King's Bounty: Dark Side - News Roundup

In case any of you are curious the release date for King's Bounty: Dark Side is August 19th, and will be available in two versions according to the developer on Steam.

Release version of the game will be available starting from August 19, 2014 in two editions:

• King’s Bounty: Dark Side for suggested price 17,99 EUR/24,99 USD/15,99 GBP.
• King’s Bounty: Dark Side Premium Edition for suggested price 21,99 EUR /29,99 USD/ 18,99 GBP.

Premium edition includes Dark Side Cookies bonus DLC that features:

• Clot of Darkness amulet providing bonus to money and experience
• Two additional locations
• Over a dozen additional quests and a new unit

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I also found a new early review on Strategy Informer.

King's Bounty: Dark Side is absolutely not a bad game, in fact it's fun and very addictive. The trouble is that they've already released it at least three times under different subtitles and with the absolute bare minimum of tweaks. Katauri haven't bothered to update literally anything to the point that you'll hear the same music and sound effects, see the same loading screens, and use the same units and magic powers you did in The Legend, Armored Princess and Warriors Of The North. No voice acting, no cutscenes, no multiplayer, no new graphics engine, there's not even a f***ing tutorial this time since they know their audience entirely consists of people who don't play any other games. It has no respect for gamers so I'm not having any respect for it. If you still fancy more King's Bounty after playing the last three then by all means pick up Dark Side. Everyone else: don't play it, Legend is cheaper.

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More information.

I am going to sit back and wait on this one and see what they say about it. Loved the first two, but Warriors of the North just didn't have the same appeal to me. From the previews I have read, this is still pretty much the same game as the last three, the primary difference is you play from the adversaries side .

Played the heck out of the first two, and I grabbed Warriors of the North on a sale and just haven't played it as of yet. I'll take a wait and see approach to the new one, and probably pick it up at some point. Word of mouth might have a quicker affect on me for this game.

The ol' give us something different, OMG you've produced something which is too different to the previous game dilemma.

Like I said about Heroes of Might and Magic, they're all pretty much the same game. Sometimes people just want the same game but with different quests and backgrounds with a few minor, barely noticeable changes.

I've got & played Legend, Crossworlds and Armoured Princess, but, like so many others, I skipped that awkward buggy one and it's expansion of Ice and Fire. But I would still be all ears for this game, at the right price.

If I was to make a pre-complaint it would be that I don't want to play as the dark lords. One of the reasons I liked KB so much was that it was a complete cheesefest when the rest of the world was obsessed with going dark for the sake of going dark. In this regard I agree with the critic, I'd rather they'd made more new hooks and grabbers than waste time turning a cheese classic into... yawn... another 'dark' game...

If it's bug free, that might be the only thing that might make stop before completion.

I mean $25 is not a bad price for a new game, the problem is that I don't really consider it a new game. Same units, same everything from what videos I've seen. You'll be playing the same game, with the same guardsmen, swordsmen, shaman, paladins, with even the same graphics. In Heroes of Might & Magic, each iteration has dramatically different units, even the same units are very different (both in appearance and in abilities). Entire factions appear and disappear. But KB, from the videos I've seen of this last one, feels more like what a modder would have done. Just a new adventure with the same game.

Oh, I totally agree.

You'd think the people who make it would be bored of making the same thing, that they'd sit around sounding off new unit ideas to each other, or at least ways to dress them up differently with different skills. They did that with the battle-helper, afterall. All games need a bit of 'new spice' of some kind or other.

Having said that, a game can still be playable without any significant changes, just a new setting, but you are kind-of asking for some fatigue-related drops in sales.

I played the early access. The quest structure is more RPG and the difficulty is harder all the way to the end. I played normal and it was more difficult than impossible no loss crossroad. Near the end it got as bit long. No clue how it will change in the last two weeks.

It has new touch in armies, rage mechanics and spells.

I just started playing Warriors of the North + Ice and Fire (latest patch) and it has surprised me. I did have a bit of a break between legend/crossworld and this one so that may have helped. Also I actually only played both Legend (normal 100ish hours) and crossworlds(hard 140 hours + both mini campaigns) once so this may of helped.

I have not encountered a single bug and I am enjoying the new gameplay quite a bit. There is enough of a change to Darion to make it feel different even those the island shape is largely the same. The leveling up of units is enjoyable although it does make the game a little bit too easy once you have leveled up your entire force - I am mitigating this by switching them out with fresh underpowered recruits. I am 60 hours in currently and have cleared most of the first 2 main islands (Darion / freedom) and most of the smaller standalone islands.

Really looking forward to Dark Side but will probably wait 12 months just so it feels fresh and I don't get too burnt out.

12 months? Not a chance… After I finish Risen 3 definetly moving onto this one.

Did preorder/early accessed. But didn't play.

I just bought King's Bounty Plat Edition. Played Legends when it first came out. Would people recommend playing Crossworlds or Armored Princess first. Which is the better campaign? I know AP came out first but it seems Crossworlds was more enjoyable by what I have read. Thanks for help.

Nice sale on Steam right now for King's Bounty. I played the one JVC made back in the 1990's

I enyed AP more than Cross even though Cross felt like the more polished product.
I don't think it will matter which you choose to play first.

Problems of Dark Side are being compounded by the protagonist - the demon chick - not being as hot as Amelie, so... that's one point toward not playing this.

Didn't disciples do this as well? Make an expansion that you could only play evil?

mercy said:

Problems of Dark Side are being compounded by the protagonist - the demon chick - not being as hot as Amelie, so… that's one point toward not playing this.

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Is it sexist that our number-centric fantasy killing simulations try to appeal to the male audience? It reminds me of the leaked witcher documents which included instructions on where to insert bouncing boob physics. Also, Risen 3 has a nice Patty upgrade.

You know, from my perspective, it is nice that developers are looking out for their fans.

Edit: I give it a point for the choice between demon chick and vampire chick.

Whats with the cover art? If you scroll down a little to the second one, it looks like a naughty snow white...someone call Disney ;-)

http://gamershonesttruth.com/kings-bounty-dark-side/

Well crossroad contains AP; as in you can select either crossroad or Ap from the stand-alone crossroad game. The orc portion of crossroad is at best tacky throw in; but it does offer more items - i think the rest is pretty much the same.

My favorite of the bunch remains Legend; while I like the mechanic improvements in darkside and crossroad I think Legend had the best overall story progression (if you consider these games having a story). Darkside has a stronger story than crossroad and it is better balanced with regards to resources and stuff.

Wisdom said:

I enyed AP more than Cross even though Cross felt like the more polished product.
I don't think it will matter which you choose to play first.

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Looks to me as if they directed this game towards their hardcore market : I could imagine an own, east-european or even russian market fore this game ... Don't you remember how much "hardcore" and difficult all of these modern newer turn-based games are ? Inclusive the HOMM reboot, which has more than enough Slavic-sounding names in it ... I strongly assume that this is their market. An not small number of gamers who is really enjoying this kind of games - and the amount of these players is big enough for Katauri et. al. to release the more or less same game in several variations ...