #12 3 years ago

    Yeah, it's already available to buy online - there's a link from the official site: [link url=http://www.kings-bou nty.com/eng/
    ]http://www.kings-bou nty.com/eng/
    [/link]

    February is the release date for the boxed product.

  • UncleLou #13 3 years ago

    Look here, Phattso.

    It's been out on Gamersgate for a few months, but only appeared in the shops here in Germany very recently.

  • Henrik_se #14 3 years ago

    I remember playing the original King's Bounty in glorious EGA graphics. It was awesome, although sliiiightly unbalanced. Peasants vs. Vampires was a really, really bad idea...

  • Phattso #15 3 years ago

    Cheers for the purchase links, folks - much appreciated. That said, they're after between £32 and £40 for the digital download with the boxed product available to pre-order at £25.

    /looks at stack of unplayed games

    Yeah - they just did themselves out of an early sale. I can wait. :)

  • jaxon58 #16 3 years ago

    I played the demo a lot and thought it was Heroes of Might and Magic with a lot of the strategy stripped away, so not for me. I missed the simple things that added so much tactics to HOMM, such as day/week cycles and showing how many monsters are in a stack. Simple, but important.

    Maybe the full game is different, but for me HOMM5 pisses all over this.

  • Buztafen #17 3 years ago

    But is it as good as HOMM 2 which, in my eyes anyway, is the greatest game of all time?.....

  • Load_2.0 #18 3 years ago

    "You were almost like a son to me - young, hot and certainly talented"

    Excellent.

  • Lexx87 #19 3 years ago

    Phattso where can I order thi for £25? I can wait too :p

  • Evolution #20 3 years ago

    I have it on my Mega Drive, ridiculously long password system for saving the game meant I never was able to finish it properly - stupidly hard final couple of bosses.
    Edited by 1 at 27/11/08 @ 09:52

  • UncleLou #21 3 years ago

    thought it was Heroes of Might and Magic with a lot of the strategy stripped away

    The turn-based battles certainly aren't any less deep, but it's more an RPG where HoMM is a strategy game, that much is true. Though "stripped away" sounds a bit too much like it was simplified - it just has a different focus.

  • Phattso #22 3 years ago

    I only checked play.com who have it for £25 but there are bound to be others.

    What's worse is that I'm a weak-willed little toad and actually went to purchase it from UncleLou's Gamer's Gate link. Were it not for the fact that it wanted my credit card details via an unsecure session I'd be playing it now. :-/

  • jaxon58 #23 3 years ago

    Maybe I just approached it in the wrong frame of mind then. Might give it another chance, based on the review score and opinions here.

  • tomkuryakin #24 3 years ago

    Is there any word on how the boxed retail version might differ? Is there any point in waiting or should I just download it now?

  • Lexx87 #25 3 years ago

    Well the point in waiting around is that you save £15, pre-oredered from play :)

  • mkreku #26 3 years ago

    WHAT THE HELL?! I absolutely loved King's bounty on my Commodore 64! Where did this come from??

  • mcwildcard #27 3 years ago

    I'm really pleased they've done the original justice, I'll deffo be getting this!

  • MrChuckles #28 3 years ago

    Beware, when you first visit the 2nd continent of islands, the difficulty ramps up pretty steeply. Let alone once you go through teh mines! (That's where i am at the moment)

    Great game though, i'll get back to it when I've defeated 'The Darkness' and 'Fallout 3'

  • Kazzahdrane #29 3 years ago

    MAGE CAME

  • michaelius #30 3 years ago

    It was released month ago in US so you can use any of your favourite import shops to get this :)

  • Grom #31 3 years ago

    I'm sure the lead artist on this game has never played any of the Warcraft games. Oh no. Nosireebob. Indeed, it has its own unique look as distinct as the different shades of green on an orc's face.

  • mjhoward #32 3 years ago

    It's titles like this are the reason I keep a gaming PC around.

    *Pre-ordered*

  • Azazel #33 3 years ago

    "MAGE CAME"

    Did he...

    /put on his robe and wizard hat?

  • shotgun44 #34 3 years ago

    Jesus, I clicked on to the website and thought it had directed me to the WoW website! Could this run on a pretty shitty laptop? The graphics look nice but pretty undemanding!?

    edit... checking the system reqs looks like it demands a fairly meaty computer!
    Edited by 1 at 27/11/08 @ 12:53

  • Miths #35 3 years ago

    ""You were almost like a son to me - young, hot and certainly talented"

    Excellent."

    I was gonna say "disturbing" :).

  • JoeBlade #36 3 years ago

    Gah, stop this onslaught of great games already! I hardly get out of the house anymore as is, this certainly won't help >:(

    Or at least make them 9-10/10 games a LOT shorter and with no replayability whatsoever, damned.

  • Stoatboy #37 3 years ago

    Top game this. Lots of bears in it too. There aren't enough bears in games generally. If I could remember where the polar bear shop was I'd have 3 fifths of my army as different flavoured bears by now.

  • Ergates_Antius #38 3 years ago

    I like that pretty much every article on KB mentions just how batshit crazy it is.

    If anyone is wavering on this, maybe this will help: Near the start you'll get the opportunity to marry a zombie.

  • Chufty #39 3 years ago

    Wow this sounds unexpectedly awesome. As soon as L4D is out of my system, I'm there!

  • CouldntResist #40 3 years ago

    Where the hell did this game come from???

  • UncleLou #41 3 years ago

    A n equally justified question would be: how the hell did you all manage to miss this game? ;-)

    It's been covered quite extensively by sites which are a little more PC-centric.

  • CouldntResist #42 3 years ago

    F*** me i am buying this right now from your Gamer's Gate link.

  • dryden555 #43 3 years ago

    i've been playing this for a few months now. it is an excellent game in every way. The depth in the battles is endlessly fun if you like having to think a bit before the carnage.

  • YenRug #44 3 years ago

    I've been playing this for several months, now, after buying it through Atari's US site (they were happy to sell it to me despite the Atari UK release being months off). Bloody great game, but be warned that it can crash pretty regularly; for me it used to crash regularly going into battles, after patching it now crashes when leaving battles or moving between areas, just not as frequently. Even so, there have been nights where I've suffered 4-5 fullblown BSOD's and yet I've still reloaded it each time once my PC's back up and running!

  • Silvervein #45 3 years ago

    Having played the game from beginning to start couple of times, I have to say that it has retained all the charm that made original kings bounty such a fun game, while adding tons more fun to the mix. And the writing is top notch (I'm talking about that wonky english version which I played). There might be some odd moments but it never leaves you scratching your head.

    On related note: spirits of rage. Those are quite useful if used correctly, and as a tip to others: Once you obtain the chest, you can talk to them (and learn some interesting things from them). To do so, just click on the portrait of the spirit you want to talk to. (that's also the way of how you can recruit them to help you during fights).

    But if you want to know what sold the game for me, it's this: I chose paladin hero. Right at the tutorial, when they sent me to first dungeon area I saw some urn by the wall. Since I could interact with it, I did. My character found some gold, but it's the text that appeared when I opened the urn (which was, by the way, container for ashes of some dearly beloved). The text went like this:
    You sure appreciate the habit of burying the dead with huge part of their earthly posessions. Paladin. Saying something like that when he robs the urns. It was very, very amusing beginning of a great game :)
    Edited by 1 at 27/11/08 @ 15:39

  • WJF #46 3 years ago

    Uh oh, this has suddenly been ramped up to insta-purchase level.

    *wallet cries

  • BremXJones #47 3 years ago

    From some of the key members of the team of Space Rangers 2, 9/10 awesome PC Game fans.

    Actually, while I'm here, Alec Meer writes about some of the inspired lunacy in King's Bounty.
    [link url=http://www.rockpapershotgu n.com/2008/10/02/kings-bounty-my-zombie-wife-the-belt-odoom/
    ]http://ww w.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/10/...[/link]

    POOR ZOMBIE WIFE.

    KG
    Edited by 3 at 28/11/08 @ 14:30

  • WJF #48 3 years ago

    They've patched the "young, hot and certainly talented"!! How disappointing :-(

    This is a truly excellent game. Agree completely with the minimap gripes (it's rubbish) and it would be nice if the game gave you some kind of warning when you're about to be completely overpowered by rebellious spirits inside your helmet - killing you and everyone who follows you...actually, nah, that always makes me laugh.

    It really is horribly addictive though...