King's Bounty: The Legend

There's Taking Your time over a sequel and then there's King's Bounty: The Legend. (Just forget Duke Nukem Forever for a little while to make this analogy work.) The original King's Bounty came out in 1990 and only now are we seeing the game's proper, official sequel turn up and demand to be played. For good reason, this is a strategy-cum-RPG game that does indeed require your attention if you are of the right mindset, but it isn't without its faults.

The gameplay itself takes the form of a cross between a Diablo-style RPG and a hex-based Heroes of Might and Magic strategy title. You wander about the world of Endoria hoping to serve your king faithfully, while making a name for yourself and a pretty penny to boot. As you wander about the place, you'll meet various traditional RPG folk, who all seem to have a quest for you to take on.

As either a knight, a mage or a paladin (a cross between the first two), you have to roam the world completing said quests, collecting loot and levelling up in a variety of chosen disciplines. While it is advisable to specialise in one element (like combat arts for knights), it's possible to cross-specialise if you want to become a jack-of-all-trades type of adventurer.

Problems crop up in the form of some annoying visual tearing and the occasional total system lock-up, which is a little annoying considering the game has been out for a while.

Other than that, there's a huge amount of gameplay to be had here, and there's also an expansion on the way soon too.
Worth buying if you like the Heroes of Might and Magic series.