Such details are what make King’s Bounty great – the usual po-faced conventions of high fantasy being tweaked into a ridiculous carnival of the bizarre. Oh, and the zombie wife has a tendency to eat any children she bears. Not just any wife though chances are she’ll either be a zombie, liable to turn into a frog or a saucy demoness. Later, it’s possible for your hero to take a wife. All thanks to a particularly scatological bovine. After a chat back at the village, I was able to return to the plant chief with a cow I had been assured would make the soil extremely ‘tasty’. He insisted that his race were peaceful and simply wished to partake in fertilised soil. Finding myself needing to clear a village of curious walking plant creatures, I travelled to a swamp for a meeting with the head plant-person. However, the game isn’t afraid to subvert all of these hoary conventions with a sense of impish glee.įor a start, the translation can be a little odd at times – which in a strange, fantasy setting simply adds to the surreal atmosphere. Players even have to make the classic character choice between warrior (able to command a large force), mage (master of spellcasting) and paladin (decent at both but has silly hair). That means dwarves, trolls and elves galore, alongside magic, runes, mystical items and pretty much any other Tolkien-esque cliché you can think of. Like the original (and like the Heroes of Might and Magic series, which the game also strongly resembles), King’s Bounty is unashamedly high fantasy. This modern tribute takes much the same path, though as it’s made by the developers responsible for the multi-genre insanity of Space Rangers 2, you’d be right to expect a few quirky twists.
In this, your mission was to toddle around a randomised fantasy land searching for some vital treasure or other, slaying evil beasties and hiring allies to fight on your side. King’s Bounty: The Legend is something of a tribute to the original King’s Bounty game, released in 1990 for the Amiga, Commodore 64 and Mega Drive.
Apologies to those who’ve already experienced its joys but for those who haven’t yet … gather ’round. Plus it wasn’t being distributed by Steam, so quite a few people in other countries may have missed it too. The game (in its original Russian and various translated forms) has been available as a digital download for a couple of months now – but thanks to the British Pound going into a death dive, has been prohibitively expensive for those living in the UK. Not in a way which might prompt angry, whip-laden visits from the IncGamers editorial team, but because this boxed version of King’s Bounty: The Legend is something of a second wave release.
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