My goodness me, this is quite the change. I know it’s been a few years since I galloped around the brilliant King’s Bounty: The Legend (let’s call it a decade), collecting strange fantasy beasts for my unstoppable army, but I didn’t realise as much would change in a sequel as this. King’s Bounty 2 is like a series evolution. The series that once inspired Heroes of Might and Magic is back. And my, it looks different.
Gone, for instance, is the old view. You no longer look down on your mighty hero from above but follow them around over the shoulder, as if you were playing a third-person role-playing game. It sounds like a small thing but it lets you see a familiar kind of world in a whole new way. The world suddenly gains height and a sense of scale, and you can walk into buildings now, when you never could before. And there’s a horizon! Which sounds ridiculous but it really helps reinforce the feeling of a grand fantasy world all around you. And it’s realised with gorgeous detail: crumbly medieval villages baking in the sun, lush greenery, colourful flowers, and snow-capped mountains in the distance.
What’s more, you can walk up to characters now and talk to them. There’s cinematic dialogue, voice acting, choice and consequence. And with this new RPG presentation comes a greater focus on the role-playing elements in the game. Yes, there’s a whole story about a Blight and you’ll have to stop it, but the more interesting part is how? And the ‘how?’ is determined by the Ideal you align with. This is a major new system.
There are four Ideals – Order and Anarchy, Power and Finesse – and everything in the world is aligned to them.
