King's Bounty: The Legend Preview

[GameBanshee News]

The editors at Strategy Informer are next in line with a quick hands-on preview of Katauri Interactive's King's Bounty: The Legend.

Combat is initiated once you come in contact with the roaming armies, represented by miniature figures (who are thankfully fully animated). Your hero doesn't fight himself, but commands his fielded army. In your home castle, as well as places you find around the world, you can recruit units with the gold you earn. The preview build only allowed us to play as the humans, but the full game will consist of the typical fantasy affair; Elves, Dwarves, Undead, Demons and Orcs. Each unit's strength is shown by a number next to a 3D representation. Being turned based, each unit takes its turn either moving or attacking (with the order being determined by initiative). The combat field is a hex-based-grid and is extremely easy to understand as the game shades where you can move, so those new to such games won't have a problem. Magic (whether it be memorised spells or one-time-use scrolls) is watered down to clicking a target. Magic is limited to one spell a turn and it drains from your mana-pool.

Each unit has an ID-card with its strength, defence, attack power and health detailed. The game calculates combat via subtly hidden maths. For example, you may have a ten strong Calvary unit, and be hit on for a hundred damage. That may kill 3 individual units, causing your total to be seven. Once you reach zero on your last unit, it's dead. The strength of your army depends on your leadership value, which is improved by picking up war-banners scattered around the map. Overall, the game's combat is deep with intricate tactics playing a large part. You can defend (skip the turn with the reward of increased defence) or wait until the end of the turn to see what your enemy's move is. Many units have unique abilities which also adds to the complexity. The game promises a Spirits of Rage system (which can be compared to Final Fantasy's summons), but we weren't given access to that.