King's Bounty - The Legend is mostly grind and little to no substance, but somehow it's hard to stop playing...
King's Bounty - The Legend starts off real strong. The graphics are immediately appealing, the game runs very smoothly even on very high settings, and the whole turn-based strategy approach is well executed. There's tons of stuff to do, tons of monsters to beat, tons of levels and abilities to be gained.
But after the first few hours the whole get-quest-kill stuff-collect-reward routine starts getting tiresome, and it all becomes grind. You stop reading whatever the quest-givers have to tell you, you stop caring who you're saving or killing, you just fast-forward through the dialogs and go through the motions and occasionally rejoice when your level goes up or you get a new bunch of spells.
So yes, King's Bounty is mostly grind. But it's addictive grind. The monsters and environments are really varied, so you never really give in to the boredom, and the game gives you sufficient reward in the form of levels or abilities that you always feel like playing just a bit longer... And the game encourages you to play a bit longer, as each new area you reach requires you to grow just a bit stronger so you can handle the new monsters. And all the while, you're actually having fun.
When I look back, I find that I spent quite a bit more time on KB than I spent on any other recent AAA title, and for a fraction of the price (I bought it for about 10€ on GamersGate, IIRC), and even though it was all flash and no substance, I enjoyed myself the whole time. So who am I to complain?
King's Bounty is a fun and addictive game that offers a lot of value for the price. It's not especially strong in the storyline department, but it's fun to play and well balanced, and that might be all you're looking for.
7/10