Publisher: 1C Company
Developer: Katauri Interactive
MSRP: $19.99
by: Mike Katsufrakis
Last year’s King’s Bounty: Armored Princess was a great turn-based tactical RPG, similar to the more popular Heroes of Might & Magic series, and with good reason - HOMM was actually the followup to the original King’s Bounty. History lesson aside, how does this new expansion to an already large game stack up?
The story largely centers around Princess Amelie seeking out the help of her mentor, a knight named Bill Gilbert (tee hee), to save her kingdom from certain destruction by an army of demons. She must travel to distant lands, and with the help of soldiers recruited along the way and her adorable pet dragon, destroy everyone who crosses her path.
Crossworlds is stacked with content: in addition to including Armored Princess, the new Orcs on the March campaign extends the original game’s storyline, adding new abilities, armor sets and a series of new quests for you to complete.
The first of two extra campaigns, Arena Champion, a hero named Arthur has been kidnapped or otherwise dragged against his will to a tournament where he must face large-scale enemies in gladiatorial combat. Rather than giving you a pet dragon as in Armored Princess, Arthur can recruit a number of companions, special troops that offer up their own command abilities and extra armor slots for you to tack bonuses to.
The second, Defender of the Crown, sees the return of Princess Amelie, who is thrust headlong into a series of large tactical battles, with an element of randomization thrown in for good measure. Though Amelie is back, you don’t get to transfer your level or abilities from a previous campaign. Both new campaigns start out at a higher difficulty level and assume some knowledge of the core game, so I’d recommend playing through Armored Princess first.
Rounding out the package is the new game editor, which lets you modify the game to your liking and create new scenarios. All in all, there’s a wealth of content here. If you’ve completed Armored Princess and need a bigger challenge or more campaigns to play, Crossworlds comes highly recommended.
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