King's Bounty: Crossworlds GOTY

For the enjoyment I got from this I'd give it 5 stars, but I'll try to be objective. Try not to let the juevenile cover art, splash screens and opening scene put you off if you're a 'mature' gamer! GFX - Top notch, whether or not you like the style or rip-off art design. Music - Excellent though orchestral scores are not to everyone's taste. You might need to lower the volume a lot though. Writing - specifically mentioning because this was a highlight for me. Written both well and intelligently. Replayability - only played through once but I think the combinations of class, skill tree, gear and army would give good replayability. Same lands and story each time though. Stability - 100% for me. Saves - any time, anywhere. Difficulty - easy to pick up and surprisingly challenging at times. Niggles: - Controls. 2 options (good) but both feel clunky. Exacerbated by small, cramped maps where you get stuck on terrain features. Minor but my main reason for knocking off a star. - Small maps. But they are crowded with good things. - Army re-stocking. Constant returning to 'troop shops' could get annoying. - Expansions/DLC included - tried them but soon lost interest. Main game was worth the money for me though. Hope this helps.

Every aspect of this game is a delight. The art is lush and richly detailed, always in motion and always interesting. The gameplay is deep and strategic, and with the Crossworlds expansion the main storyline is more involving as well. The writing is by turns fascinating and hilarious, but always worth reading. I've played all of the new King's Bounty titles, and Crossworlds stands out as my favorite by far.

I picked this game up when it was on sale for 15. I found every aspect of the game amazing. The music was really nice and actually made me feel peaceful while playing it. The story has amazing depth. You can also ignore it and not be worse off game play wise. It is there though... Nearly every character has a good amount of text dedicated to them. That made me feel more immersed when playing it. I didn't always care but even when I didn't I still felt richer based on having that story in there. I felt like I was ignoring a real life person. The game play is semi HOMM but with more depth. The difficulty in the game is adjustable. To me it is at a good spot. As far as graphics go this game has really good graphics. There are two minor flaws with them. One is only a preference thing. The preference is that it is a bit cartoony. If you don't like that you will not like the graphics as much. To me I liked it so I was fine with it. The other is that some items are difficult to see when you are using the normal map. You can see the items easily on the mini map though. I hope whoever tries this game gives it a good shot and enjoys it. It does start out slow on the first three islands.

If you can get past the price tag you're in for a treat. I've played nearly all HOMAM games and I gotta say this is it but pushed even further towards perfection. Extremely addictive game. You control only one hero which was great for me since I like to be focused. The hero has his/her skill tree which is very well done and you can hire units at various places on the map with your leadership level as a cap to how many you can have. You collect items which are really useful in adding stats and you can even get a follower who can carry more. When you fight it works just like HOMAM except the hero doesn't participate directly, you can cast spells and use a pet dragon to cause some serious damage. And that only begins describing how much you can do in this game! It's a great mix between rpg and a strategy. I definitely recommend it to all.