Creating a role -playing role -playing game is not a task for faint. Go, control with a couple of hundreds of fully voiced characters, confusing relations of various cultures and a fantasy kingdom, which extends tens of square kilometers. And when your game continues one of the favorite franchises in the history of the Russian Gamdev, with all the worships of fans, this is completely drawn to the heroic quest.
But, it seems, the studio 1C Entertainment The call was on the shoulder. August 24 will finally go on sale King’s Bounty II, Ambitious sequel of the glorified series of tactical RPG. On the eve of the release, we studied the preview of the game and spent 10 hours on the beautiful hills of Nostria: we fought with the witches, hunted for the conspirators and chatted by hearts with cemetery ghouls. And also (this is the surprise!) They laughed plenty.
The fate of the kingdom is in the hands of three characters of different classes. The player immediately takes control of one of them, and the rest can meet during the plot as NPC
Tales of old Berengaria
The main mechanics of the project, we have already analyzed in detail in the last preview, and the time of a full -fledged review has not yet come. So in this material we adjust expectations, dispel some fears and give a general idea of the first hours of the game. So, what is it worth waiting for the future saviors of nostria?
The first and main fear of fans – they say, King’s Bounty II is not at all like the predecessor. This is partly so. The authors threw the usual isometry in favor of a more modern chamber from a third -person, the study of fairy -tale lands vividly causes a cycle in memory Fable or "Witcher" ; True, adjusted for a more rigid design. All paths are clearly outlined, all battles (even with a random bear) are assigned to certain locations. It will not be possible to run away from fate.
However, despite the apparent simplicity, the spirit of King’s Bounty II is a role -playing game of an old school. The fruit of effort is not so much directors and designers as a large team of scriptwriters who, in his youth, did not let go from the hands of Tolkien and Jordan. There are many texts here: dialogs occupy a good half of the game time, all sorts of notes and ads are generously scattered through cities and forests, and each quest is accompanied by a detailed chronicle in the diary. Even ordinary statists on the streets lively communicate with each other or mutter something under their breath.
New information is constantly pouring on the player. At first, it may not be easy to figure out the intricacies of the lore, but over time, a complex, full of contradictions and intrigues, the picture of a living, dynamic world, consists of disparate fragments of the mosaic. For example, a simple side quest from a blacksmith can bring a hero to the artel of the clay masters, where a note about the group of missing workers hangs on the ad on the ad. This riddle is related to the events of a completely different quest associated with the mysterious conspirators who settled in abandoned catacombs. And that plot, in turn, goes back to the global history of Nostria and its royal dynasty.
There are no variety of fractions in the game, and many of them are ready to direct their representatives to the aid of a friendly player
Have not forgotten in 1C Entertainment and another proprietary line King’s Bounty – Humor. And although in general the game is quite serious, here and there there are funny announcements (“For breakfast, he’s lunch,-bread with water, for dinner-soup on bread broth”), crazy quests and ridiculous characters in a good way. Do not miss the opportunity to additionally increase the degree of absurdity: one of the playable heroines, the girl-girl, in almost every dialogue discusses her great mission, and the poor castle grooms have to listen to all this.
Finally, step -by -step tactical battles reached the sequel intact and preservation. Everything is in the old fashioned way: two commanders put up fighters against each other, move them along the arena, broken into the cells and provide support with powerful spells. In the interests of balance and realism, the scope of the armies had to be slightly reduced – no more endless dragon armades. But each individual penny is now directly displayed on the battlefield. And it is no coincidence that the recruitment of some units is tied to quests: you quickly bind to subordinates and begin to cherish every combat dog, patiently increasing its level and discovering new abilities. True, sooner or later the composition of the army will have to be changed for tactics. Say, in the battle with the skeletons, archers are almost useless-it means that you will have to stock up in advance with a couple of sorcerers or bargain your own non-living detachment from an old man of a nonsense.
There are no random battles in the game: all enemies are in advance on the global map, and geography sets the course of the battle. The arrows in urban battle will have to be not easy!
General and Amoral
The second big alarm about King’s Bounty II is the linearity of the world. We hasten to please: in fact, Nostria does not seem "corridor" at all. Yes, each location has its own main route of passage, but literally every five to ten meters from the road, tempting side trails leave the road. Some of them lead to new quests, others – just to picturesque edges, notes and hiding places. Unless the predictability of awards is disappointed. Making behind the bushes a tricky hidden path, you hope to find at the end something more interesting than the next plain inconspicuous chest with gold.
However, given the complexity of the battles and the predatory prices of local merchants, even in such gathering there is a practical meaning. As in the implementation of optional quests, which in King’s Bounty II are a great many. Most of them are reduced to two or three traditional mechanics (go, give the rogue a bleached bandit), however, the plot context creates a commendable diversity. There are detective investigations here, and hunting for the escaped chickens for the royal table, and cleansing the village from evil spirits, diluted by simple puzzles.
But the role system, unfortunately, turned out to be quite limited. In the first few hours, we were not able to find a fundamental difference between three game characters. In fact, only their reactions in the dialogs are different (the paladin is friendly, the warrior is pragmatist, the proud sorceress dares everyone) and the starting set of abilities. One class is given the right to re -attack, another – magic. At the same time, even a warrior, if desired, you can teach magic: you just need to buy scrolls with spells and choose equipment with the right bonuses.
The world of nostrya is full of dangers and troubles: the bandits are touching the peasants, the water in the aqueducts is exhausted, the mana reserves are not full, and a mysterious epidemic approaches from distant borders
In fact, the wagging does not depend on the choice of the character, but on the system of reputation. Ethical solutions in King’s Bounty II are divided into two pairs of opposing ideals – approximately like a dark and bright side in "Star Wars". Nobility and assistance to the innocent increase the points of "order"; And vice versa, unprincipled and alliance with various villains favors the "anarchy". Adherents of “skill” strive to make contact between the real and mystical world of Nostria, and the followers of the “strength” in negotiations with spirits recognize only the language of the sword.
You can slightly change the development course of the character through the distribution of glasses: for example, magical skills belong to "skill", and protection and treatment – to "order". But the main source of reputation still remain quests. Moreover, the choice must not be made during dialogues (they, alas, are completely not interactive), but directly during the game. Want to get a reward by hesitation of an investigation of a mysterious incident in the old fortress? Give the evidence to the criminal and get well -deserved points of the Anarchy. If you are dear to you and the "order", then you have to go to search for witnesses. The moral and right path, as usual, will always be a little longer, but in the long run will bring a large reward.
At the same time, each ideal has its advantages. First of all, this is manifested when the units are recruited: ghouls and golems will be happy to join the commander with a high indicator of “skill”, but Dvorf materialists will fight only half as well. Over time, the availability of some quests will also depend on the reputation – with an excessively decent hero, the bandits simply will not talk. Therefore, in order to fully get acquainted with the world of Nostria, the game will need to go at least twice.
The dialogs are written well, but the difficulty directing is not different. As a rule, the characters are simply standing and setting out important information to each other
Start key
And finally, the main question: is King’s Bounty II ready for release? Such a large-scale and complex project, and even in a conditionally open world, is a huge risk even for large international companies. But by some miracle, 1c Entertainment calculated everything correctly. The game works stably, loads quickly, objects do not disappear from the inventory, and the localization is not failing. Although some of the proposals and nuances from English-speaking in the Russian text for some reason are absent-but this seems to be an inevitable compromise of adaptation.
In ten hours of the game, we met only a couple of minor animation bugs. However, the developers know about this problem and are already preparing a large “patch of the first day” with a number of visual improvements. It seems that it is worth waiting for a significant increase as a graphics: the re-version of King’s Bounty II takes not so much technological gloss as the skill of artists. The studio also promises some changes in the interface, which will also have to come in handy. Now the game is openly overloaded with text, the quests magazine is not intuitive enough (it’s easier to navigate on the map), and for some reason the Magic Book is divided into separate pages for each type of spells-which can not be guessed in the course of passage at all!
1C artists did a really worthy job: nostria is designed in the spirit of medieval fantasy, but at the same time regularly surprises with unusual architecture and design of creatures
Creators have yet to catch individual burrs, but King’s Bounty II is already in the presence of the main components of success: an immense world, a deep combat system, a thoughtful ENT, an abundance of interesting quests and moral dilemma. Perhaps the project will push the young generation of players with its “literature”, and the old people, on the contrary, will scare away the excessively hidden development of the character. However, in general, 1C Entertainment is surprisingly deftly managed to balance between modern trends and canons of classic RPG.
Is this enough to become https://coral-gb-casino.co.uk/ a worthy successor to the famous King’s Bounty? We will find out in a month.