Publisher: Atari
Developer: Katauri
Minimum requirements: MS Windows 2000/XP; DirectX 9.0c; 3 GHz Processor; 2 GB RAM; nVidia GeForce 7950GT with 512 MB or equivalent ATI; DirectX-compatible soundcard; DVD-ROM; 5.5 GB free hard disk space; keyboard or mouse
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

King’s Bounty: The Legend is a hybrid tactical combat RPG created by Katauri Interactive that updates King’s Bounty, the 1990 classic by New World Computing. By purchasing the rights to a franchise that was a well-loved precursor to Heroes of Might and Magic, Katauri Interactive has indeed set itself up for a difficult task: to re-create a classic and, at the same time, make it innovative and new.

Since KBTL is a hybrid, its gameplay contains elements that are familiar to most gamers, although those who have never played a Heroes-style game will have to adjust their expectations. You step into the shoes of the new treasure hunter in the service of King Mark. You wander the land with your army, solving quests, finding lost artifacts and slaying villains; but as the hero, you don’t personally fight. Instead, you command your army on a tactical battlefield, issuing orders and moving forces around the map in turn-based combat. You also cast spells and use supporting skills and spirits of rage to buff, rebuff and attack opposing forces. The maps are laid out in a hex grid, with intervening terrain and extra treasures that can be grabbed by either side for a quick in-combat bonus. As you level up, you gain access to more leadership, which allows you to recruit more and better troops. The gold you loot from defeated enemies and receive in payment for services to the crown is used to buy these troops, in addition to magical items and artifacts that boost your abilities. These are not just regular soldiers. Priests, wizards and mythological creatures are all there for you to command, provided you have enough cash and leadership available.

While your king gives you assignments and people you meet have various jobs for you to do, the game is somewhat open-ended. There are plenty of things to fight and quests to solve that are optional and not relevant to the main story. There are three classes available to your hero: mage, warrior and paladin. While you might be thinking that the combat-oriented classes are a waste since your character doesn’t fight in the battles, the truth is that each class has real advantages and provides a different game experience. There are also multiple possibilities for marriage and child-rearing, giving the game bit of depth in unforeseen ways (divorcing wives is rather expensive in terms of items and cash, for example).

King’s Bounty: The Legend does, however, come with some drawbacks that are perhaps more annoying than show-stopping. First, there’s no way to auto-resolve combat. You can let the AI fight the battle for you, but you still have to sit through it. This wouldn’t be quite so bad, but the toughness of enemies is not really scaled to the area you’re in. As a result, sometimes there are some really weak enemies wandering around the final areas of the game, resulting in boring battles that you couldn’t lose if you played the game blind. This distribution of enemies, with no regard to difficulty allowed a group of powerful wizards and undead to spawn about 20 feet from the king’s castle at the beginning of my first play-through. Some players will find this annoying, while others will take it in stride. Another issue involves the lack of swift travel or a central storage facility. The game world is rather large, and gameplay is not linear, so you will find yourself wandering all over the place, even in early levels. The inability to move quickly or store items resulted in needless backtracking, which I found bothersome.

All of that aside, King’s Bounty: The Legend offers solid gameplay that the strategically minded will enjoy, combined with randomness and open-endedness that will satisfy most players who want to get the most out of a game. All of this, plus the great graphics engine used to create KBTL, made it entertaining to play.

Our Score: