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King's Bounty II Review

King’s Order

After getting released on the prince's orders, you retrieve your belongings, and on behalf of the prince, the warden lends you a horse and a few soldiers.
Continue your mission and explore the land while fighting enemies and helping others on side quests. Solve puzzles and retrieve good hidden loot.

The Game of The Play

King’s Bounty II is a turn-based strategy game in which the player can choose from three game difficulties and one of three characters that regains from King’s Bounty the first game.
The character options there are: Aivar—Warrior; Katharine—Mage; and Elisa—Paladin. Each character holds their own buffs and debuffs, so the player can try out each character in different playthroughs.
Some characters will get different accesses depending on their class; for example, when facing some golems and the player is a mage, they will be able to solve a puzzle to take down a barrier that was put up by the mage in control of the golems.
But if you pick one of the characters who doesn’t have the mage class in them, they are forced to fight the golems to get through and pass on.
You can find signs or books around the world that either hold information or lore about the game and its world.
You will also find barrels or boxes with loot laying around in settlements, camps, or abandoned villages.
Merchants
There are three types of merchants in the game:
Recruiters: selling units for your army.
Armorers: selling armor and weapons.
Merchants: selling magic items, scrolls, and mage gear.
Obtaining Quests
Some characters and items launch new quests. The "!" symbol marks the location of these characters and items on your compass.
Following Ideals
Many quests can be completed in two different ways. When this is the case, each solution relates to a specific Ideal-Power, Anarchy, Order, or finesse—which defines a moral choice.
Order is the opposite of Anarchy. Power is the opposite of Finesse.
Completing a quest in a certain manner increases the hero’s corresponding ideal.
As time passes, the hero will become committed to one of these belief systems, and at some point, they will refuse actions that go against their mature ideals.
Wayfaring Magic
You can find Wayfaring Magic scrolls in shops and among your trophies. These scrolls can either enhance the hero’s power for a few battles or add an extra unit to the army.
Open the Book of Magic with button B for the Wayfaring Magic page to use the scroll.
Researching and Upgrading Spells
To research a spell, you must: have a scroll with the relevant spell; research the appropriate talent at the Mage School; and have developed Arcane Knowledge to the required level.
Researched spells are upgradable to Rank 3. As with research, upgrading requires the appropriate talent and Arcane Knowledge level.
Researching and upgrading spells consumes mana crystals.
The Book of Magic
The Book of Magic contains spells known to the hero as well as any scrolls in their possession. With the book open, you can research new spells while not in combat.
You’ll need to have some mana and the appropriate scroll, which will be used up in the process. You can’t learn new spells while in combat.
Casting spells consumes mana. The use of scrolls in combat does not deplete mana, but scrolls disappear forever upon use.
To use a spell, select it (or a scroll) in the Book of Magic and confirm your selection.
Altars
There are many Altars and Places of Power in the world of Antara. Each altar increases one of the hero’s stats. An altar may be used only once.
Move closer to the altar and press E to absorb its powers. Altars can be found in both remote corners of the land and busy town centers.
Travel Stele
Use Travel Steles to fast-travel around the world of Antara.
Approach a stele and press E. On the map, choose a different stele as your destination. Only newly discovered steles can be used for fast travel.
Battle Orientation
These are some of the details that the game will display for the player in their first battles. You can simply scroll down below this to see Visuals & Audio.
Battle preparation: When preparing for a battle, the screen will display enemy units, their heroes (if any), and your army. The player can choose between accepting the battle or refusing it.
To see unit details, the player needs to press on a unit and press Y.
Turn Order: Units with a higher level of initiative go first. If two units have the same initiative, the unit with the higher Speed, Level, and Health goes first. If all of these stats are identical, the enemy unit goes first.
Turn order is displayed on flags above the units.
Unit Movement: Unit Speed determines the maximum number of hexes it can cross in one turn. To move a unit, select a destination hex and press the left mouse button.
Melee: A melee attack is available to all units (when an allied unit is directly adjacent to an enemy). Select an enemy unit to attack and confirm your action.
Any surviving unit members will counterattack. A unit can counterattack once per round.
Unit Skills: Many units have special skills that can drastically alter the outcome of a battle. To choose a skill, press either button 1, 2, or 3. Most skills require Action Points (AP), either movement or attack.
Skills may be used a limited number of times in battle or may require several rounds to recharge.
Control Zone: Units with the Soldier trait have a control zone around them. If an enemy unit tries to exit the control zone, they will be struck with an uncontested attack. The exiting unit cannot counterattack.
A unit can perform a control zone attack once per round.
NPCs
Both the NPCs and the main character have different outfits and armor, which are both very detailed.
For the main character, the player can change their clothes and armor, which changes their look too, and the player will meet so many NPCs, all looking and sounding different.
Audio
Music & Sound
The music is truly beautiful and indescribable to the point of soothing and depth it holds. It varies depending on the situation and the player's destination, so it's not the same song the entire time.
The music fits the game very well, along with the sound effects from the surrounding biome. Trees squeaking, wind blowing across as it brings with it a cloud of snowflakes.
Voice Lines
A lot of the time, the player will encounter NPCs having open dialogs with each other that the player can listen to.

Pros and Cons

Pros
Gameplay
Story
Music & Sound
Voice Lines
Character/NPC Clothing
Surrounding & Textures
Side Quests
Puzzles
Instructions & Information (well-detailed)
Cons
Sprint always on (shift for walking)

My final little thoughts

The game holds so much within so much content, so much story, and so many side quests and puzzles. Great audio and beautiful surroundings, and so much detailed information is given to the player during the beginning.
King’s Bounty II is highly recommended to whoever the gamer is. Most don’t enjoy turn-based strategy games, but this will surely change your mind or make you let it slide.
 
The only small downside that I wish could have been an option is: auto-run or always run. Allowing the player to choose if they want to walk by button or sprint by button.
Rating: 9/10
Bit chilly, eh?