King's Bounty 2 should finally arrive in August
But where's the fun tone?
I've not paid much attention to King's Bounty 2 because, well, it keeps being delayed. Hey, it's delayed again! But this time they're acting like it's the final delay, going as far as to declare a release date: August 24th. I'm still a bit disappointed that the latest in the hexy strategy RPG series looks so stuffy and serious, after the fun and foolishness of the games from a decade or so ago.
"We are currently at a stage where the game is complete and playable, but we need more time to finish playtesting, fixing, polishing, and postponing launch will give us the precious months to balancing phase, much needed for such important project for us, with its ambitious, open world, its complex narrative, deep Turn-Based Tactical and RPG mechanics," producer Denis Maltzev said in yesterday's announcement. It was previously due in March, and 2020 before then.
Once again, King's Bounty will have us exploring an open world, doing quests and building an army, then getting into turn-based tactical violence on a hex grid. This time, terrain is a part of the battlefield, with elevation and chokepoints and such, rather than just a big ol' flat grid. And this time, it looks not to have much weird fun quirky fantasy stuff. Lead narrative designer Igor Khudaev addressed the tone and genre in a recent Q&A video, having been asked if it was 'dark fantasy'.
"King's Bounty 2 is high fantasy, but with some realistic elements. We did consider making the game more fairytale-like, but it would it wouldn't have been a good fit for the main story," Khudaev said. "We want to show gamers something bigger: different, more complex topics, but within the parameters of the 12+ rating, so less of the gloom, gore, and other dark fantasy tropes."
But I don't want to see something bigger, I want to befriend goofy monsters and go on daft adventures. Consider Alec's zombie wife and fight inside a belt in King's Bounty: The Legend. Ah well.
King's Bounty II is coming via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. It'll also be on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch.