Preview: King's Bounty 2 is a detailed RPG with an interesting mix of play

Assassination attempts, zombies, skeletons, dragons, and mages ... King's Bounty 2 is an intriguing mix of epic fantasy storytelling and challenging turn-based combat.

The King's Bounty series has had an interesting run. The original turn-based RPG game, released in 1990, is considered the kicking off point for the Heroes of Might and Magic games that dominated the mid-1990s. 1C Company then bought the rights to the game and applied them to 2008's King's Bounty: The Legend, another turn-based RPG. The popularity of the game spawned four expansions, the last one in 2014. Then, in 2019, a sequel called King's Bounty 2 was announced with an expected Aug. 24, 2021, release date.

The sequel is being developed by 1C Entertainment, part of the 1C Company umbrella. It's an incredibly prolific publisher and developer, and you can thank the team for PC series classics like IL-2 Sturmovik and Men of War. I was lucky enough to get into an advance beta test to preview the game's development and...