King's Bounty: The Legend Demo

It is pretty difficult to make something marketable in the fantasy TBS genre nowadays, because that style of games is slowly going out of fashion and not many people would dare to spend money on a product like that. However, if you manage to do it just right, you can hit the jackpot anyway and come up with something like King's Bounty: The Legend, which is about as close to perfection as it can get under the circumstances.

The game appears to be as modern as possible on the outside, given the luxurious user interface and the beautiful artwork that decorates everything in between the actual gameplay sessions. However, stripped down to its bare gameplay mechanics, King's Bounty: The Legend is the embodiment of a classic TBS/RPG combination, akin to Heroes of Might and Magic and, obviously, the first King’s Bounty.

The setting and the story are classic as well, since you begin by being proclaimed a knight and a royal treasure searcher, sworn to protect the crown and help the king dig for hidden gold. A great evil is obviously threatening the realm as well, which means that you must use your hero’s abilities to dispatch with the nasty creatures, as well as make your name for yourself along the way. Hence, you get the chance to become more powerful, gain a lot of money and powerful artifacts, as well as get a wife and even father some children while you’re at it.

Out on the map, you are free to move as you wish, which means that you do not have to calculate your action points while exploring. However, the enemies can move as well, which means that if you stumble into something nasty out there, you’d better run as fast as you can, because the creatures can pursue you. After you enter into combat mode, however, things get classic again, with the battlefield split into hexagonal grid cells and the two armies facing each other.

Naturally, you can move your units around depending on their available movement points, but a spellbook is also available when you need to cast some magic. The enemy can do the same to you, however, so the encounters are definitely challenging and fun at the same time. The graphic quality is top notch, which gives you plenty to gaze at while your army is being obliterated by dragons.

All things considered, King's Bounty: The Legend is everything you need it to be, if you are a TBS/RPG hybrid fan. It’s funny and intriguing at the same time, there are many magic artifacts to find and use, the spellbook is spacious, dragons are not missing, and everything is colorful enough to make the fantasy setting that much more inviting.