King’s Bounty. The Legend of the Knight: Retro Review

In 2008, this game came out from under the publishing wing of Fulqrum Publishing and everything would have been fine, but few people know that in 2002 this publisher released the game Space Rangers, which was no less, and perhaps more significant for the gaming industry. Echoes of past achievements are also reflected here, but more on that later.

Plot

It is not complicated and in some places even typical for a representative of fantasy. The player takes control of a royal treasure hunter, which in itself implies both travel through dark lands and the lawful distribution of goods to everyone on the dark side of the force. There will be both the classic rescue of a young damsel in distress and brewing beer for the dwarves. Moreover, saving the maiden will be the end of the game, and if you still have uncompleted quests, I recommend finishing them.

Mechanics

Based on the first impression, one can assume that this is a clone of Heroes of Might and Magic and, it is worth saying that there really are similar points. But there is also a difference. The world works in real time. In other words, enemy units, just like your character, can safely travel around the map or even pursue your character. Therefore, it would be useful to upgrade your reconnaissance skill in order to know how many opponents are in the enemy squad before rushing screaming at the enemy. Leveling up here is notable for the fact that for discovering a particular skill, payment is made not with experience, but with runes that the character found or received as a reward.

Considering that at the beginning of the game you are given to choose a character class, it is worth thinking about how you want to play. There are three classes. Warlord, paladin and mage. The first one has the upper hand due to the large army. A paladin is a combination of a warrior and a mage. A jack of all trades, so to speak. And the magician I played as. The choice fell on him because of the desire to try a new class, because in the past I had already played both a warrior and a paladin. Not everything was always smooth, but having strong spells helped in passing.

It’s also worth mentioning the treasure hunting mechanics. In fact, it’s not that much needed, but finding runes and additional gold helps level up your character. In one of the dwarven cities the player will be offered a deal. You throw gold into the device, and the device gives you runes for it. Prices will increase every time so keep that in mind. Another pleasant feature for the player will be the opportunity to get married and have children. This system works as a bonus to equipment. There are six young ladies you can marry. Feanora, the frog princess. Bonus for snakes and spiders. In case of prolonged absence of communication, it turns back into a frog. I think it’s not worth mentioning what the children from this union will look like. Elven princess Neoka. Bonus for elves. Gerda the gnome and, as you might guess, a bonus to gnomes.

Rina, she’s not a zombie. Rina can be either an ordinary girl or a zombie, etc. this can be changed. Depending on whether Rina is alive or dead, the bonus will change. Mirabella is a dashing pirate who will give bonuses to all pirate units in the crew. My choice fell on the succubus Xeon – a bonus to demons. True, it was at the end of the game and only one child was able to be killed, but in addition to the fact that he took up a slot in the wife’s inventory, he also gave +10 to rage. This is a local resource for summoning assistants to the battlefield in the form of one of the four spirits of rage.

Before moving on to the spirits of rage, I want to explain why I didn’t marry each of the girls, because they could have made the passage much easier. The fact is that in order to marry a new young lady, you need to divorce your previous wife, and this greatly impacts the squad’s budget, which means there will not be enough money for runes. That’s why I focused primarily on leveling up and married the character at the end of the game.

Returning to the spirits of rage. Zero is the spirit of stone and, in combination, a living weapon. Spirit of the swamps Sliim, former prince of an extinct people. The spirit of ice Lina is a mage-scientist who, due to one incident, lost her physical body. And the spirit of death is the Reaper. Each spirit has its own story and if they like you, you can count on help in battle. Unfortunately, the story of the spirits in this part was not fully revealed. Perhaps the next part will have more information about these spirits.

Visual

Thanks to the cartoonish graphics, the game has aged very well. Despite the fact that it is already 16 years old, King’s Bounty The Legend still looks decent. This is the beauty of this style. I have no doubt that in another 5 or 10 years, King’s Bounty The Legend will attract new players. True, it is worth mentioning that due to the passage of time, one unpleasant, although not critical, nuance could not help but emerge. At a resolution of 1920×1080 there are these black bars at the edges of the screen. Banding can be reduced by lowering the resolution, but then other unpleasant little things will start to appear. Among which the text hits the eyes hard, when reading it after a short time you begin to experience physical discomfort. Plus, some visual effects are starting to display incorrectly.

Music and sound

Those responsible for these two points were: Mikhail Kostylev, Anastasia Pankova, Andrey Gladkov, Viktor Krasnokutsky and Dmitry Petyakin. But I was only able to find information about Mikhail Kostylev. In addition to the King’s Bounty series, he worked with music and sound on Space Rangers HD: Revolution and The Age of Decadence. Regarding the music, there was a strong impression that the authors were inspired by the film The Lord of the Rings from Peter Jackson.