King's Bounty II

Got this game for a few euros in a sale a while ago. The other King's Bounty games were a great mix of RPG/Heroes of Might and Magic like combat. They were always high fantasy, had cheeky humor and always played nicely. This KB let's you choose between 3 characters, I tried the paladin, and the character felt very bland to me. Just like the beginning of the story so far. The soundtrack and visuals are very bland as well. You get a horse in the beginning, but the controls on the horse is quite abysmal, you get stuck in literally everything, and you can't decently turn around because the roads are very tight. A lot of invisible walls as well. Combat feels wonky. If there is a massive tower on your grid, you cannot see an outline or anything, just the banner of where the enemy sort of is. Overall, the game is a bit too janky and generic and it misses the charm that the original games had.

I cannot recommend this game.. while it has some very limited 'fun aspects' to it... and at its 'core' its similar to the original series.. it shouldnt be put under the banner of 'kings bounty'.. which had a lot of problems too! like having to find the 'right troops' and finding battles you can win without too many loses (and/or having enough money to recruit more troops!!).. which meant constantly going back and forth between locations, which is a real drag! I dont mind the fact that its a '3D version' of KB.. but it could have been called something like 'KB adventures' as an off shoot from the original KB..not the implication of a 'continuation'.. but there are a lot of other issues with this game! such as..the story.. which is pretty bad.. and the dialogue in particular is atrocious! honestly some of the worst I've found.. no idea what they were thinking (if they had a real writer, then they should never be allowed to write anything again!!), and the voice acting is almost as bad as the dialog! SOME of the quests arent too bad.. but most are just pointless time wasting rubbish..and I dont like the way troops obtain xp.. if the unit is a pin cushion, they should get XP for that!! but really they should get xp for any action they take.. not just damaging/killing a unit. and since when is 'heal'.. BUY! if the unit survived the combat.. then healing SHOULD cost less than buying the unit in the first place.. the whole combat mechanic is trash.. actually the whole game is trash.. but overall, the game is just not fun. having to replay the same combat time and again.. to try and minimise a bad outcome (due to excessive use of RNG..), isnt my idea of fun. I dont mind some replay.. but when one factor can literally turn the tide (morale check is a major one, especially in those stupid trials!! where if you get an extra turn for ONE unit.. it makes or breaks the rest of the combat!), it just drains the fun factor. and the constant running around from quest to quest (especially when its a real bad quest!!) and place to place to find something 'easier' to do before doing the difficult/costly battles.. also isnt fun.. money is a huge factor (at least in the start when you dont know what you're doing!!).. so having to look under every rock and log to find money isnt much fun either.. just not a fun game at all

This is a decent game but I would be lying if If I said it didn't have serious problems. The biggest issue for me is the unbalanced state of the game. Some fights are very unfair where you meet far "better" armies then you should at the level you are at. The whole game just felt like it was a uphill struggle all the way. You were never really allowed to get a good army untill the late parts of the game. Locking the set pieces of armor behind random quest rewards is so stupid I'm lost for words. You will most likely play through the game and recieve a couple of random pieces of each set and never getting a full set unless you allready know and save/load many times. I did like the environments and the world. However the map is big but not really big enough to comparable to the earlier kings bounty games.

I am a fan of all the King's Bounty games, all the way back to the original DOS game in the 90's, on 5 1/4 floppy disks. So, of course, I really wanted to like this installment. Sadly, it feels like a hash. The controls are clunky, making you choose between the ability to turn on foot, and speed of maneuver when riding a horse. In battle, the isometric view means that units are hiding behind terrain. The plot is more ambitious than the usual "find and defeat the traitors," as you are forced to make choices between factions and play style, choosing finesse, power, order or anarchy. However, the choices have little impact on the main plot, and therefore felt more like a railroad than a choice. This was especially true in the late game when I maxed out order affinity, then discovered I could not take the anarchy ending to quests anymore because it "no longer felt right". The final stages of the plot felt like a series of bad patches, as you defeat X archvillain, only to discover Y archvillain was behind them...three tiimes. I wanted to like it, I really did, but ultimately, it is a mediocre effort. I recommend playing the Armored Princess or Dark Side installments of the King's Bounty franchise, if you have not already.

Enemies are too strong early in the game. Couldn't progress