Ever wondered what a Witcher game mashed up with Dungeons & Dragons strategic battles would be like? Love D&D but want to explore the world around you in a third-person perspective?

Well, King’s Bounty 2 is the perfect mash-up between third-person exploration RPG and tabletop RPG battles, Developed by 1C Entertainment and published by Prime Matter, 1C Publishing EU, Koch Media, Deep Silver, 方块游戏 (China), it’s releasing on Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 24, 2021.

You can choose between three main characters; Mage, Warrior, and Paladin, although I’m not spoiling any of the character’s names for you! As you travel on your main quest, you must gear up and form your army to defeat any troubles that block your beaten pathway. Choose whether to lead your troops down the path of Anarchy, Order, Power, or Finesse.

All actions chosen affect what happens around you; choose one side over the other and upset the balance between man and dwarf, attack a group instead of searching for the mage to call them off, or give some important information to a cult over a guardsman, the choices are all in your hands, but remember with great power comes great responsibility.

As you travel the stunning environment of Nostria, an explorable world that’s taken inspiration from such big titles as The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, Game of Thrones, and The NeverEnding Story, you will come across multiple side quests, hidden loot, copious amounts of lore and in-depth stories left behind by the departed. A visually stunning landscape had me immersed from when I started playing, and finding hidden dungeons that were not just copied and pasted (I’m looking at you Elder Scrolls) had me appreciating the surroundings.

Audio-wise the soundtracks added to the immersion factor, with a soft harp and synth melodic tune to ease you through your travels. When things get heated, an upbeat and bassy war track will help with getting the blood flowing so that you can make the right strategic decisions as you set up your troops against armies of the dead, elemental armies, or just a pack of rabid wolves. Although all this is well and good, the voice acting left me a bit disappointed.

We go from viewing such an amazing landscape and artworks and feeling so immersed by the soundtracks and effects of everything around me, to voice acting that just felt extremely flat and emotionless, almost as if it was produced with Text to Speech.

As I slowly progressed through the game I became more and more addicted. I had to search every nook and cranny to find all the hidden loot I could, which led me to get stuck behind objects, and unfortunately not being able to sprint, crouch or jump I found myself restarting from the last save a few times, as to be expected from a preview build.

The only real downside I found in the game was that the voice acting was average, but that was easy enough to overcome. Playing this preview quickly had me looking at getting the older King’s Bounty games, so I highly recommend checking it out if you enjoy RPGs.

Written by: Bigfoot