Jason
chasing a bee
<strong>[ Review ]</strong>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.kings-bounty.com/" target="_blank">King's Bounty</a></strong> has been getting some fairly solid reviews around the net. There's <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/914/914943p1.html" target="_blank">IGN</a> (8.1/10), <a href="http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r32401.htm" target="_blank">GameZone</a> (8.2/10), <a href="http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/kingbounty/review.html" target="_blank">Strategy Informer</a> (8.0/10), and <a href="http://jaguarusf.blogspot.com/2008/10/kings-bounty-legend-review.html" target="_blank">Out of Eight</a> (7/8).</p><blockquote><p>As a child, I used to pour over a book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394865138/">Trouble For Trumpets</a>, a sort of Where's Waldo meets World War I (as far as I was concerned, Waldo could get lost -- I had fuzzy little Red Barons soaring overhead as tiny hippos tossed acorn grenades at each other). But no matter how closely I examined the page, there was no way I could find every hidden surprise. Playing King's Bounty is a lot like reading Trouble for Trumpets. I was constantly spotting some hidden rune or lopsided wizard's house that made me want to pause and take a screenshot. King's Bounty is labor of love, flawed only by its steep learning curve and erratic difficulty level (both of which could be considered a plus in some circles). Buy this game, and I'll be surprised if you aren't still playing it years down the line, hunched over the computer into the wee hours of the <strike>night</strike> morning with an aching back, bloodshot eyes, and mumbling false promises of, “just one more turn, just one more turn...” </p></blockquote><p>If that's not enough, head over to RPS for <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/10/02/kings-bounty-my-zombie-wife-the-belt-odoom/" target="_blank">story-telling time</a>.</p><blockquote><p> At which point he revealed that, actually, having an undead wife was quite handy - she could test his food for poisons and… well, his reasons weren’t entirely convincing, if I’m honest. And that’s when a surprising dialogue option appeared. There was always at least one vaguely psychotic response I could choose in any given conversation, but requesting if I could buy a man’s wife off him was a whole new layer of madness. I couldn’t not go for it, but fully expected violent reprisal for my cheek.</p><p>Except he agreed. For just 5000g (not a lot in KB’s money-rich landscape), I had myself a wife. Not just any old wife - a zombie wife. I was married to a zombie. Ew. A zombie who I could talk to about having kids. Ewww.</p><p>I didn’t really want to go there, but fortunately it turned out I could use that magic de-zombie phrase whenever I wanted, so I did the gentlemanly thing: restored her humanity, pledged undying love, and fathered a child. Then, with my heir sorted, I turned her back into a zombie again. Then I divorced her for someone else. The combat bonuses were better, you understand.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.kings-bounty.com/" target="_blank">King's Bounty</a></strong> has been getting some fairly solid reviews around the net. There's <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/914/914943p1.html" target="_blank">IGN</a> (8.1/10), <a href="http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r32401.htm" target="_blank">GameZone</a> (8.2/10), <a href="http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/kingbounty/review.html" target="_blank">Strategy Informer</a> (8.0/10), and <a href="http://jaguarusf.blogspot.com/2008/10/kings-bounty-legend-review.html" target="_blank">Out of Eight</a> (7/8).</p><blockquote><p>As a child, I used to pour over a book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394865138/">Trouble For Trumpets</a>, a sort of Where's Waldo meets World War I (as far as I was concerned, Waldo could get lost -- I had fuzzy little Red Barons soaring overhead as tiny hippos tossed acorn grenades at each other). But no matter how closely I examined the page, there was no way I could find every hidden surprise. Playing King's Bounty is a lot like reading Trouble for Trumpets. I was constantly spotting some hidden rune or lopsided wizard's house that made me want to pause and take a screenshot. King's Bounty is labor of love, flawed only by its steep learning curve and erratic difficulty level (both of which could be considered a plus in some circles). Buy this game, and I'll be surprised if you aren't still playing it years down the line, hunched over the computer into the wee hours of the <strike>night</strike> morning with an aching back, bloodshot eyes, and mumbling false promises of, “just one more turn, just one more turn...” </p></blockquote><p>If that's not enough, head over to RPS for <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/10/02/kings-bounty-my-zombie-wife-the-belt-odoom/" target="_blank">story-telling time</a>.</p><blockquote><p> At which point he revealed that, actually, having an undead wife was quite handy - she could test his food for poisons and… well, his reasons weren’t entirely convincing, if I’m honest. And that’s when a surprising dialogue option appeared. There was always at least one vaguely psychotic response I could choose in any given conversation, but requesting if I could buy a man’s wife off him was a whole new layer of madness. I couldn’t not go for it, but fully expected violent reprisal for my cheek.</p><p>Except he agreed. For just 5000g (not a lot in KB’s money-rich landscape), I had myself a wife. Not just any old wife - a zombie wife. I was married to a zombie. Ew. A zombie who I could talk to about having kids. Ewww.</p><p>I didn’t really want to go there, but fortunately it turned out I could use that magic de-zombie phrase whenever I wanted, so I did the gentlemanly thing: restored her humanity, pledged undying love, and fathered a child. Then, with my heir sorted, I turned her back into a zombie again. Then I divorced her for someone else. The combat bonuses were better, you understand.</p></blockquote>
