My review is that I uninstalled after the first tutorial battle. :)
Seriously, though, it might be a hidden gem for all I know. But nothing I saw in the first 20 minutes or so made me want to spend any more time with it, or even made me curious about what they were doing. It just felt so low-rent, and it did nothing to tap into my nostalgia for King’s Bounty.
-Tom
lolololol
My thoughts, but I lasted an hr.
The first few games up to Crossworlds have more charm and whimsy than this new abomination.
What’s wrong with the unenhanced AP?
It doesn’t have the tower where you can upgrade your items without wasting your troops.
Crossworlds doesn’t contain the base game does it (Legend?)?
And as long as we’re talking about Age of Wonders 3, if I’ve been playing the shit out of Planetfall, is there a good reason to go back to 3, other than setting?
different combat and city management system really.
OMG thank you for this!!! Now I know what to play. I was so confused before.
I took KB2 off my wishlist and put Crossworlds back on for next time it’s on sale. Don’t remember if I beat regular AP but it was so many years ago I don’t think it matters.
I think Armored Princess is actually an easier game than Orcs on the March.
It’s already on sale at near all-time-low. It’s under $4 from:
https://www.indiegala.com/store/game/king-s-bounty-crossworlds/63910
12 hours in to KB2 now and I’m really enjoying it!
The snowy tutorial map was a pretty poor introduction, but once past that it opens up quite nicely. Lots of quests and nice scenery. Sure, not CD Projekt Red level looks but certainly Larian/Pirahna Bytes standard.
Enjoying the combat. I like the elevation bonuses and the way you can spend gold to heal after each battle, to save running back to restock troops all the time. Density of battles is comparatively low, but the balance of fighting to finding off-the-beaten-path caches suits me fine. I do wish you could see relative enemy strength on the map, rather than have to remember or run back and check (I like exploring as much as possible, then tackling all battles in difficulty order).
The way quest choices feed into the skill tree and army composition is neat. I stuffed up my trait points due to not understanding that it’s the Ideals level that unlocks tiers (increased by choosing the appropriate Quest branches). I thought it was by putting points in lower tiers! So I already used my 1 free respec and the next one is eye-wateringly costly…
Anyway, I think the game is a little hard done by. Sure, it’s a bit janky and lacks the famed ‘charm and whimsy’ of the earlier entries, but it’s far from the ugly abomination some of the comments here make it out to be.
Just want to confirm - you’re not drunk? lol
If anyone want to get the first modern KB (The Legend) you can get it for a spare change here
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-epic-quests-bundle
I don’t recommend it though. Apart from the story Crossworlds has everything it had. If that’s not enough for you then go for Warriors of the North and Dark Side. Some people say those games are not as good but they have QoL features making it hard to go back to The Legend.
Unpopular opinion I guess!
I’m just kidding. Glad to hear you’re enjoying it!
I am really enjoying the game as well, 20 hours in. As it’s been said, it’s a bit janky here and there and they needed to work more on the UI but the game itself is very fun. The fights are great, units design is wonderfully complex and the stories are interesting. And in-combat 3D is not a gimmick, I like how much it adds to tactics.
Maybe they shouldn’t have named it KB2 as it sets a lot of incorrect expectations but, as its own game, it’s really quite good. And yeah, they’ve priced it wrong too, it’s not a AAA game and shouldn’t be priced as one.
I would totally recommend picking it up on some sale and after a few patches.
Crossworlds at IndieGala includes AP and is half off Fantastical’s asking price.
It costs $1 on Fanatical.