The retro RPG makes a strong
return in this season’s classic-styled RPG King’s Bounty. I seem to recall
similarly paced titles in my youth and the good folks at Atari have put forth
the effort to bring back some retro and new gameplay in a game that harkens
back to a time when 8-mb games ruled the Commodore 64. Either way, the game
has some good things going for it, regardless of the bad things…
In King’s Bounty, you play as one
of three character classes, the Paladin, the Mage and the Warrio. As with
pretty much every RPG ever made involving these character classes, you will
understand that the warrior can only wield weapons, the mage only magic and
the Paladin a mixture of the two. But to balance everything out, the mage will
have the strongest magic, the warrior the most powerful melee attacks and the
paladin, a mixture of the two that equals pretty much the best of the either
two character classes. Its sounds more complicated than it is, so just go with
me on it. Naturally, I picked the paladin, because when I was a kid playing
D&D, I always went with the paladin or ranger-type characters, it fit me in
all my geeky glory. From there, you will enter a very wild and dangerous
world. Now I say this because the game does not follow the escalating
difficulty path that many RPGs follow. Rather, you could run into monsters
roaming the world who could sneeze and tear you apart. This is no walk in the
park.
"It’s Sir Reginald LeJacque, the
effeminate leader of the Flowing White Cape guild!"
The story itself is a bit on the
shifty side and easily the worst part of the game. The premise involves a
kingdom that once had its glory days but now things aren’t so great. The King,
desperate for a hero to arrive looks to you to help rid the recent surge of
evil doers and monsters that have been plaguing the land. But its more than
that, you will need to discover the source of the recent evil and help the
kingdom reclaim its former glory. Oh, and there is some sort of nonsense about
the King’s daughter being from the heavens. By the way, the game also has
several glaring typos in the text that you read
Interestingly enough, as you
venture out in your travels, you will begin picking up soldiers that act sort
of as a mini-mercenary army. These disposable fighters are directly related to
the game and when brought into battle they will die and you will need to find
and hire additional forces in order to continue on. Now, in an ironic twist,
there is only a certain amount of fighters to be found in any given location –
meaning, you can literally run out of support staff in a rough part of the
world and really be up the creek. Now you do have the ability to avoid combat,
as you will see roaming baddies and can identify them by right clicking and
identifying if they are something you want to tangle with or not. And to make
matters worse, even if you flee a battle you get involved in that you know you
can’t win, you can count on some casualties as hired muscle will also get
killed in the retreat.
"Don’t you hate it when you stumble into
the wrong neighborhood?"
However, it is important to
mention that the game just doesn’t allow you to command only humans and elves
and other humanoid characters. You can get vampires, demons and all sorts of
other monsters to hop in the battle and do your bidding. It is really quite
cool when you start getting out there and exploring and start finding these
awesomely powerful creatures just waiting to be led into battle. Fight evil
with evil in this game.
In addition, there is a character
attribute section that allows you to improve on the three base abilities,
might, magic and mind. Each one of these attributes is tied with the actual
stats that will be affected, for instance, Might, affects your
strength, defense and such, where Magic boosts your spell casting abilities
and Mind affects intelligence, how well you are received by NPCs and how much
money you can get in your travels.
"Why does everybody tile their kitchens
in the octogon patterns?"
I like the old-school/new-age look
the game has going for it, the hexagon grid that appears in the battlefield
coupled with a wild three-headed dragon/turtle thingy straight outta an 80’s
movie. The graphics are clean, and while not cutting edge, they do a good job
of making sure you know you are in a fantasy world. I enjoyed how all
characters look the part with the different armor or magical glow, it really
made me miss my Sega Saturn RPGs. Bright colors pop off the screen and a
decent amount of character design in the monsters is consistent throughout.
The music on the game kind of
doesn’t quite reach standard. Oh sure, there are the sounds of magic ramping
up and the echo of battle, but it feels restrained and unfulfilling. The hero
music is all too familiar but seems to make the game feel a bit more in place,
the audio is nothing to write home about.
However, the sound and graphics
will fade to the rear when the game’s strong point, the fighting system, comes
into play. Using the hired muscle to move and attack on the battlefield grid
is a pure pleasure as you use strategy and cunning to usurp your foes.
Standing towards the back, you can launch magical attacks and really light up
your enemies. I personally will always have an affinity for turn-based RPGs
and this one does not disappoint with its really deep combat system. There’s
even treasure chests and such that appear mid battle that can help or hurt you
when you open them. Commanding your minions to take moves around the grid,
kind of like a chess game, the well laid-out battlefields, the varied attacks
you can get when you start really loading up your troops … I can’t do it
justice, just know that the game’s fighting is really well done.
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Gameplay: 8.8
Really a great fighting system for an RPG, moving around the world
via horseback is also pretty cool. Games like this are so much more fun when
the developers really tune up the controls.
Graphics: 7.0
The character models are always a
pleasure to look at and I have to say make finding new soldiers to fight for
you a bit more interesting.
Sound: 6.7
It could have benefited from a serious beefing up in the sound-effect
department.
Difficulty: Hard
Whew, this one is a serious
challenge even for a veteran RPG player, you just never know when a big-time
baddie is going to engage you (if you can’t avoid it); even selecting the
default setting can be daunting. Expect to adventure for a good long time.
Concept: 8.2
The plot is somewhat disappointing, but the in-game action makes up
for it; the faster you get to the action the better.
Overall: 8.2
Even with the lower standard of
graphics and sound, the game is still above board in the fun department. I
really like this title and thank it deserves some big time praise for bringing
back the cool in single-player RPGs.
