King’s Bounty: Legions Screenshots, Beta Testing Begins

The Nival-developed Facebook adaptation of Katauri’s King’s Bounty reboot has officially entered beta testing, though access to it is restricted to those gamers able to secure an invite from GamesRadar or a Facebook friend already participating in the beta.  Read on for all of the details (including word that iOS and Android versions are planned), then hit up our image gallery for the first eleven screenshots from the strategy/RPG:

Nival Marches King’s Bounty: Legions Onto Facebook With Invitation-Only Beta Test

Gamers Need Invite to Fight Friends, Unfold Epic Storyline for Iconic King’s Bounty Franchise

LOS ANGELES – August 2, 2011 – Nival, a global developer and publisher of social strategy games, is calling on gamers to invite their friends, then destroy them in King’s Bounty: Legions. Nival announced the opening of its initial beta test for King’s Bounty: Legions, a turn-based social strategy game playable on Facebook, via a limited number of invitations. Interested players can acquire an invite at popular gaming website Gamesradar or via invite from a Facebook friend who is already playing the game.

King’s Bounty: Legions welcomes social features and competitive player-versus-player combat as new additions to the popular turn-based strategy series, beloved for its tactical combat, amusing storyline and challenging quests. In King’s Bounty: Legions, players travel to different lands, meet interesting NPCs and defeat treacherous armies while growing and customizing their own forces to unleash in the game’s addictive and challenging turn-based strategy system.

“King’s Bounty: Legions combines the classic, quest-fulfilling game play with new PvP battles and an asynchronous feature that lets users send their army into battle even when they are away,” said David D Christensen, general manager for Nival’s North American operations and executive producer of  King’s Bounty: Legions. “While we look forward to  King’s Bounty fans settling long-standing debates about who amongst them is the greatest leader, we are confident the various types of game play will allow a wide audience to enjoy  King’s Bounty: Legions.”

Gamers who strategically assemble a well-balanced army and exploit different advantages held by some classes over others, will enjoy more success and potentially achieve a higher Legion ranking in PvP.

Classes include the following:

‘¢ Archer – This range class offers players the chance to deal damage while keeping a safe distance from the fray.
‘¢ Defender – The best offense is a good defense, as demonstrated with their ability to withstand heavy attacks from enemies.
‘¢ Mage – Unleash magical powers to conquer foes from afar with these masters of the mystic arts.
‘¢ Support – Everybody needs somebody to watch their back and this class is the go-to back-up in battle.
‘¢ Warrior – Whether it’s swinging a big sword, showing off some big fangs or just being a frontline trooper, this class will get up close and personal with foes.

King’s Bounty: Legions will be a cross-platform title, appearing initially on Facebook, and later on iOS and Android platforms for mobile and tablet devices. The game is being developed on the Unity 3D engine, allowing for the popular  King’s Bounty  art style to help raise the visual quality expectations of browser-based, social games.

Players play  King’s Bounty: Legions for free and may choose to purchase in-game items. Nival plans to support  King’s Bounty: Legions with regular game maintenance and updates, featuring new fighting units, maps, quests, social elements and game play mechanics.

The title is being developed by KranX Productions. King’s Bounty®and King’s Bounty: Legionsâ„¢ are provided under license through 1C Company. Players interested in learning more about King’s Bounty: Legions can visit Facebook.

About Nival
Nival is a global developer and publisher of social strategy games with extensive experience in strategy game development and massively multiplayer online game publishing. Nival is headquartered in Moscow and was founded by Russian games industry veteran Sergey Orlovskiy, who currently serves as company president. With offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia; Minsk, Belarus and Los Angeles; Nival currently has more than 200 employees and three development studios. Nival also operates the popular Russian-language gaming platform, ZZima.com. For more information about Nival, please visit www.nival.com.

About KranX Productions
KranX Productions is a development studio and production house founded by the well-respected Russian computer game developer Andrey “KranK” Kuzmin. KranX has turned its primary focus to the development of online games and currently has a team of more than 30 developers with experience in developing full-scale titles for PC and console platforms.

About 1C Company
1C Company is widely acknowledged as a critically-acclaimed games developer and has several internal studios responsible for products such as IL-2 Sturmovik series and the Theatre of War series. 1C Company also works as the international specialist publisher and producer with many independent third-party studios among its partners. Over the course of the years, 1C Company has produced and released worldwide over 100 projects for various platforms, including the award-winning Space Rangers series, Men of War series, and King’s Bounty series. 1C Company’s products enjoy top sales both in retail and in digital space, all over the world.