King's Bounty: Warriors of the North

King's Bounty: Warriors of the North is a 2012 strategy video game developed for Microsoft Windows by 1C-Softclub and published by 1C Company as a follow-up to King's Bounty: The Legend.

King's Bounty: Warriors of the North
Front cover of the retail box of the game
Developer(s)1C-Softclub
Publisher(s)1C Company
SeriesKing's Bounty
EngineTheEngine
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
  • WW: October 26, 2012
Genre(s)Tactical role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

The game takes in the same setting as King's Bounty: the Legend and is a follow-up to it. A generation has passed since the events of King's Bounty: the Legend. The protagonist is Olaf, a Viking who is the youngest son of Tormund the Fierce. The story has Olaf protect and liberate the lands of Endoria from the attacks of the undead army and liberate the land of Nordig from their threat in which along with his army and with the help of five Valkyries.

Gameplay

King's Bounty: Warriors of the North maintains many of the same game conventions used in previous installments. The game is a strategy with RPG elements. The protagonist is Olaf the Viking. In the beginning, the player controls an army consisting of five legions and an access to an overworld map to move around. Sometimes they will stumble onto buried treasures, other times the loot will be out in the open and can find huts or villages where they can buy and sell items or units.

Upon engaging an enemy, the game switches to turn-based battle mode where the player's and enemy forces are displayed on a hex-tiled board with both armies at the opposite ends. Each unit has a specific number of health points which when completely deleted, the entire unit is destroyed. The turn of the units take place in fixed cycles and the player can choose whether to defend, move, attack or use the special abilities of their characters. New to warriors of the north is with proper skills or equipment, troops can expend runes that they are given to briefly increase offensive power, defensive strength, or grant a chance to attack again.

Defeating an enemy force gains money and experience which can be used to make a more powerful army. The game also has a skill tree used to enhance their abilities. Along with magical abilities, the game also features rage abilities. Like magic, these abilities can be used to summon creatures and damage enemies however it only accumulates when a player is hit by an enemy or hits an enemy and dissipates between battles.

The game includes a new race Vikings, a new school of magic called Rune Magic, and new units like Berserker and Skald. In addition Olaf is also assisted by his companions the five Valkyries and each of them has a unique ability and each will give various bonuses to Olaf's specific stats. Although Olaf travels along with all five female-fighters, however he will need to choose one of them to become the main Valkyrie (not the favorite wife!), and her bonus will be 100 percent active unlike the other four with just 25 percent of their powers. The female warriors will gain experience which will improve their combat abilities. In order to upgrade the level of a Valkyrie, the player can sacrifice unneeded equipment, which in turn yields more bonuses to the stats of a character, however a special quest for each of them is the only way to reach the level cap of a Valkyrie.[1][2][3][4]

Development and release
Promotion at IgroMir 2011

On October 6, 2011, 1C Company announced Warriors of the North as the next game in the King's Bounty series. It was scheduled to release in the second quarter of 2012.[5] The game was shown in pre-alpha state to the press in February 2012 and was revealed to be a follow-up to the game King's Bounty: The Legend.[6][7] On March 16, 2012, 1C Company along with GamesBeat published the first part of the dev diaries that revealed aspects about development of the game.[1] 1C Company released a trailer during Gamescom 2012 and was announced to be released in fourth quarter of 2012.[8] On October 16, 2012, it was revealed that the game would be released on October 26, 2012.

A special edition titled Valhalla Edition was also announced that contained the Valhalla armor set.[9] On January 16, 2014, 1C Company revealed that the DLC for the game titled King's Bounty: Warriors of the North - Ice and Fire would be available on January 30, 2014. It takes place on a small snow-covered island ruled by Snow Elves and includes a creature skill system which makes the player's troops stronger as they lead them through battles, new type of undead called Necrolizards, new locations and creatures, revamped creatures from the main game and new items with unique attributes.[10][11] The DLC was released on the date on Steam.[12]

Reception

The game holds an aggregate of 73.92% on GameRankings and a score of 74/100 on Metacritic.[13][14] Dave Vader of GamingXP gave the game a review score of 86% praising its gameplay and Viking setting.[15] Krystian Smoszna of Gry-Online called it "a robust extension of the well-known and popular formula [of King's Bounty]".[16] Sebastian Haley of GamesBeat gave it a review score of 80/100 however criticised that the game didn't offer anything new over the previous installments.[17]

References
  1. Sebastian Haley (March 16, 2012). "Pre-Mortem: King's Bounty project lead introduces new race and units (exclusive)". GamesBeat. VentureBeat. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  2. JohnK (December 14, 2012). "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North review on Darkstation". DarkStation. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  3. "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North review on Strategy Informer". Strategy Informer. January 15, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  4. Sebastian Haley (May 2, 2012). "Pre-Mortem: King's Bounty WotN project lead discusses deadly lady companions (exclusive)". GamesBeat. VentureBeat. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  5. Nick Colan (October 6, 2011). "New King's Bounty game announced". IGN. j2 Global. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  6. "PC Preview - 'King's Bounty: Warriors of the North'". Worthplaying. February 22, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  7. "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North". Worthplaying. February 28, 2012. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  8. "New game in the multi-award winning series presented at gamescom 2012". gamershell.com. August 15, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  9. Sebastian Haley (October 16, 2012). "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North release date announced". GameBanshee. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  10. Radu Haulica (January 16, 2014). "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North DLC Ice and Fire launches January 30". Softpedia. SoftNews Net SRL. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  11. "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North Ice and Fire DLC Revealed". gamershell.com. January 16, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  12. Radu Haulica (January 30, 2014). "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North DLC Ice and Fire Is Now Out on Steam at 10% Off". Softpedia. SoftNews Net SRL. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  13. "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North reviews on GameRankings". CBS Interactive. GameRankings. CBS Corporation. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  14. "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North reviews on Metacritic". CBS Interactive. Metacritic. CBS Corporation. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  15. Dave Vader (October 19, 2012). "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North review on GamingXP" (in German). GamingXP. Archived from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  16. Krystian Smoszna (November 25, 2012). "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North review on Gry-Online". Gry-Online (in Polish). Gry-Online S.A. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  17. Sebastian Haley (November 25, 2012). "King's Bounty: Warriors of the North review on GamesBeat". GamesBeat. VentureBeat. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
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