King's Bounty: The Legend Preview

[GameBanshee News]

GameSpy has kicked up a new preview of Katauri's King's Bounty: The Legend after checking out the RPG/strategy hybrid at Gen Con Indy.

The first thing we noticed was that it finally seemed to have a proper English translation, one of the few elements that was holding up the North American release (it's already out in its native Russia, where it got stellar reviews). Unlike most RPGs, King's Bounty is less story- than setting-driven. A fairly generic fantasy world is filled with kingdoms, monsters, lost dungeons, court intrigues and all the requisite elements conducive to the rise of a mythical hero. The player will become one of these legendary figures, taking on the role of a Warrior, Paladin or Mage who will then journey across the land on quests in search of adventure, battle, lost treasure and the possible foundation of an Empire.

The class a player chooses determines the way they'll fight in the turn-based tactical battles that are the heart of the game. These struggles are fought between armies of units on a hex-based battlefield in which the player's character uses spells and class abilities to support their own warriors and damage their opponents. The Mage character class we chose, for example, is hindered in his ability to recruit creatures and people into his army. While he'll never be able to field the much larger forces of a Warrior or a Paladin, the Mage makes up for this lack by gaining access to devastatingly powerful spells that can heal and strengthen his own side while blasting his opponents into their component atoms.