I know, most of you reading are probably going "What the hell, there's a demo?" right about now. But it turns out that, yes, there is indeed an English-version demo that was very quietly released on Monday of this week (I only found out last night). You can get it here: http://files.filefront.com/Kings+Bounty+The+Legend+Demo/;11799044;/fileinfo.html
On to the impressions. I never played the original, however I did play most of the HOMM games on and off, so I was interested in King's Bounty because of the same style of combat. I knew it was going to be an adventure game as well, so it looked like a fun game to try. Well, it certainly didn't dissapoint!
First of all, the artwork is superb. The colors are very vibrant and pretty to look at and everything is done with great care. The units are very nicely detailed and animated, down to swinging necklaces on pirates when they move around the battlefield. The graphics put the latest HOMM to shame.
The combat is familiar to all the HOMM players, with some new twists! First, your hero's skills can determine what abilities your units possess. Putting points in the military skills opens up flaming arrows for your archers, fire attacks for your swordsmen, and the like. Eventually, you also get a spirit chest which is neat addition. When you fight, you get rage. You can then use this rage to summon spirits on the battlefield that are sort of like mini-heroes in that they level up as you use them. For example, you can summon this rock thing that shapes into a giant sword that smashes into a target stack and does damage. This is sort of like a spell, you use it and then it recharges for x number of rounds until you can do it again. Eventually, once you do this enough times, your rock spirit thing levels up and you get to choose whether you want to upgrade its sword spell thing, or give it a new spell that creates a wall on the battlefield. These spirits are a new twist to the traditional combat, and they're very nicely drawn and animated (the huge sword smash looks awesome )
Away from combat, you have your main hero. He runs around the map in real time, talks to people, gets various quests, finds magic schools, temples, castles, so on so forth that he can buy items from and recruit people for his armies. He has 3 skill trees to upgrade, and each levelup gives a certain number of "runes" which are used to rank up skills in those trees and get new ones. This is pretty nicely implemented, I thought, and so far it looks like you'll really have to decide what to pick, since you don't get enough runes to get everything (or even close to everything). Of course, my Paladin hero only got to level 4 so far in the demo..
Anyway, the demo kept me playing for hours last night and I only grudgingly went to bed, cursing having to get up early for work.. it's going to be a great game.
OK, now I have to look into this. I've played the original King's Bounty and every Heroes game, and was fairly pleased with HOMM 5 (short description: a pretty HOMM 3), and you say this is prettier? Of course, Hero development and tactical combat are what make the game great, so I'll check it out. Thanks for the tip, Annatar11!
It's slated to be released next week, too September 23rd. Though I doubt it will show up on Impulse right away
Oh nice, the demo has Starforce included.
Well, no demo for me then and no money for them.
I noticed that. The odd thing is they removed Starforce from the Russian version.. I guess they'll launch the English version with it and remove it later too, but maybe they'll launch it without to begin with.
Update on the Starforce issue. From the official forums, the US release will *not* have Starforce:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=3872
It will also be available as a digital download on Gamersgate.. if it doesn't show up anywhere else, I guess that'll finally give me a reason to check it out
Yeah, I was searching the net for that. They removed Starforce from the russian version after it proved very problematic.
The retail game will use SecuRom (same type as Spore uses, but no activation necessary).
Why they still use Starforce for the demo though really puzzles me.
I dunno, but I did chuckle that it expired in 2011.
Why are they DRMing a demo? Isn't the point of it to be free? I can understand restricting IP rights, but do they seriously want to alienate themselves by using Starforce?
So, SecuROM on the full version? Another game I won't buy, then.
1. I installed the demo ... before learning here that it was "protected" by StarForce. When I read about it on this thread, I immediately rushed to uninstall the demo and to run an official SF-removal programme (but the uninstall had left no SF residue). I'm not happy that they did not have the decency to inform us that SF was required -- at the very beginning of the the demo-installation process.
2. @Annatar11 > Your dogmatic & harsh comment that "The graphics put the latest HOMM to shame" is merely a very subjective opinion, based on a very subjective, esthetic perception & evaluation. I totally disagree with you. If you cannot see that the city's buildings look like stuff we've already seen elsewhere, seven years ago, and that they do not come close in 3D quality to HM&M 5's buildings & cityscapes, you need a new pair of eyes.
3. I will buy the game next week because I enjoy that genre of game very much ... and because the North American retail version won't have StarForce (according to the official forum-source that one of the previous posts refered us to).
4. But it's not because of the demo. I started the mission that the demo imposed (without any prior tutorial), and I did not enjoy that my hero (with his little army) was killed by roaming creatures -- which seemed to have a too generous interception range. Maybe I need a new set of eyes, but I had not have the occasion to find where to recruit more troops, so I had to go out on my mission with a very small army. I was playing at the "normal" level.
I hope that the full version will allow me to learn without having to do a frustrating, scripted mission first -- I hate that in all games (except when the first missions are effectively part of an overt tutorial process).
Of course ... my whole post is pure subjectivity.
I don't think Stardorce on the demo actually does anything. I think they just didn't bother to remove some code.. it's listed as active for 999 days or somesuch, and it doesn't actually seem to be doing anything when the demo launcher.
But yeah, the final looks like it will have the old style SecuROM.. nothing like Spore/Mass Effect, if I read the thread right.
I'll definitely be trying the demo before I buy. When I switched to vista there were 2 games I had problems with. The witcher was one (it was fixed after a few nvidia driver updates), and the HoMM5 expansions. HoMM5 vanilla works fine, but the expansion are not happy w/vista (they run fine, but no matter what you do the game reverts to the lowest quality graphics setting, atari2600 looking, bleh). I loved the original king's bounty, so as long as it runs ok on my machine, and they haven't turned it into a first person shooter or something, then I'll be gettin' it for sure.
I'm glad you can take something exclusive to HOMM and compare it to a non-existant feature in King's Bounty
As far as being subjective, well..
http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kingsbountythelegend200do8.jpg
vs
http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heroesofmightandmagicv2eq3.jpg
It really doesn't take much to notice how the King's Bounty artwork is vastly superior
This excessive expression of dogmatic subjectivism closes the pseudo-dialogue on the topic, as far as I'm concerned.
Hey, haven't seen that line used since I used to visit anarcho-communistic meetings some time ago...
I'm a 21-year old student of French Literature : we're trained to be wordsmiths.
I have NO knowledge & experience whatsoever in radical left-wing politics ... and if I had any ideological preference, it would rather be of the right-wing, Vampire-The-Masquerade type.
Quelle horreur!
Didn't want to imply that, it's just a style of talking often used by modern Marxist deconstructionists.
---------------------
Anyway, back on topic.
I've now tried the demo on a safe computer, and have to say I was pleasantly surprised.
The much of it looks like a carbon copy HoMMV (especially the spell book graphics...) it looks much better.
And it really was a omfg moment when the King commented on my bowl helmet and wheel shield. Very nice.
Welp, I've just finished everything there was to do in the demo. Must have more
Did you also get the zombie wife?
I wonder if I could get a children from her in the demo...
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But yeah, the demo really made me want more. Gotta buy it, even if it has SecuRom. So much for my principles.
Huh, I didn't go back to her after finishing the ring quest I love the humor and the conversations though, how you agree to swap the ring every day
You should go back to her. You can buy her from the bandit for 5000 gold.
She gives you 4 more item slots.
Then you can keep her in zombie form or turn her back to human, after which you can make a child with her (though it says it will take some time, so I don't think it's available in the demo).
And if you don't like her, you can always divorce her... (though that costs 50% of your gold).
I loved the demo, and it's a big one too. You can play for several hours and see lots of the game. I was not going to get it, due to it not having MP, but now that I've played the demo, I'm hooked. This game is what Homm5 should have been.
For those that try the demo, the Scouting skill is pretty important (or you will go broke fighting stronger enimies), and right click on every item in your invintory, as some can become troops, others have special abilities, and some can be upgraded. Hover your mose over your troops to see how many more of each type you can recruit (your Leadership ability dictates how many troops you can have, ANOTHER thing Homm5 needed badly).
Just poking in here to say that the screenshots of the two game are actually fairly close in quality and it is very objective. Besides, I don't think the graphics on HOMMV are turned up all the way in that picture, making it an unfair comparison.
Thank you very much. I now must have this game. I hope the full version accepts saves from the demo...
And being able to run both at max, I'd say King is a bit better detailed, but seems more cluttered.
I uninstalled the demo after playing for only a few minutes, and then ordered the full game through Amazon Canada, which should mail it to me on 23 September.
I've played at Heroes of Might & Magic 5 : Tribes of the East all summer. This new game might satisfy my fantasy-strategy cravings while waiting for Disciples 3 and Stardock's beta of its own MoM-style masterpiece.
I don't get it.You have the hero who get all the trendy loot but doesn't appear in battles>?
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