King's Bounty: Dark Side

 PC
User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 98 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 44 out of 98
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 98
  3. Negative: 23 out of 98

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  1. matod
    Aug 24, 2014
    5
    As a fan of whole series i cant recomend this one. Its unfinished like wont mainly of game balance(new spells , crazy unit disbalance) and later maps is almost completly empty.. empty areas and the main thing if you play imposible theres no real enemy that can threat yours army.. this destroys whole experience why you build army and level up when there is no enemy to fight? Game releaseAs a fan of whole series i cant recomend this one. Its unfinished like wont mainly of game balance(new spells , crazy unit disbalance) and later maps is almost completly empty.. empty areas and the main thing if you play imposible theres no real enemy that can threat yours army.. this destroys whole experience why you build army and level up when there is no enemy to fight? Game release date is totaly rushed , but its better than WOTN witch was terrible (2/10)… Expand
  2. Sjalka
    Aug 20, 2014
    8
    this series is a bit like a wolf in sheeps clothings. - it looks cartoonish, bright and colourful - but it is certainly on the tougher side of strategy games ( casual strategy games ).

    compared to disciples or homm VI or similar - the other games "look" more serious, but are generally a push-over compared to the kings bounty series, which is very nice indeed. dark side has an    this series is a bit like a wolf in sheeps clothings. - it looks cartoonish, bright and colourful - but it is certainly on the tougher side of strategy games ( casual strategy games ).

    compared to disciples or homm VI or similar - the other games "look" more serious, but are generally a push-over compared to the kings bounty series, which is very nice indeed.

    dark side has an abundance of creatures, items, spells and character development. it offers a long campaign and a good replayability due to randomized progression and loot, which does matter quite a lot.    … Expand
  3. Likeme
    Sep 7, 2014
    3
    I've played previous 3 games in King's Bounty and 'Dark Side' was a major disappointment for me. Instead of making it better, they made it longer. Same units, same magic, 80% of the world copy&pasted from previous series, stupid quests with texts seemingly written by 12-year olds.

    The only positive impression from last game, is that amount of bugs was low and none of them are hampering    I've played previous 3 games in King's Bounty and 'Dark Side' was a major disappointment for me. Instead of making it better, they made it longer. Same units, same magic, 80% of the world copy&pasted from previous series, stupid quests with texts seemingly written by 12-year olds.

    The only positive impression from last game, is that amount of bugs was low and none of them are hampering game progress.

    TL&DR: If you want to play this series, buy previous versions. Same fun, less money.    … Expand
  4. krammerlock
    Feb 18, 2015
    4
    I have played all of the King's Bounty games and it is clear to me that the developers have lost their way. It started with Warriors of the North and has reached a low with Dark Side. I like the idea of Dark side and I like that they kept the GUI and combat system the same. What I don't like is the sloppiness of how the quests are written. I never got stuck on any quests in King's, orI have played all of the King's Bounty games and it is clear to me that the developers have lost their way. It started with Warriors of the North and has reached a low with Dark Side. I like the idea of Dark side and I like that they kept the GUI and combat system the same. What I don't like is the sloppiness of how the quests are written. I never got stuck on any quests in King's, or Armored Princess. The explanation was straight forward. They told us what to do, where to do it and generally kept it on the same area that the quest was given. Yes its simple, but it was fun. You could tool around an island, clear it out and move on. Sadly that is no longer the case. I have gotten stuck on many quests and have been unable to find help on them either. So the game is a big waste of money. I will try it again in six months. Maybe then the walk through's will contain some help.… Expand
  5. NYX94
    Jul 30, 2014
    10
    a really fresh edition to the king's bounty series, while the game play hasn't changed much, almost everything else changed. you no longer have one campaign for all three classes, there are now a different campaign for each class which really adds to the already long hours to beat. the addition of new units really makes it harder for you to choose from, and the fact that you can takea really fresh edition to the king's bounty series, while the game play hasn't changed much, almost everything else changed. you no longer have one campaign for all three classes, there are now a different campaign for each class which really adds to the already long hours to beat. the addition of new units really makes it harder for you to choose from, and the fact that you can take prisoners and turn them to soldiers is really cool. expect this game to be among the top contendors for Game of The Year 2014.… Expand
  6. socokid
    Sep 22, 2014
    9
    I might not be aware of earlier issues that may have warranted the lower score (so many complaining about bugs). However, I just bought this last week and am having a blast. It says it's at version 1.5.x, so there seems to have been quite a few updates. *shrugs*

    Very fun, lot's of stuff to explore. It's a familiar game (a good thing) that allows you to play the bad guy for once. It also    I might not be aware of earlier issues that may have warranted the lower score (so many complaining about bugs). However, I just bought this last week and am having a blast. It says it's at version 1.5.x, so there seems to have been quite a few updates. *shrugs*

    Very fun, lot's of stuff to explore. It's a familiar game (a good thing) that allows you to play the bad guy for once. It also runs very, very well on my 4 year old machine driving a 27" screen. If you are a King's Bounty fan... not sure what the issue was prior, but it is a must buy. A very good game otherwise, at least in it's current version.    … Expand
  7. blackbird1
    Sep 3, 2014
    1
    Technicaly this game is so much worse than all previous KB Games what i loved.
    The fonts and the HUD are to tiny even on 1680 x 1050 22.
    Aslong you dont fix the tiny HUD and Text i give yau just 1 Point for this.
    I swear i came back and give you 10 you devs fix this .
  8. mou5emou5emou5e
    Sep 5, 2014
    10
    i haven't played previous series.... but this one is AWESOMEEEE !!!!!! The story is very good ( Dark Side 4 ever ), the interactions with the NPC's i love it even more... other people say graphics bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla ...... shut the f*** up pls... i enjoy this game
  9. lifemare
    Oct 18, 2014
    2
    King's Bounty was such a nice surprise when it came out. The Heroes of Might & Magic franchise was getting worst and worst and no one else seemed to care to develop this strategy genre. KB changed all that and quickly climbed to the top of my list of favorite games.

    Unfortunately every subsequent release has offered little more than a different campaign, never adding any more depth or    King's Bounty was such a nice surprise when it came out. The Heroes of Might & Magic franchise was getting worst and worst and no one else seemed to care to develop this strategy genre. KB changed all that and quickly climbed to the top of my list of favorite games.

    Unfortunately every subsequent release has offered little more than a different campaign, never adding any more depth or perfecting gameplay (actually downgrading it on a few occasions). So, playing Armored Princess, or Legends, to me, pretty much felt like playing the same game all over again. Redoing pretty much the same tedious quests (i should say "errands"), fighting with the same units, conjuring the same spells, etc, etc, etc.

    KB Dark Side follows this great tradition of boredom and fear of change, adding yet more hours to the never ending KB campaign. This time however the little creativity there was on previous titles has completely extinguished. Bottom of the barrel stuff. The story is so infantile and the dialogs so horribly retarded i found myself feeling like i was playing a toddler's game. On a game entirely cloned from its previous installment (again, with almost zero new units, spells, weapons & armor, environments, etc), the only redemption would be its narrative.
    But no, even that received the same half-assed treatment - there's simply no redeeming qualities to this title.

    Regarding bugs, i'm very surprised to hear people consider this release better than previous ones. I don't remember having these many issues with all other titles *combined*: Broken quests (plural!) and overall very bad information on dialogs and quest log, crashes, item buffs that don't work, serious combat glitches (enemy units becoming invulnerable to attack for a turn). If you managed to finish the game without coming across one of these issues, i must be the unlukiest guy in the world.

    As much as it pains me to bash a strategy game in this depressing age of Action and FPS games, unless you're really into doing menial tasks and enjoy riding a virtual horse up and down a narrow path for hours on end, stay the hell away from this game!    … Expand
  10. yshylov
    Jun 16, 2015
    0
    It has nothing in common with previous series. The plot is awful and it is written in internet slang. The locations are just boxes with a couple of enemies, there is no decoration at all. The game is heavily disbalanced, it's very tough at the beginning and not interesting at all as you have no possibility to avoid plot fights, can't get extra spells and can't change your army.
  11. el_toejam
    Jan 28, 2020
    6
    I gave it 6 only becose of love for original Legend and AP. But this game is sicking horrible.
    Whole game is a huge disappointment.
  12. LD9000
    Nov 30, 2014
    8
    Pretty good continuation for the series, and a chance to play with full demon/ork/undead army right from the start. Your choice of character determines which units will be available to you throughout the campaign - demoness does not have many orks or undead available at the shelter.

    The beginning of the game is rather repetitive - a lot of human troops, I must've killed 4000 guardsmen    Pretty good continuation for the series, and a chance to play with full demon/ork/undead army right from the start. Your choice of character determines which units will be available to you throughout the campaign - demoness does not have many orks or undead available at the shelter.

    The beginning of the game is rather repetitive - a lot of human troops, I must've killed 4000 guardsmen before level 14, and hundreds of knights.

    There are new talents, new spells, some of which are quite overpowered, for example diversions places up to 3 traps on the map, and this stacks with the traps medal, meaning there are a lot of traps on the battlefield.

    Now being level 31, I find that my army did not change much from the beginning - I still have cerberus, scoffer imps, red dragons and executioners. Later on I added archdemons or executioners. There isn't really much need to experiment with anything else. While there are "traitor" troops, they are exact copies of the light side troops (archers, guardsmen, inquisitors, etc).

    I liked the quests, they require quite a lot of running, and even some googling for solutions.    … Expand
  13. Alsmir
    Mar 26, 2015
    7
    I find it difficult to rate this one.

    On one hand it has more features than previous games and more content but on the other hand it feels unpolished. We have some new skills, spells, units and other cool features like capturing prisoners and turning them into undead or demon units, but there's always something... New skills sound good but many of them are quite useless, same    I find it difficult to rate this one.

    On one hand it has more features than previous games and more content but on the other hand it feels unpolished.

    We have some new skills, spells, units and other cool features like capturing prisoners and turning them into undead or demon units, but there's always something...

    New skills sound good but many of them are quite useless, same issue with new spells.
    Rage abilities - why can't they ever be balanced? Once again - you will use some of them extensively and ignore the rest.
    New units - great, but I'm still using the old ones. Few special abilities got re-balanced as well.

    Quests are now more complex but it comes with a price, too often we're not given clear explanation what to do next. I got stuck a couple of times, some of them are very unintuitive and we end up either checking online for solutions or just visiting every single spot on every map.

    Dark Side has some pros and cons, but at the end of the day it's still a very solid game. If you finished every other KB title, give it a try. Combat is still fun and challenging and that's what matters the most for me.    … Expand
  14. MR67
    Dec 3, 2015
    5
    More of the same really if you've played any of the previous games in the series, though now with the added twist of being able to play a bad guy (or girl). Your special units are very limited at the beginning, so you'll only have a handful of these to make do with until later on. To flesh out your army, the game has a lot more spider and snake eggs for you to pick up and use, as well asMore of the same really if you've played any of the previous games in the series, though now with the added twist of being able to play a bad guy (or girl). Your special units are very limited at the beginning, so you'll only have a handful of these to make do with until later on. To flesh out your army, the game has a lot more spider and snake eggs for you to pick up and use, as well as some bottom-of-the-pile troop types at the first safe castle you get to. Apart from that, there is also a new system where you can sacrifice prisoners to create new demon and undead troop types, but it looks like you need to have a LOT of prisoners to create anything really good. Your rage powers are now provided by a strange looking little companion creature named Blackie (though thankfully you can change this name), who can also teleport you to various places in the game as well as handle the sacrificing of unlucky prisoners to create new troops. Character skills are now structured slightly more differently - there are about 5 or 6 levels of skills from the top down, with only the corresponding class having access to the last tier of skills; eg. only the warrior character (the Orc) will have access to the last tier of Might skills. I tried all 3 characters and it seems easiest to play (at least initially) as the Demoness character (owing to her higher Leadership score and the more powerful demon units she has) and hardest as the Orc (lack of offensive magic and decent missile units). However, the Demoness' last tier of skills (in the Spirit tree) do not seem all that great compared to the last tier of skills in the Might and Magic trees. The storyline seems a bit dull (though this may change later in the game) and involves you fixing a sudden imbalance which has come about between evil and good in the world, though each of the characters (the Orc, Demoness and Vampire) has a backstory of their own which makes the game a bit more interesting.

    Pros - same enjoyable tactical turn-based combat as the previous titles, different experience playing as a villain.
    Cons - little overall difference in graphics or gameplay from the previous games in the series, more difficult (at least in the early part of the game) than any of the previous games, still some minor translation issues in some of the in-game text, playing as a villainous character might not be to everyone's taste. Game also still suffers from a number of bugs (crashes to desktop occasionally when playing for a long time and entering a new area or starting a big battle, or enemy units' attack, defence and initiative scores inexplicably get reduced). Game seems overly long and gets tedious after a while and certain quests are poorly done, eg collect certain items with no indication of where to get them. I have spent over 120 hours playing as the Orc where I reached level 53 but have given up owing to boredom and frustration with the bugs. Have revised score from 7 to 5.    … Expand
  15. PeakTop
    Jan 16, 2021
    7
    Достойное продолжение одного из шедевров ру-игропрома, способное в очередной раз приклеить к монитору на долгие часы. С момента выхода игру прошёл трижды, то есть по разу за каждый класс, и могу составить законченное представление об игре.

    Действия DarkSide разворачиваются в новом мире, состоящем из островов и подземелий. Из биомов всё по классике: земли людей, шахты гномов, лавовый мир    Достойное продолжение одного из шедевров ру-игропрома, способное в очередной раз приклеить к монитору на долгие часы. С момента выхода игру прошёл трижды, то есть по разу за каждый класс, и могу составить законченное представление об игре.

    Действия DarkSide разворачиваются в новом мире, состоящем из островов и подземелий. Из биомов всё по классике: земли людей, шахты гномов, лавовый мир демонов, пиратские острова, эльфийские леса и т.д. Принципиальным отличием является возможность играть за "злых", а значит, нам придется проходить кампанию задом наперёд. В отличие от предыдущих частей, здесь мы будем очищать территории от зажравшихся светлых паладинов и эльфийских карателей, истребляющих невинных орков, демонов и вампиров.

    Из геймплейных нововведений отдельно можно выделить Убежище тьмы, которое необходимо улучшать и прокачивать, свозить туда пленных и прочие ресурсы для наращивания боевого потенциала. Есть новые юниты, заклинания и способности ярости. На этом список обнов заканчивается. В целом это всё тот же Кингс Баунти, а значит фанаты серии останутся довольны – кардинальные изменения тут практически отсутствуют, геймплей не пострадал :) Для кого-то это, конечно, станет минусом.

    А вот теперь о недостатках.

    В глаза бросается заметно сниженная сложность. Особенно, в сравнении в Легендой о рыцаре, где можно было тупо застрять из-за нехватки войск/денег или огневой мощи. Тут такое вряд ли случится, ведь уже на старте имеем много халявы – сундуки, союзные войска, трофеи на карте, несколько островов для лута, множество магазинов с войсками, свитками и артефактами.

    Много вопросов вызывает музыка. В DarkSide разрабы почему-то решили рандомизировать все треки, и теперь у нас во время битвы может играть мирный релакс, а во время путешествий – боевая тема. Нехорошо вышло.

    Обилие затянутых квестов в стиле "сходи/принеси/подай". Некоторые из них почему-то переплетаются с основной сюжеткой и порой вызывают путаницу и желание посмотреть прохождение на форумах. Тем не менее, разнообразие присутствует, как и юмор. В плане сюжета менее всего мне зашёл Воин Севера – я так и не смог добить его до конца :)

    В целом, если закрыть глаза на неадекватную музыку и запутанные квесты, то это – всё тот же ламповый и завораживающий Кингс Баунти от Katauri. Как поклонник ставлю игре 7 / 10 баллов. Считаю, что лучшей частью была изначальная дилогия о принцессе и рыцаре.    … Expand
  16. hileger
    Oct 21, 2022
    6
    ХЕРОИ мне лично не заходит ХЕРОИ мне лично не заходит ХЕРОИ мне лично не заходит
  17. FRIST_008
    Jun 14, 2021
    7
    После война севера я говорю игре ДА, но я после многочисленных обзоров начал играть с модом "Патч v.1.1 к Глобальному моду", и суммарно от игры очень положительные впечатления. Юмор конечно убили в край, он заменился сюжетом собранный полностью из отсылок. Но меня всегда интриговали в игре механики, и тут как со стороны развития серии, их более чем достаточно. Именно игровых механик целом,После война севера я говорю игре ДА, но я после многочисленных обзоров начал играть с модом "Патч v.1.1 к Глобальному моду", и суммарно от игры очень положительные впечатления. Юмор конечно убили в край, он заменился сюжетом собранный полностью из отсылок. Но меня всегда интриговали в игре механики, и тут как со стороны развития серии, их более чем достаточно. Именно игровых механик целом, а не только боевых.… Expand
  18. LT_Gruber
    Dec 10, 2022
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Huge sequel with tons of stuff to do.

    I am honest, I was going to write a bad review about this game because of many reasons, but as the game progressed, it became better and better. Although it will not look like it in this review, the game is actually fairly good!

    King’s Bounty: Dark Side is the final installment of the King’s Bounty series. Its story is fairly simple this time. The Light is taking over the world and exterminating every living creature of the Dark. You need to fight back, build a strong resistance movement, and defeat the Spirit of Light. To do this you need to perform an ungodly number of tasks, making this one of the biggest and longest games in the King’s Bounty series.

    The graphics are yet again unchanged or unpolished but still look decent, although, for 2014 it is nothing special anymore.

    On the sound department, the developers screwed up. When playing the game on normal speed, everything is fine, but when playing on the high combat speed setting, like most people do, the sounds are randomly disappearing, not working, half working. What the hell? This was one of the reasons I thought this game was not worth it, because you cannot hear your Demon’s axe carving away the flesh of your enemies. It was a huge let down. I heard there were some fixes, but nothing helped. I just had to deal with it or play something else.

    The second reason I almost “hated” this game was the slow build up, and the immense, unbelievable, gigantic, absurd, unthinkable amounts of quests and tasks that the devs threw at me right from the beginning. I was completely overwhelmed, confused, and did not know where to start.

    And that was the main reason I was about to quit this game. The quests, quest markers and info is so broken, confusing and vague, I had to look up everything online because I just could not figure out what to do. Quest markers remain active after you complete a quest, a person with a quest marker above it’s head does not give you any quests, completed quests remain in your log as if not completed, the “quest complete circle” hovers over incomplete quests and it just drove me nuts. Eventually, at the end of the game, everything fell into place, but it was really hard to keep track of it.

    But after reaching level 40, the game suddenly became amazing! I found cool new loot, fought original and well thought of battles, had fun quests and I got the feeling that I was really accomplishing something here and that I was really conquering the world. It made me excited and I played for hours on edge.
    Sure, the game had its errand boy quests but hey, easy experience, right?

    It is a bummer that there is only one boss fight in this game, but it is not the worst thing ever or something.

    This game is the most stable I have played in all the series. Not once did it crash. But everything has its price, in return, the loading times after each battle are ridiculous, it shoots to eighty percent, stalls and loads the rest in slow motion. This was less than a second in the other games.

    But overall, King’s Bounty: Dark Side is good. It has a ton of original ideas, concepts, new units, cool locations, and epic battles. Despite its flaws, I think it is still a good game. For the price and what you get for it, I would surely recommend it.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Games.cz
    Dec 3, 2014
    70
    King's Bounty: Dark Side is tasty sweet for fans of the genre and the series. Game offers the chance to play for the bad guys together with a sophisticated gaming system and several interesting innovations. We would appreciate the game play and technological improvement though.
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  2. CD-Action
    Oct 22, 2014
    70
    The biggest strength and simultaneously the most notable weakness of Dark Side is the fact, that it’s the first King’s Bounty all over again. It’s still fun, but how much longer? [Sept 2014, p.66]
  3. DarkStation
    Sep 30, 2014
    80
    It isn’t much of a problem for this game, but for future iterations, the developer will either have to get creative once again or give the series a big makeover.
    Read full review
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