Yesterday we were being a little conspiracy-ist theory about what 1C: Ino-Co were working on alongside Majesty. We suddenly realised we may have been missing something – 1C are publishing the forthcoming King’s Bounty: The Legend, a reboot of the proto-Heroes of Might and Magic game. Except it’s not it – the developers aren’t 1C: Ino-Co, but rather Katauri Interactive, which is basically what The Space Rangers 2 team did next. And, to be honest, coming from the Space Rangers 2 team is I need to get a bit excited about something – but that it’s just received the press award from the recent Russian KRI show is another promising sign.
There’s also a little prehistory to this one too, it seems. It wasn’t originally a King’s Bounty Game – it was actually a project called Battlelords, which seemed to have changed titles when they got the licence. There’s a long tradition of this, of course – for example, System Shock 2 existing as a new-fiction sci-fi game before EA gave them the keys to Shodan and friends. But picking up old PC licences does seem to be something of a trend in Russia – presumably this is buying a little brand recognition at what you have to presume is a relatively reasonable price.
Oh – here’s a video of it in action…
Where does this leave us?
1) There’s another turn-based adventuring game to look forward to.
2) We still don’t know what 1C: Ino-Co’s second game is.
3) I probably should do some kind of retrospective feature on Space Rangers.
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Ah, King’s Bounty. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. It looks really sweet, and knowing how much I loved Space Rangers 2 (which I bought as a part of my eternal hunt for more games like Star Control 2), I’m pretty sure Katauri has what it takes to make this a hit.
I before E EXCEPT AFTER C! Pfft, for shame, Gillen, for shame.
As for this game, it looks rather entertaining. I’ve been waiting for a suitable Heroes of M&M replacement for some time, and the graphics look rather pleasing, which is a fitting departure from Might and Magic’s bargain-basement style visuals and animations. I particularly remember Heroes 4 where everyone walked around like they’d just shat themselves and were trying very hard not to smear it all over their pants.
Perhaps a combined retrospective / preview, as Space Rangers 2 is apparently receiving a substantial addon imminently.
Turned based giant squid combat…there’s your future of videogames folks.
Looks like a Heroes of Might and Magic meets RPG. That could pretty awesome.
This makes me happy.. this and whatever Stardock are up to will hopefully scratch my fantasy TBS itch.
Maybe it’s just me, but this game reminds me of Shining Force. And this is a good thing.
So it’s Might and Magic 5 with bosses?
Except hopefully not a bit nob.
KG
It’s perhaps worth noting that only the fights are turn-based. Exploration is done in real-time, and enemies move around and stuff (it also seems there will be some “dynamic world”-elements, like in Space Rangers).
I was sold on the picture of the giant squid attacking the ship. If your game features giant marauding squids, I’ll buy it no questions asked (I’m looking at you C&C Red Alert).
Too bad I never installed Space Rangers 2. The version I had was Starforced. My friend shouted at me not to install it as I reached for the CD. Too bad it wasn’t a slow-mo dive accompanied by “NOOOOOO IT’S STARFORCED!!!”
@fluffy bunny: Which is why I said it reminds me of Shining Force (except for the enemies moving around, that’s more like Earthbound). But then again, perhaps I should stop name-dropping jRPGs to a bunch of PC-centric blokes on a PC-centric website, that’s just not a very good idea.
HikariExpress: I was mainly responding to the idea that this was “HoMM5 with boss-battles”, though I should probably made that clear to begin with.
Shining Force was more of a Strategy RPG, thus not gash unlike most jRPGs.
¬_¬
@Nick: You don’t need to give me that nasty look, I actually agree with you. Shining Force (for being the only Strategy RPG with actual exploration) and Earthbound (for its quirky sense of humor) are pretty much the only jRPGs I care about.
It’s not a nasty look, it’s “shifty eyes”! I don’t think all jrapgs are rubbish (Golden Sun/2 and Chronotrigger I love) I was just being facetious
No one here has any love for any of the Shin Megami Tensei games (especially Nocturne)? JRPG’s at their finest, IMHO.
@Nick: Ah yes, Chrono Trigger! Silly me, how could I forget that one?
@InVinoVeritas: The SMT series? Never gave them a shot, even though I heard great things about them. Oh, and I really like your nickname. =)
I’ve never heard of these guys or Space wotsit or any of that, but I reckon a turn based HoMM that doesnt look like an 80s port and boss fights against giant turtles means I’ll be buying this asap.
http://www.crpg.ru/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=2287
First review (in russian, but the score says it all). Gah, why do we have to wait so long before we get this game?
King’s Bounty was especially popular in Russia… Not even because of itself but because of free amateur non-licenced sequel “King’s Bounty 2″ by russian programmer. The main difference – kb2 was used random map generator.