By John Walker on August 3rd, 2011 at 9:30 am.
As we mentioned back in May, King’s Bounty: Legions, the Facebook incarnation of the well loved RPG/TBS series, has now begun its invite-only beta test. The game, licensed from 1C and developed by Russian developers KranX Productions, has access to all the assets created by creators Katauri Interactive. But the original developers are not otherwise involved. The “freemium” game can now be accessed by those lucky enough to be invited. Which includes some of our lucky subscribers, who got their hands on 50 codes. Imagine if you were one of them, eh? You can also see a few new screenshots below.
First up, here’s the press release guff that explains what’s on offer:
“King’s Bounty: Legions welcomes social features and competitive player-versus-player combat as new additions to the popular turn-based strategy series, beloved for its tactical combat, amusing storyline and challenging quests. In King’s Bounty: Legions, players travel to different lands, meet interesting NPCs and defeat treacherous armies while growing and customizing their own forces to unleash in the game’s addictive and challenging turn-based strategy system.”
03/08/2011 at 09:51 Calneon says:
Grr, I sent a reply just before I went to bed and this morning saw the email telling me to reply to a different email address. Nevermind, I didn’t want to play it anyway!
03/08/2011 at 10:14 jti says:
Isn’t King’s Bounty’s fighting system a bit simple for this?
03/08/2011 at 10:35 Squirrelfanatic says:
Nope.
It really isn’t.
03/08/2011 at 10:28 OnlineGamer says:
I also emailed but didn’t get an invitation. Lucky are those who have been chosen. Well, there’s still next time. Sports Game
03/08/2011 at 11:09 Gnoupi says:
Oh, SPAM.
We need a report spam button on this site, I think
03/08/2011 at 10:29 Srekel says:
I played one of the KB games and really liked it, until I reached a point where I couldn’t progress because one of the first things I had done was sell my fireball scroll because I didn’t realise that you could learn spells from reading scrolls, and there were no more fireball scrolls…. 90′s Sierra adventure games idiocy all over again :/
03/08/2011 at 10:38 Squirrelfanatic says:
It’s not really the same kind of issue the King’s Quest games had. Granted, it can get difficult at times, but there is always more than one possibility to beat your enemies.
03/08/2011 at 11:18 Balm says:
Yeah, adventure games idiocy all over again. Clearly The Game shold’v had a roll-back button for case you trash some unique artifact, but don’t feel like loading and going through those dungeons again.
And then you go to some other place on internet and complain about safety labels messing with the survival of the fittest.
03/08/2011 at 13:37 Srekel says:
Ok, I agree it’s not quite the same thing :) But it did allow me to make a very big mistake before teaching me the rules, and without being able to fix the mistake. Just having another fireball scroll stuck in a chest later on would have fixed it.
03/08/2011 at 14:10 IDtenT says:
The game objects are randomised. So you could get lucky and get one, or not.
03/08/2011 at 10:51 Koozer says:
I couldn’t even finish the demo of King’s Bounty. It’s a bit confusing to be just thrown into combat with 5 random units on each side I have zero idea about the abilities and strengths of.
03/08/2011 at 11:08 Gnoupi says:
I suggest you insist on it. I had the same feeling from the demo, the first times I tried.
The rest of the game feels much better.
03/08/2011 at 11:23 bitbot says:
Right click on any troop to get their full details, stats, abilities etc, then mouse over text & icons to get more info. True, it is a bit overwhelming at first but just keep at it, it’s worth it.
04/08/2011 at 01:40 Dave Mongoose says:
I had a similar experience of confusion during the tutorial: I assumed the ‘knight’ unit I was given represented my hero and so I kept him out of the fight while all of my footsoldiers got splatted…
03/08/2011 at 11:12 Gnoupi says:
I hope it won’t fall too much under the “to recruit more soldiers, invite your friends” spell.
But seeing as it is a Facebook game, and that it indeed has a “invite friends” bar at the bottom doesn’t bode well.
03/08/2011 at 12:55 Uthred says:
Inviting friends gives you nothing
03/08/2011 at 13:18 Gnoupi says:
Oh, good.
03/08/2011 at 18:05 dirtyword says:
How about the ol’ PAY NOW TO PLAY THE NEXT TURN or the PAY NOW TO HAVE THE TOOL FOR THE JOB tricks?
03/08/2011 at 11:23 Zoonp says:
This is pretty good for a Facebook game. The missions get a bit grindy after a while but luckily you can also fight against random human players. In my first PvP match I got destroyed by a higher level guy so it might be a good idea to levelup your character in PvE first.
03/08/2011 at 11:49 Vexing Vision says:
You know, this actually could get me signed up on Facebook.
When are these things coming to G+?
03/08/2011 at 19:04 applecup says:
Never, hopefully.
03/08/2011 at 12:26 Scatterbrainpaul says:
Been playing armoured Princess lately, pretty good game although I doubt i’ll complete it, kind of reminds me of Top Trumps
03/08/2011 at 14:05 Stitched says:
Loved their previous King’s Bounty games. Would love an iPad version (or other mobile) version of this game.
03/08/2011 at 15:51 Bullwinkle says:
Oooh yes.
04/08/2011 at 10:43 Neofalcon says:
After playing this game for a bit, I went poking around on the developer’s site looking for more information, and found this gem in the press release:
“King’s Bounty: Legions will be a cross-platform title, appearing initially on Facebook, and later on iOS and Android platforms for mobile and tablet devices.”
So, looks like they’re on top of it!
03/08/2011 at 16:19 lunegov says:
Anyone can friend me on FB and get invite to beta: http://www.facebook.com/rost.lunegov
Just note in friendship request, that you need an invitation.
04/08/2011 at 07:01 GenBanks says:
Thanks for the invite RPS!!
Surprisingly good looking (I haven’t played any facebook games besiders Civ World though). Have yet to get into the gameplay properly though.
04/08/2011 at 19:45 Talon says:
Thanks, John et co, for the invite!
The main complaint I have against it (pacing seems decent, balance isn’t too terrible so far (5-6 levels in)) is that the Unity engine makes my brand new MacBookAir cry. Now, I know this isn’t the monster gaming rig that we all should have in this day and age, but I can’t believe it brings a core i5 down to its knees.
Can’t we get some optimisation?