Alisia
Posts from King's Bounty 2 (2020). A review of all known information.
Злобный Ящур
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In summary, based on "all available information": this is definitely not King's Bounty 2, it's "Ascension to the Throne 2"...
psatkha
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Basically, I bought this game – it's King's Bounty! But, of course, with RPG elements... I haven't played it yet; my son is playing it right now... but I've seen the Gameplay a couple of times, and I'm deliberately not playing it myself so I can experience it without spoilers!
Ment
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Wow, they already created a thread... Yes, let's play and see.
First impressions:
+ Beautiful – it's a pleasure to look at. The scenery is really nice, and I also like the models of the people and various monsters.
+ It really feels like an RPG. In each quest, you're given a choice between two alignments, and they're not always obvious.
+ The tactics are enjoyable. It's not too complicated, but there are enough options to always have something to think about.
+ The world is well-filled with secrets, quests, and dialogues.
- The travel system is VERY clunky. It would be great to increase the movement speed by one and a half to two times and add the ability to teleport to stones from any point on the map, not just from another stone.
- The speech animations and movement animations... Unlike the models themselves, these are quite crude. Playing as Elsa, I'm a little annoyed by how she gestures with her mouth when she talks. And most of the characters talk to each other on the streets with their mouths closed.
- The balance isn't always clear. For example, war dogs require more leadership than wolves, but they're literally worse than wolves in every way.
- The interface isn't intuitive. Where can you find out the exact mechanism of how morale works? And how can you understand how the stats of creatures depend on their experience? The skills of the Order faction (reducing penalties to morale) – why don't they help against the "zeroing" of creatures' morale? Or do you just need to level them up more? There are a lot of these things, and you have to try everything through save-loading, as there are no explanations.
- The view from behind the hero makes you think of an open world, but the actual linearity and scripted nature of the game are shocking at first. However, you get used to it, and it's not something that wasn't in previous games in the series.
- There are other minor flaws. For example, units only gain experience for dealing damage. If you stand with a unit in defense and tank, you'll get almost nothing. If you spend the whole battle healing other units with spells, you won't get anything at all. And so on, with other minor things.
Continuing the game.
First impressions:
+ Beautiful – it's a pleasure to look at. The scenery is really nice, and I also like the models of the people and various monsters.
+ It really feels like an RPG. In each quest, you're given a choice between two alignments, and they're not always obvious.
+ The tactics are enjoyable. It's not too complicated, but there are enough options to always have something to think about.
+ The world is well-filled with secrets, quests, and dialogues.
- The travel system is VERY clunky. It would be great to increase the movement speed by one and a half to two times and add the ability to teleport to stones from any point on the map, not just from another stone.
- The speech animations and movement animations... Unlike the models themselves, these are quite crude. Playing as Elsa, I'm a little annoyed by how she gestures with her mouth when she talks. And most of the characters talk to each other on the streets with their mouths closed.
- The balance isn't always clear. For example, war dogs require more leadership than wolves, but they're literally worse than wolves in every way.
- The interface isn't intuitive. Where can you find out the exact mechanism of how morale works? And how can you understand how the stats of creatures depend on their experience? The skills of the Order faction (reducing penalties to morale) – why don't they help against the "zeroing" of creatures' morale? Or do you just need to level them up more? There are a lot of these things, and you have to try everything through save-loading, as there are no explanations.
- The view from behind the hero makes you think of an open world, but the actual linearity and scripted nature of the game are shocking at first. However, you get used to it, and it's not something that wasn't in previous games in the series.
- There are other minor flaws. For example, units only gain experience for dealing damage. If you stand with a unit in defense and tank, you'll get almost nothing. If you spend the whole battle healing other units with spells, you won't get anything at all. And so on, with other minor things.
Continuing the game.
psatkha
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Well, I don't know, my son is only bothered by the graphical glitches, although to be honest, they bother him in all games... I just keep hearing: glitches, freezes, etc. By the way, I have an idea to share his impressions of the game... in the form of what he likes and dislikes!
Pros: good voice acting, great soundtrack, beautiful and diverse landscape, many different side quests, it's nice that there is an option in some missions to choose 1 of 2 options, the developers gave cool bonuses for pre-ordering, diverse equipment with different stats and bonuses, he also likes the battles and their unpredictability depending on the chosen decision, diverse units, there are many secrets and extra gold on the map.
Cons: lacks good, stable performance, frequent micro-freezes and occasional lag, especially noticeable when teleporting from one location to another (the frame rate drops from 60 to 22).
(I have a GTX 1070ti + Ryzen 7 3700x, 16 GB of RAM)
For now, these are all the pros and cons after 33 hours of playing the game. (I'm still playing the game, playing as Aivar).
Pros: good voice acting, great soundtrack, beautiful and diverse landscape, many different side quests, it's nice that there is an option in some missions to choose 1 of 2 options, the developers gave cool bonuses for pre-ordering, diverse equipment with different stats and bonuses, he also likes the battles and their unpredictability depending on the chosen decision, diverse units, there are many secrets and extra gold on the map.
Cons: lacks good, stable performance, frequent micro-freezes and occasional lag, especially noticeable when teleporting from one location to another (the frame rate drops from 60 to 22).
(I have a GTX 1070ti + Ryzen 7 3700x, 16 GB of RAM)
For now, these are all the pros and cons after 33 hours of playing the game. (I'm still playing the game, playing as Aivar).
Ment
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Good voice acting
I switched to English – everything is fine; the voice acting is really pleasant. 😅
Great soundtrack
The developers gave cool bonuses for pre-ordering
Cons: lacks good, stable performance; frequent micro-stutters and occasional lags are especially noticeable when teleporting from one location to another (the frame rate drops from 60 to 22).
(I have a GTX 1070ti + Ryzen 7 3700x, 16 GB of RAM)
But overall, I agree.
psatkha
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Regarding the graphical lag... it seems to happen in all his games... he'll get an RTX 2060 and a Ryzen 3800X soon, and we'll see what he says about them... not just in this game, he mainly plays action games: The Witcher 3, Borderlands 2&3, Darksiders, Warframe, Fortnite, Battlefield 5, Dying Light, AC: Origins, AC: Odyssey, Dead by Daylight, etc.
Ment
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So, let's continue the experiments.
Laptop, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7, integrated graphics card, 16 GB of RAM – everything is running smoothly. Everything is blurry, I haven't checked the videos, but the animations on the map run smoothly 😎
Laptop, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7, integrated graphics card, 16 GB of RAM – everything is running smoothly. Everything is blurry, I haven't checked the videos, but the animations on the map run smoothly 😎
psatkha
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By the way, I forgot to mention here that my son finished the game, and he didn't like the fact that there's no ending... he says he read somewhere on Steam that a patch is expected, but the developer hasn't announced a release date, so I personally won't be playing it yet... because I don't see the point in spending time on something like that! It seems that 1C has gone downhill not only in its accounting software...
Ment
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This is strange. Funny and strange.
I haven't finished the game yet, but it's already more of an endgame, as the leadership stat is slowly but surely moving towards its maximum.
They released a couple of patches, and it's become much better in terms of movement speed and some other aspects.
I didn't quite understand the balance: after a while, low-level units lose their relevance in the game. For example, in "Princess," I carried lake sprites with me throughout the entire game – they had low hit points, but, like all low-level units, they dealt high damage. And their counterattack, high speed, initiative, and flying ability compensated for the lack of hit points. In the end, the sprites killed everything, living and undead.
In KB2, there are limits on the number of units in a stack. As a result, the top-tier swordsmen, who were initially effective, become irrelevant over time. For example, leadership allows you to hire 20 of them, but only 10 can fit in a stack. At the current stage, even my third-tier units have mediocre effectiveness; we'll see what happens next.
But overall, it seems okay. I experimented with order and finesse units. In the order build, cavalry and Knights are the strongest. The former quickly move around the battlefield and punish everyone, while the latter use "provocation," causing the enemy to skip turns (because you place the Knights in a box, and they can't be attacked, and the enemy units can't attack because of the provocation).
The second build, based on finesse, is no worse. You put on two pieces of Maximilian armor, which boost armor, and rings that increase the damage of archers... And you simply shoot down everyone with golems and elementals without moving. I call this army the "self-propelled artillery column." Huge physical resistance and magical damage.
I haven't finished the game yet, but it's already more of an endgame, as the leadership stat is slowly but surely moving towards its maximum.
They released a couple of patches, and it's become much better in terms of movement speed and some other aspects.
I didn't quite understand the balance: after a while, low-level units lose their relevance in the game. For example, in "Princess," I carried lake sprites with me throughout the entire game – they had low hit points, but, like all low-level units, they dealt high damage. And their counterattack, high speed, initiative, and flying ability compensated for the lack of hit points. In the end, the sprites killed everything, living and undead.
In KB2, there are limits on the number of units in a stack. As a result, the top-tier swordsmen, who were initially effective, become irrelevant over time. For example, leadership allows you to hire 20 of them, but only 10 can fit in a stack. At the current stage, even my third-tier units have mediocre effectiveness; we'll see what happens next.
But overall, it seems okay. I experimented with order and finesse units. In the order build, cavalry and Knights are the strongest. The former quickly move around the battlefield and punish everyone, while the latter use "provocation," causing the enemy to skip turns (because you place the Knights in a box, and they can't be attacked, and the enemy units can't attack because of the provocation).
The second build, based on finesse, is no worse. You put on two pieces of Maximilian armor, which boost armor, and rings that increase the damage of archers... And you simply shoot down everyone with golems and elementals without moving. I call this army the "self-propelled artillery column." Huge physical resistance and magical damage.
Ment
Auto-translated
I played through the game as Elsa, and I found her to be greatly underrated. Of course, she has some flaws, but after three hotfixes, there are fewer of them (they increased the movement speed of the hero and the horse, for example). There are also occasional bugs, and overall, it feels a bit underdeveloped. Nevertheless, despite many reviews, I recommend it as a wonderful continuation of the series, very much in the spirit of "Legend of the Knight" and "Princess in Armor." In more detail, I'll start with the positives, I'll be repeating myself (this is a final, updated review):
+ KB2 has beautiful views; the landscapes are very well-designed, and I also really liked the character models and creatures. They aren't next-gen graphics, but they are aesthetically pleasing (the animations, though... but more on that later).
+ The RPG part, while not changing the plot globally, does influence specific people in Nostria, the balance of power, and can even slightly alter the map. Making choices is interesting; it's not always obvious, and you can really try to role-play a certain character.
+ The tactics are enjoyable. Not too complex, but there are enough options to always have something to think about.
+ The world is well-filled with secrets, quests, and dialogues. Sometimes, you just want to approach NPCs who are talking and listen to their chatter.
+ I liked the plot. It's epic, humorous, and quite fairytale-like, but it also boasts a touch of noir, a double (or perhaps half-double?) bottom, and I would gladly play a sequel to this. Although, it could use a bit more of the Terry Pratchett-esque humor that was in "Legend of the Knight"; that would be nice.
+ The quests of the seer deserve mention as a separate plus – a good opportunity to fight in a way that is not typical for you, and sometimes even solve a mini-puzzle.
Just comments, not pros or cons – related to some reviews.
~ The complaint about the missing ending: I didn't understand. Either the developers quietly fixed this in the third hotfix (and didn't mention it in the changelog), or it was fine from the start. The final cutscene is short, with intrigue and a hint of the future, but what's wrong with that?
~ The view from behind the hero gives the impression of an open world, but the actual corridor-like and scripted nature initially shocks. However, you get used to it, and it's not something that wasn't in previous parts of the series. But I understand why many were so shocked that they immediately ran to write negative reviews: "Bring back the top-down view; this isn't KB!!!!" I don't agree, but I understand.
~ Leveling up the ideal points to 28, except for the main one for yourself, turned out to be quite pointless (unless for achievements). If you level up a super-ideal ability, then after that, you almost don't have any talent points left; you can't have two super abilities, and you probably won't have enough for the "upper" skills in the branch either. I don't consider this an unambiguous minus, because on the other hand, there is variability; since there are few talent points, you have to choose between several useful options.
Now, the minuses:
- Speech animations, movement animations... Unlike the models themselves, these are very garish. It was a little annoying how Elsa, for example, gestures with her mouth when she talks. And most of the characters talk to each other on the streets with their mouths closed.
- After loading the game and teleporting, the textures take a long time to render.
- In battle, the animations lag, are delayed, and sometimes don't play at all. In the final battle, the bone dragon didn't breathe its poison when attacking, so the two enemy void spirits simply fell from fear, completely silently.)
- The balance is not always clear. For example, war dogs require more leadership than wolves, but they are literally worse than wolves.
- However, even stranger is that part of the balance that is tied to the level of creatures and the maximum leadership of the squad. The fact is that you cannot accumulate creatures in a squad indefinitely; there is a limit, and low-level troops very quickly reach the ceiling. When the hero's leadership allows you to take more creatures, sometimes significantly more, up to three or four times, but they just won't fit. By the end of the game, all creatures, except for level 5, are of little use; level 4 are so-so... This greatly limits the variety of tactics, because there are only one or two high-level creatures of each ideal. In essence, at the end, there are five strict army sets – maximum levels of order, anarchy, strength, skill, or a mix of top-level creatures of all (the latter is what I did).
- However, given the difficulty level, which cannot be adjusted and can be characterized as medium-low, you can have fun collecting not the most effective troops, but some kind of nonsense, probably.
- Achievements tied to the RPG part require you to play strictly according to specific ideals; one step to the left, one step to the right – you're shot. What's the point of making choices in quests, thinking about their correctness, if you make the choice only once at the very beginning of the game? And then you just repeat it like a robot... But that's okay; there are four powerful artifact sets in the game (the hero's set, the snake king's set, and two more similar ones), and they can only be obtained by strictly following certain ideals in certain missions! All those who complain that they didn't collect the hero's set or similar ones on the forums, pay attention; you just did it wrong... Which, in my opinion, doesn't justify such a mechanic; it could have been made with alternative ways to obtain them.
- The interface is clunky, no matter how you look at it. After they fixed the horse control, it got a little better, but the inventory without normal sorting or search, without favorite sets, and all that – it's very clunky in 2021. By the end of the game, there are a lot of items, and not all of them are easily distinguishable; it could have been simplified. Many mechanics are hidden; for example, from the description of the Maximinian set, we understand that there is a limit on maximum armor and critical hit in the game, but what it is – we have to find out by trial and error. How morale works, what armies of mono-ideals get +1, what the penalty for the opposite ideal is -2, what for two non-opposite ideals is -1, what the maximum morale is +3, how all this interacts with the hero's talents – all this is found out only by trial and error. What happens to creatures after they are upgraded to a level – also by trial and error, and sometimes new abilities appear...
There are, of course, many minuses... But, for me personally, the pros outweighed them, and I enjoyed it.
P.S. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2641340963
+ KB2 has beautiful views; the landscapes are very well-designed, and I also really liked the character models and creatures. They aren't next-gen graphics, but they are aesthetically pleasing (the animations, though... but more on that later).
+ The RPG part, while not changing the plot globally, does influence specific people in Nostria, the balance of power, and can even slightly alter the map. Making choices is interesting; it's not always obvious, and you can really try to role-play a certain character.
+ The tactics are enjoyable. Not too complex, but there are enough options to always have something to think about.
+ The world is well-filled with secrets, quests, and dialogues. Sometimes, you just want to approach NPCs who are talking and listen to their chatter.
+ I liked the plot. It's epic, humorous, and quite fairytale-like, but it also boasts a touch of noir, a double (or perhaps half-double?) bottom, and I would gladly play a sequel to this. Although, it could use a bit more of the Terry Pratchett-esque humor that was in "Legend of the Knight"; that would be nice.
+ The quests of the seer deserve mention as a separate plus – a good opportunity to fight in a way that is not typical for you, and sometimes even solve a mini-puzzle.
Just comments, not pros or cons – related to some reviews.
~ The complaint about the missing ending: I didn't understand. Either the developers quietly fixed this in the third hotfix (and didn't mention it in the changelog), or it was fine from the start. The final cutscene is short, with intrigue and a hint of the future, but what's wrong with that?
~ The view from behind the hero gives the impression of an open world, but the actual corridor-like and scripted nature initially shocks. However, you get used to it, and it's not something that wasn't in previous parts of the series. But I understand why many were so shocked that they immediately ran to write negative reviews: "Bring back the top-down view; this isn't KB!!!!" I don't agree, but I understand.
~ Leveling up the ideal points to 28, except for the main one for yourself, turned out to be quite pointless (unless for achievements). If you level up a super-ideal ability, then after that, you almost don't have any talent points left; you can't have two super abilities, and you probably won't have enough for the "upper" skills in the branch either. I don't consider this an unambiguous minus, because on the other hand, there is variability; since there are few talent points, you have to choose between several useful options.
Now, the minuses:
- Speech animations, movement animations... Unlike the models themselves, these are very garish. It was a little annoying how Elsa, for example, gestures with her mouth when she talks. And most of the characters talk to each other on the streets with their mouths closed.
- After loading the game and teleporting, the textures take a long time to render.
- In battle, the animations lag, are delayed, and sometimes don't play at all. In the final battle, the bone dragon didn't breathe its poison when attacking, so the two enemy void spirits simply fell from fear, completely silently.)
- The balance is not always clear. For example, war dogs require more leadership than wolves, but they are literally worse than wolves.
- However, even stranger is that part of the balance that is tied to the level of creatures and the maximum leadership of the squad. The fact is that you cannot accumulate creatures in a squad indefinitely; there is a limit, and low-level troops very quickly reach the ceiling. When the hero's leadership allows you to take more creatures, sometimes significantly more, up to three or four times, but they just won't fit. By the end of the game, all creatures, except for level 5, are of little use; level 4 are so-so... This greatly limits the variety of tactics, because there are only one or two high-level creatures of each ideal. In essence, at the end, there are five strict army sets – maximum levels of order, anarchy, strength, skill, or a mix of top-level creatures of all (the latter is what I did).
- However, given the difficulty level, which cannot be adjusted and can be characterized as medium-low, you can have fun collecting not the most effective troops, but some kind of nonsense, probably.
- Achievements tied to the RPG part require you to play strictly according to specific ideals; one step to the left, one step to the right – you're shot. What's the point of making choices in quests, thinking about their correctness, if you make the choice only once at the very beginning of the game? And then you just repeat it like a robot... But that's okay; there are four powerful artifact sets in the game (the hero's set, the snake king's set, and two more similar ones), and they can only be obtained by strictly following certain ideals in certain missions! All those who complain that they didn't collect the hero's set or similar ones on the forums, pay attention; you just did it wrong... Which, in my opinion, doesn't justify such a mechanic; it could have been made with alternative ways to obtain them.
- The interface is clunky, no matter how you look at it. After they fixed the horse control, it got a little better, but the inventory without normal sorting or search, without favorite sets, and all that – it's very clunky in 2021. By the end of the game, there are a lot of items, and not all of them are easily distinguishable; it could have been simplified. Many mechanics are hidden; for example, from the description of the Maximinian set, we understand that there is a limit on maximum armor and critical hit in the game, but what it is – we have to find out by trial and error. How morale works, what armies of mono-ideals get +1, what the penalty for the opposite ideal is -2, what for two non-opposite ideals is -1, what the maximum morale is +3, how all this interacts with the hero's talents – all this is found out only by trial and error. What happens to creatures after they are upgraded to a level – also by trial and error, and sometimes new abilities appear...
There are, of course, many minuses... But, for me personally, the pros outweighed them, and I enjoyed it.
P.S. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2641340963
psatkha
Auto-translated
I don't know, my son told me that he read somewhere that they are planning another fix or patch, and maybe they will add an ending, because there isn't one now!
Ment
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There isn't a final ending, but there is an interlude. And there will definitely be some expansions. Think of it as the end of the first volume in "War and Peace"; Napoleon didn't fall immediately, and Pierre's life didn't suddenly fall into place.
It just seems strange to me to criticize the introduction of a plotline for a continuation.
It just seems strange to me to criticize the introduction of a plotline for a continuation.
psatkha
Auto-translated
There is no finale, but there is an interlude. And there will definitely be some add-ons. Think of it as the end of the first volume in "War and Peace," where Napoleon doesn't immediately fall and Pierre's life doesn't immediately fall into place.
It just seems strange to me to criticize the introduction of a plotline for a sequel.
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