King's Bounty II

King’s Bounty II is far from perfect, but this new game from 1C Entertainment can still engross you for many hours. And yet, if you were waiting for a true sequel of original King’s Bounty by Katauri Interactive, you'll probably be quite disappointed.

Yes, the quests and the story are not crazy. Yes, the technique of the game is outdated. Yes, getting around is boring and the interface painful. But you have fun creating your army, choosing among all the possibilities the best possible combination. We take pleasure in browsing this skilfully constructed universe. And we get excited as we face the challenges of the tough battles ahead. Despite its flaws, the game manages to glue the player and make them want to load up their game. You should not shy away from your pleasure.

King's Bounty 2 features fun tactical battles while telling a memorable story as it immerses you in its high fantasy world. But, boy oh boy, prepare for a barrage of ridiculously long loading screens and plenty of other unstreamlined elements.

King’s Bounty II feels like a half-baked game that’s missing a lot of the features that made the series so popular among players. Even the content that does share similarities with the previous games seems rushed and unpolished. Although I commend the developers’ wish to bring something fresh on the table, I believe King’s Bounty II is a missed opportunity. Even though many of the issues the game had at launch may be fixed in future patches, there are many design choices that are impossible to address. Janky in all aspects, King’s Bounty II can be a worthy new entry for long-time fans or a terrible idea. If you’re considering this, just keep in mind that it’s rough around the edges.

With a bit more time and budget, King’s Bounty II could have been one of the pinnacles of the fantasy medieval genre. The turn-based combat is deep, rewarding and challenging (though sometimes unfairly balanced), while the world of Nostria is artistically interesting and well-realised. If only the developers had been afforded the time and money to actually get the title running properly to overcome all the technical problems. The story is lacklustre with shamefully bad dialogue and voice acting, with everything other than the core combat system feeling under-developed and lacking the quality of life elements that have become the norm. King’s Bounty II ends up a decent prize, but a rather hollow haul of treasure that had so much more potential – a bounty more fit for a nobleman than a king.

Battles present a good amount of challenge from the off, too. You constantly have to weigh up which troops to recruit and swap in depending on the enemy you face. Sadly, while both the combat and character work are decent, the PS4 version of the game struggles with framerate at almost every camera turn – to the point that it never stops being a distraction. King’s Bounty II simply lacks much of the visual flair and polish we’ve come to expect from modern high-fantasy epics. [Issue#6, p.88]

King's Bounty 2 offers up a large campaign full of deep, tactical battles and plenty of lore but is hamstrung by ropey presentation, sluggish controls, slow exploration and poorly-explained combat systems.

King’s Bounty 2 is a challenging turn-based game with a fantasy world that aches to be explored. It has the potential to be an amazing game but the disjointed story, wasted RPG mechanics, and frustratingly difficult battles hold it back.

If you're willing to invest your time learning the battle system and strategies to succeed in King’s Bounty II then there'll be some enjoyment to be found here. However, the game is very unforgiving with your time, forcing you to spend hours completing dull side missions and looting various places to level up your units, only for them to be slain in the next main mission battle you fight. Also constantly having to reload saves just to progress through the story feels very outdated.