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King’s Bounty was released in 1990 and is rightfully considered a predecessor to the Heroes of Might and Magic series, both sharing many similar gameplay mechanics and both designed by Jon Van Caneghem. Eighteen years later, in 2008, King’s Bounty: The Legend was released by the Russian company 1C Company, blending the old with the new into its own, beautifully designed, series.

In King’s Bounty: The Legend you take the role of the Bill Gilbert the ‘Royal Treasure Hunter’. You travel the world of Endoria, as you take on side-quests or follow the main story line with limited restraints on order. You level your hero which enables you to improve your army’s fighting skills, your magic or your mind, depending on what you choose, and while at the start of the game you decide on a class, picking between Warrior, Paladin or Mage, you are free to combine multiple playing styles, choosing in which directions you want your character to level up, which enables you to mix and match and create a combat style that is perfectly suited to each player.

The fighting mechanics are very similar to the Heroes of Might and Magic series, being grid and turn-based, after meeting an enemy takes you to the battle field, while a few boss fights bring diversity to combat and increased difficulty. The size of your army depends heavily on gold and your hero’s leadership abilities and also availability of troops, as instead of there being one central location where you acquire your army, you find different types of units at different locations throughout the world and it can get a bit wearying tracking back over the same ground repeatedly to replace men you have lost in battle.

The game also introduces a new combat mechanic. During battle as your army attacks or is hit, the hero acquires rage points which can be used to activate four special ‘Spirits of Rage’. Magical beings that can inflict massive damage during combat; they each level separately from both each other and the hero, allowing you to improve their powers based on use and helpfulness.

Your hero can get married, choosing from eight potential wives, have children and then divorce if he wants.

Endoria is beautiful, very colorful and bright, a very classic fantasy world. You will fight dragons, goblins, demons, ghosts and elves as well as many more creatures and races, as you travel through different realms and countries. The world, story and quests, while delivered very simply, with little input from the player, is richly developed and detailed.

In 2009 1C Company released a sequel called King’s Bounty: Armored Princess. Taking place ten years later you now play as Princess Amelie as she searches for the missing Bill Gilbert in order to save Endoria. She travels to the world of Darion and embarks on a new series of quests as she explores this new world searching for her friend.

The game play is almost exactly like King’s Bounty: The Legend. The Spirits of Rage are replaced with a very cute pet dragon who works the same way, wives are replaced by companions, a new race of lizard people are introduced, more boss fights are present with most of them being mandatory and you can upgrade the horse your hero rides into a Pegasus (and really how can you beat that?).

Sometime later an expansion for King’s Bounty: Armored Princess was released which introduced short min-campaigns, a new and improved version of the original game and an editor which allows you create your own content and levels. For new players coming to the game, King's Bounty: Crossworlds is almost certainly the way to play Armored Princess.

The new King’s Bounty series are two very enjoyable, easy going games, which beautiful graphics, pleasant music and well worth the time.