King's Bounty: Crossworlds (2010) (PC) (Katauri Interactive)

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Demiath

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Published on January 19, 2011 5:30:31 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LohCO8oH0aE

Game:

King's Bounty: Armored Princess (2009)

Duration: 12:31

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18

Crossworlds is a weird addition to the King's Bounty series in that it primarily brings new content to the already existing expansion pack Armored Princess. Thus, CW is essentially an expansion of an expansion, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to see this as Katauri simply milking the franchise at this point. At the same time, it's worth keeping in mind that the developer is a small Russian studio with no other cash cow besides KB, and they probably need to make as much money as possible out of the game engine they've already developed before moving on to the expensive task of making a proper sequel. Apart from the Armored Princess enhancements, Crossworlds also includes a couple of new mini-campaigns consisting of gauntlet-style combinations of encounters which mostly seem aimed at really skillful KB veterans who know how to exploit the hell out of the gameplay mechanics. A visit to the game's official forums will give anyone a pretty good idea of how complex the tactics of KB potentially can become, especially on higher difficulty levels and while observing rigid restrictions on losses per battle.

The developers still haven't quite figured out how to construct a smooth enough difficulty curve to eliminate all the frustrations inherent in the first King's Bounty game, and the "avoid enemies" mechanic is as awkward as ever. Still, the pacing has been greatly improved in Crossworlds by having the game world divided into smaller island instead of those gargantuan continents which could feel like such a grind in The Legend. Playing as princess Amelie scantily clad in armor (rather than the generic knight of the original campaign) makes little difference to the overall gameplay, and so far the replacement of the different Rage spirits with a Pet Dragon doesn't feel terribly consequential, either. The basic King's Bounty gameplay remains addictive and rewarding, however, and I'm amazed that I've already put more than 20 hours into this expansion after playing so much KB: The Legend just recently. Scarily enough, the total amount of time I've spent absorbed in this RPG/strategy franchise is fast approaching the 100 hour mark (!). Well, I guess that's what they call value for money...

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