My thoughts about crossworlds
 

I picked up KBL last year because it was priced off and i was looking for a new game. im not really a fan of turn based games but i thought it wouldnt hurt to give it a try. now i really started to love the series. and was eagerly awaing for crossworlds. but in all honesty im very dissapointed in crossworlds.
let me explain why

- Champion of the arena

seemed a very nice idea and a new character is always fun. but i really thought it was immersion breaking to. play arthur that used the same portrait as bill gilbert had in KBL. i couldnt get into the character because i was always stuck with bill gilbert in the back of my head

then again. evry boss was recycled from the previous kb's wich isnt exactly new content. also the story of it was very thin. and after i completed it. i had no idea what the real motivation of it all was.

- Orcs on the march.

Uses the same lands as AP. wich has loads of new units. but again
recycled and recolored units. a new quest here and there but thats it
like the blood shamans. its just a red orc shaman. or the wich hunter wich is a black painted robber. wich gives me the feeling de devs have been a bit lazy on this regard.

- armored princess

yes its good but we already completed it

Defender of the crown. yet another linked boss battle chain
not a real continuation of the KB story.

the advertisement of kb Crossworlds says 3 new campaigns.
wich is a bit misleading. it all feels like a small dlc patch instead of an expansion.

also the same music is used for CW.

dont get me wrong i really love KB

but the games never had the quality where i loved the legend for so much.
i really would love to see a big campaign again with a addictive story like KBL
what do you guys think?

I think that for a simple expansion to an ongoing product, this is a game that's well worth the money.

1. It opens up hero/boss battle campaign - Champion of the Arena - which lets you try various tactics and strategies. Almost awesome - it would have been completely awesome it there was a way to use your rage at least in hero battles.
2. It opens up a mini-campaign with great replayability and the option to try various lineups against various strong enemies - Defender of the Crown.
3. KBAP has been expanded with new tactical possibilities and new content. To the regular player it may not seem like much, but to the hardcore player who relies on various army setups, strategy and cunning, this is a completely new game.

Yeah, it is pretty scary and it is sooo clear they wanted people to use the Paladin Hero with Rune Mages due to that synergy. Allowing blacks to be revived by the Rune Mages.. .ah...

That said, the Crossworlds game manual says there is a new armor bearer called Goblin Rakush (the same guy who gives you a mission to kill the frog, sells items, etc).

I can't seem to unlock him though. Any luck so far?

Rune Mage Revive works on Blacks? But... Black Dragons are supposed to be immune to all spells and abilities...

Rulero - who cares that units are recolors. They play IMMENSLY differently then the units they are recolored from. Witch hunters are specific anti-Mage units that are fast too, while robbers are slow units with a 1-hex attack. Imps are strike-and-return demons with fireballs, Fauns are elven ranged units who resurrect plants and put the enemy to sleep. They play wastly differently. If you want to complain about recolors, do it for games like WOW where they just put in the same enemy in green without changing anything of its mechanics.

I agree with the champion arena Bill Gilbert thing. The problem is that you have a generic knight as a walking character but the icon and the character on the Heroscreen is princess Amelie. They couldn't even import the original Bill Gilbert model.

On the other side, I think it's an overall good expansion more in the way of a "edition of the year" which adds content and brings something new than a full game (like AP).

@ BB; I think you're right in the fact that even if they are recolored units, they play completely or very different. It's not like a hack'n slash where is the same thing just stronger. It seems Blizzard is the master of recoloring XD

@Rulero; I'm also waiting for a full and proper KB game. The first was more enjoyable in terms of story (quite more funny and original) and situations (some clever jokes or references there) instead of just the same thing. But AP and CW have expanded the formula and perfected it (better gameplay, mechanics, abilities, units, balance, items, spells, blbalbala, etc.) so KB2 should be THE game in terms of everything.

Come on Katauri, now is time for a proper KB2 game!! (Don't let us down)

Plague works on blacks too. Dancing Axes work on blacks (to heal). It is awesome. AWESOME!

Yeah, I know about those two - but they work because they are area/all creatures effects that do not manually target them. Revive would target them... odd.

Also, anyone tried the Paladin's Prayer in Crossworlds? The description says it revives plants and mechanical units as well...

Onepiece: KB2 will be AWESOME. In fact, I wish Nival bought the HOMM licencse from Ubi and made the next Heroes game. Although I am Hungarian, and HOMM VI is supposedly developed by a Hungarian team, I'd rather have experts who made such awesome TBS games do these then a company who made only RTS games before.

Plague is a target spell. Anyways, I think it is fine that it works on them. Black Dragons need a weakness... :) Haha.

Well then you might be happy that Nival is acting as producer of Kings Bounty online :-))

@BB; I don't think Ubi will sell them that license and to be sincere, King's Bounty beats the **** out of M&M. I was playing the fifth when I first played TL and I though "get the **** out out me bad game!! King's Bounty here I come!

But if Katauri (or 1C) wants to develop it into a full franchise, they will need to:

-Release a full proper game
-With better translation (hire some professionals or ask us devs)
-Correct their mistakes (come on, why does the paladin prayer ability says the same thing?) and bugs and
-Better implementation of their editor

(Optional): Don't do so much "expansions" but less as to not saturate the franchise and fanbase.

Now that would put them on the big leagues.