Review | King’s Bounty: Armored Princess

Format: PC | Genre: RPG/Turn-based strategy| Publisher: 1C | Developer: Katauri Interactive | Release date: 20/11/09 | RRP: £29.95

By Lewis Denby

It was around the time I found myself battling an enormous possessed axe in an alternate dimension, surrounded by demons who turned half my warriors into sheep, that Armored Princess really started to impress.

Like its predecessor, this is a truly imaginative game; a thoughtful blend of role-playing and turn-based strategy.  You explore a variety of uncharted islands, engaging in regular combat with a seemingly endless collection of foes, pushing onwards on your multi-threaded quest in what is a highly impressive semi-sequel.

It’s initially underwhelming.  Armored Princess suffers from a slow start, taking you through the basics of the game and demanding a fairly linear slog through its opening, uninteresting sections.  Yet even if you opt to take the substantial training course, nothing feels adequately explained.  Those who never played the original, and who didn’t pay attention to the most minute of details at the start, may find themselves turned off rather quickly.

Each on-screen figure during a battle represents a whole unit of a given character type in your army.  So you’ve to think not just in terms of how many health points you’ve got left, but how they distribute across the five, ten, twenty, fifty of the characters are still standing.  And straight away, enemies are throwing around spells that strip you of your turns, so on top of the initial confusion, you might find yourself wondering why you haven’t had a go in ages, unless you’re keeping a keen eye on the battle report at all times and making plenty of inferences for yourself.

//Casting its spell
But once you’ve grasped it, the combat becomes phenomenally rewarding, demanding careful tactics as you progress up through the levels and into areas where new, deadly foes reside.  As the difficulty ramps up, Armored Princess is eager to reward creativity in battle.  There’s a multitude of spells to locate, purchase and master, and a helpful dragon friend who levels up alongside you.  He’s on hand once per round to summon enormous lightning bolts, conjure up fierce animals out of thin air, or land a hilarious flying kick to the face of an enemy unit.

Rarely are you scolded for unsuccessful experimentation.  Unless something goes drastically wrong, losing a battle simply means re-emerging back on the starting island. The King even offers you a lump sum of cash with which to replenish your supplies.  Defeat is a minor inconvenience rather than a full-on punishment, which keeps things moving forwards at an agreeable tempo, leaving you eager to get back fighting rather than slunking off into the bushes to lick your wounds.

And when you do return, you won’t necessarily end up fighting the same battles as before.  Enemies wander around the islands on slightly awkward set patrol routes, but they’re not always guarding the same areas.  A trip back to base camp and a return at night might leave your path unblocked – or it might be guarded by even more foes than before.

Enemies of roughly the same strength as you will attack on sight.  It’s nice that those who would be bloody impossible to kill decide to let you off the hook, and the choice between fighting or ignoring fleeing enemies is neat.  It’s just a shame there are so many unavoidable encounters, especially when you’re not particularly looking for action.  One more than one occasion, a group of bears snuck up on me when I was trying to innocently buy something from a shop.  And getting around each island is often a nightmare, spawning you victorious from one fight directly into another – one that, with your now diminished forces, you’ve little chance of winning.

The turn-based combat is clearly designed to be at the forefront of the experience, and when it works this well, you feel rude for complaining.  But it would be nice if there were a respite from time to time, and if the role-playing and adventuring had more of a chance to glisten.

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