King's Bounty: The Legend

King's Bounty: The Legend is the sort of PC game the platform has been missing for far too long: an indulgent, rich strategy-RPG that isn't afraid to play dumb when it is secretly smart. At first glance, King's Bounty might look like an impenetrable, niche game that is suitable only for strategy nuts. Spend a little time with the game and you'll soon overlook the misguided title and shameless WoW aesthetic theft.

For all intents and purposes, King's Bounty is the new and improved Heroes of Might and Magic. It's the classic first three entries of that series channeled into World of Warcraft's world. You play the role of a royal knight to a king, as you recruit an army of sorcerers, archers, and knights and send them into minor battles for loot and conquest. The battle system is as simple as these games get, while having a layer of depth. Final Fantasy Tactics [ファイナルファンタジータクティクス] looks like rocket science in comparison to this game's slick interface and simple structure. Placement, defense, and having the right spells is key to progressing. And, like WoW, progress is what this game is all about (to a fault).

A sign of the times, I find King's Bounty to be a poorer game for its length and scope. Its fine to have an epic journey, but this game takes the WoW model a little to literally. It assumes you have no life, no friends, and no other games to play. The progress in this game feels excruciatingly minor, and you often will get sucked into madness for hours only to regret it. The game doesn't reward you like a good single player RPG should, instead it gives you the same carrot-on-a-stick value of a MMO and tricks you into playing along. So half of me thinks, "Well it is addictive as hell and fun for at least the first couple hours" but the other half of me replies, "Its too much dedication for too little of a reward."

King's Bounty offers a unique experience that few games these days will give you. Yet, I wish that experience wasn't so watered down. There is no need to spread a good 40-hour experience into an 80-hour one. You have me hooked, really, King's Bounty, but this waiting game isn't the way to win me over.

Seriously unbalanced, but scratches that HOMM itch.