King's Bounty
Game developer: New World Computing
Game publisher: New World Computing, Electronic Arts
Game release date: 1990 year
Game status: Released
King's bounty is the predecessor to the popular Heroes of Might and Magic series but unlike that game where you have to play a number of levels this game consists of only a single level made up by a number of different continents. The aim of the game is to defeat a number of villains who are fortified in castles and find the king's bounty with which you can stop the evil spreading throughout the lands. You can select from four different characters you can control, a barbarion, knight, paladin and a sorcerers. Each will have different skills and armies which they control and these are vital winning the game.
You start the game at your home castle and from there on you set out to find the artifacts. Before you do you can recruit some units from the castle and you will need them. Along the way you will often encounter unfriendly characters and you can select to run or do battle. When you fight the battle screen changes to a square map containing all your and the enemies units, these are depicted by icons showing what kind of unit they are and their number. You can then move your units in turn-based combat and if you reach the enemy you can attack them in melee or if you have ranged units you can attack them from a safe distance. These battles involve some strategy as there are a lot of different types of units available in the game and each has their movement rate, strength and attack range. You can get more units by recruiting them in friendly castles or camps you find in your travels for a price.
Large castle can be besieged and they play out mostly the same as a normal battle except that you need siege equipment before you can attack. These cost a lot of money and you will either have to fight to gain money or to find treasure scattered throughout the land. Whenever you find treasure it will not always be money but you can also get spells and items. If you do find money however you have a choice of distributing it among the peasant which will raise your leadership level and this is important as you'll need it to get better units. Even if you don't find treasure you will get a weekly amount from your king though the amount of which increases when you are successful. There are also sub quests for you to do when you visit a friendly castle and the ruler is looking for a particular person or criminal you can get a contract and if you find that person you will get a reward. These can be hidden anywhere but their last known location is always given and it gives you a clue where to look for them.
King's bounty was the inspiration for the heroes of might and magic series but in some ways this game is better. There is no level based play which means you don't have to build up your armies each level but simply keep going until you either win or lose the game. There is plenty to do and to explore so the game will keep you occupied for quite some time. The one flaw is that the map layout never changes which means that once you complete it you will know exactly where everything is making it a bit easy. Still this remains an excellent game and definitely worth playing.
Game genre: Strategy Games, Turn-based Strategies, Fantasy Games
Platform/System: MS-DOS Games, Windows Games, Amiga Games, Mac Games, Apple 2 Games
King's Bounty : Is it worth playing?
