King's Bounty II

57%
Game Brain Score Based on 990 reviews
  • story
  • graphics
  • gameplay
King's Bounty II Game Cover
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"King's Bounty II" is a fantasy strategy role-playing game with turn-based combat. Players explore a vast world, complete quests, and make choices that affect the story. As a bounty hunter, they lead their army to victory against various enemies, using strategy and magical abilities to overcome challenges. The game features a rich and immersive world with deep storytelling and character development.

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Reviews

57%
Audience ScoreBased on 990 reviews
story123 positive mentions
grinding33 negative mentions
  • The game features beautiful graphics and a vibrant world that feels alive.
  • Combat is engaging and strategic, with a variety of units and spells to experiment with.
  • The story and quests, while not groundbreaking, provide an enjoyable experience with some interesting choices.
  • The movement speed is slow, making exploration tedious and frustrating.
  • The game lacks depth in character customization and unit variety, limiting strategic options.
  • Many quests feel repetitive and the voice acting is inconsistent, detracting from the overall immersion.
  • story637 mentions

    The story in "King's Bounty II" has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it lackluster and filled with generic tropes. While some appreciate the branching quest design and the impact of choices on character development, others criticize the dialogue, pacing, and overall execution, leading to a sense of tedium and disconnection from the narrative. The game is often described as having a decent premise but suffers from poor writing and an unsatisfying conclusion, leaving players feeling unfulfilled.

    • “The story is interesting if a bit clumsily written; the combat and magic system are good, graphics are okay, and sound and music are quite nice.”
    • “It's also notable that many quests in the game have two different routes to complete them (order vs anarchy, power vs finesse), and that choosing an alignment for your character to follow unlocks stronger abilities.”
    • “The game holds so much content, story, and many side quests and puzzles.”
    • “The story is so awful you just start skipping dialogue entirely early in the game and never turn back.”
    • “The story is bland and full of clichés.”
    • “The ending is awful; you beat the 'final boss' and then instantly credits roll with the post-credits scene going 'whoops, you actually didn't stop things and everything is still horrible' and then back to regular gameplay saying 'this part of the story is finished!'”
  • graphics275 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the attention to detail and beautiful environments, while others criticize them as outdated and lacking in vibrancy. Many note that while the visuals can be appealing, they often fall short of modern standards, with some describing them as reminiscent of games from a decade ago. Overall, the graphics are seen as a step up from previous titles in the series, but still leave room for improvement in terms of optimization and artistic coherence.

    • “The attention to detail is massive and ranges from visual graphics and audio to the divine subtleties when building your character or your army.”
    • “The graphics are great, the sound effects are great, and even things like the loading screens are very well done.”
    • “The graphics are technically better, the game got voice acting, and it has a higher production value.”
    • “The overall graphics are fine, but fail to alleviate that most of the environment is empty and becoming boring and bland quickly.”
    • “It takes at most 30 minutes until you ask yourself 'why the **** did they use a 3D graphic if they did not have the time, money or skill to make it look properly?'”
    • “The graphics look like they were downgraded on purpose so it would run on Nintendo Switch; they should have stuck with PC and made a port for Nintendo Switch later on with a downgraded version.”
  • gameplay217 mentions

    The gameplay in "King's Bounty II" has received mixed reviews, with many players noting a lack of depth and innovation compared to previous installments. While the core turn-based combat remains engaging, the exploration mechanics are criticized as tedious and poorly executed, leading to a feeling of being a "walking simulator." Additionally, the game suffers from poorly explained mechanics and limited unit variety, which detracts from the strategic elements that fans of the series have come to expect.

    • “The core gameplay is simple: you pick 5 units for your army, and you use that army to fight battles and do quests.”
    • “The tactical gameplay is really satisfying, game progression feels rewarding, the world is beautiful to explore and your characters show off the gear you equip.”
    • “You can really immerse yourself in the gameplay and explore hidden areas to reveal treasure.”
    • “Beyond that, the strategic part of gameplay feels shallow, with units limited in amount and access linked to RPG story choices, which discourages combinations of playstyles, with synergies between units far and in between.”
    • “The gameplay is quite simplistic - again not terrible, or completely lacking merit, but not quite the experience you'd hope for when paying this much for a game.”
    • “Kings Bounty 2 is more visual novel/walking sim than turn-based strategy, and to be honest, that makes for pretty tedious gameplay.”
  • music81 mentions

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its beauty and ability to enhance immersion, while others criticize its inconsistency and lack of presence during key moments. Many players feel that the soundtrack does not live up to the high standards set by previous titles in the series, often describing it as forgettable or lacking in variety. Overall, while there are standout tracks, the music's sporadic nature and abrupt stops detract from the overall experience.

    • “The music is truly beautiful and indescribable to the point of soothing and the depth it holds.”
    • “The music fits the game very well, along with the sound effects from the surrounding biome.”
    • “Music and atmosphere is amazing, give me more of those tracks.”
    • “The music is forgettable... actually is there even music? I can't remember.”
    • “But my absolute biggest grievance is the soundtrack or the lack of it.”
    • “Sound design is really bad; the music is so scarce that it hurts immersion.”
  • humor37 mentions

    The humor in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players noting a significant departure from the charming and quirky humor of previous installments. While there are moments of funny dialogue and amusing mechanics, many feel that the overall tone has shifted towards a more serious narrative, losing the memorable wit and charm that defined earlier titles. Despite this, some players appreciate the attempts at humor, finding enjoyment in the quirky elements and humorous quests, even if they don't reach the heights of the originals.

    • “The quirky humor adds a lighthearted touch to the overall experience.”
    • “The dry humor and added cheese throughout (e.g. voice acting and characters like Dwayne the Treasure Hunter) are true to King's Bounty form!”
    • “There are some funny dialogues and postings on the walls in the game that can make you smile... I liked that.”
  • grinding35 mentions

    Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, with slow movement, poor controls, and a lack of engaging content contributing to a sense of monotony. Exploration is hampered by hidden resources and cumbersome navigation, while combat progression feels overshadowed by the tedious management of units and the absence of meaningful grinding opportunities. Many reviewers express a longing for the more enjoyable elements of previous titles, feeling that the current iteration has sacrificed fun for a more laborious experience.

    • “All the resources are hidden in out-of-the-way places on the map, so you can easily miss them if you don't search thoroughly.”
    • “They removed all the fun parts from previous games and made it tedious and boring.”
    • “The world treasure hunting is also just tedious and doesn't add anything to the game besides feeling like you need to look around every tree for that extra bit of gold.”
    • “Kings Bounty 2 is more visual novel/walking sim than turn-based strategy, and to be honest, that makes for pretty tedious gameplay.”
  • optimization27 mentions

    The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with some players noting that it runs well even on outdated hardware, while others report significant performance issues, including frame rate drops and crashes. Many criticize it as a poorly optimized console port, particularly for PC users, citing a lack of graphics settings and clunky controls. Despite some patches improving stability, persistent performance problems and technical bugs remain a concern for many players.

    • “Well optimized beautiful graphics and environment; even my outdated PC can handle it.”
    • “It is also well optimized and runs pretty much bug-free, which is refreshing these days.”
    • “The game runs smoothly for me, no tearing and glitching...”
    • “I additionally ran into some odd performance issues - areas of the map where the framerate would slow significantly without an obvious cause.”
    • “Also the game has a serious optimization problem and a lot of crashes and technical bugs, for example sometimes the hero levitates, sometimes hits on a small obstacle and cannot move, traveling with your horse is a pain.”
    • “There is a lot of stuttering and texture pops up.... the performance is horrible even on high-end RTX 3080 on PC.... FPS varies from 100 FPS to even 45 FPS.... in a matter of seconds.”
  • replayability26 mentions

    The game's replayability is generally viewed as strong due to its branching narratives, multiple playable characters with unique traits, and various quest outcomes influenced by player choices. However, some players feel that the lack of significant differences in gameplay mechanics and the absence of randomization elements limit long-term replay value. Overall, while many appreciate the depth and variety offered, there are calls for more unique content and features to enhance replayability further.

    • “This adds an extra dimension of replayability and some roleplay, which is very welcome.”
    • “The branching narrative and consequential choices add replayability and impact to the story.”
    • “With 3 characters having unique personalities and classes, 4 ideologies with different associated talent trees, dozens of different units, several different gear sets, dozens of different spells, and many quests that can be completed in different ways, there is a lot of replayability.”
    • “The devs should have made them more unique, giving access to exclusive/extra talents according to the class, which would help the replay value.”
    • “Replay value: I don't see much replay value (I finished kb1 games, all of them, at least 5 times each in order to check different story options, secrets, armies, etc.; will probably not finish kb2 a second time - at least not for a long time).”
    • “First of all: this game offers zero replay value.”
  • stability21 mentions

    The stability of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players reporting significant bugs and glitches, particularly in quest mechanics and character movement, while others have experienced a relatively bug-free experience. Many users noted issues such as getting stuck in the environment and minor graphical glitches, but some found these to be manageable. Overall, while there are complaints about stability, the severity and impact of the bugs vary widely among players.

    • “No crashes, no glitches—just playing the game without fiddling with settings or looking for a workaround.”
    • “Aside from a little texture pop-in and object settling on loads, I've had a pretty bug-free experience as well.”
    • “Overall, a huge disappointment, and I played it 2 years after it launched so by now it should’ve been fixed but instead it's filled with bugs and glitches.”
    • “Buggy as hell, sometimes you will get stuck and all you can do is load your last saved game. If you liked the King's Bounty series, only buy this on discount.”
    • “A buggy shallow cash grab, nowhere near worth the AAA asking price of $50.00 plus tax.”
  • atmosphere12 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive and lively design, reminiscent of "The Witcher" series rather than its predecessor. Players appreciate the rich environmental details, engaging NPC interactions, and well-crafted soundscapes that evoke nostalgia and enhance the overall experience. The atmospheric elements contribute to a sense of being deeply embedded in a vibrant world, making exploration feel rewarding and emotionally resonant.

    • “The world feels alive; the atmosphere in the game is really great.”
    • “I personally like the lively atmosphere in the game where you can hear NPC conversations here and there when you're passing by.”
    • “Because of the very unique atmosphere, the game makes you feel like you are playing Heroes of Might and Magic, but instead of the bird's eye view, you actually get to be in that world up close and personal, which adds a very immersive feeling to the gameplay.”
    • “Overall atmosphere reminds me of 'The Witcher' rather than the original game.”
    • “No atmosphere of the kind of fairy-tale that KB1 had.”
    • “Both music and sounds are well done and fit the world atmosphere and the setting of specific areas.”
  • character development7 mentions

    Character development in the game received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the potential for impactful choices and interactions, while others criticized the lack of depth and flexibility, feeling that it was overly constrained by the game's narrative structure. Additionally, the overall execution of character designs and story elements was deemed inconsistent, with many players expressing disappointment in the game's technical issues and coherence.

    • “They did sometimes in old ones too, but here you have actual impact on your playstyle and character development.”
    • “On the positive, I felt the character development, storyline, and quality were good.”
    • “I wish there was more character development or party interaction.”
    • “Lack of flexibility in character development; character development is now based on the side you join. Good for roleplay, but bad for gameplay.”
    • “Even graphics, level and character design, music, and acting are pretty bad.”
  • emotional6 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game is mixed, with some players finding moments of genuine emotional depth in the voice acting and world design, while others criticize the overall story for being lackluster and failing to create a strong emotional connection. The beginning of the narrative is noted as particularly dull, and many feel that improvements are needed to enhance player attachment and engagement with the story.

    • “Overall, very wholesome; a lot of time was put into it.”
    • “While I agree about the big spikes in the quality of the voice acting, those spikes can easily be ignored, as the world as a whole is beautifully crafted with quite some love for the details.”
    • “The main story is pretty interesting at the beginning, but I hope they will work on it more to make the player emotionally attached to it, make it believable, and give real reasons to want to experience it more, especially since a lot of the game is a story-driven RPG.”
  • monetization2 mentions

    The monetization of the game is criticized as a shallow cash grab, with many feeling that the $50 price tag is unjustified given the lack of content and poor marketing efforts. Players express disappointment over the developers' decision to obscure gameplay, which further detracts from the perceived value.

    • “A buggy, shallow cash grab nowhere near worth the AAA asking price of $50.00 plus tax.”
    • “The game's major problem is that the developers tried to hide gameplay of their good game for no apparent reason.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

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Play time

9hMedian play time
57hAverage play time
3-50hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 19 analyzed playthroughs

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