Phantagram has created their latest RTS in true fantasy form. Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes, the prequel to the critically acclaimed Kingdom Under Fire: Crusaders, is set during the Encablossa War in the land Bersia. The player chooses to take control of one of seven heroes in a war between ?good? humans and the ?evil? Dark Legion, which is made up of dark elves, ogres, and half-vampires. The humans are led by Rupert (a giant with even bigger war-hammer), Ellen (a beautiful bow-slinger with an embarrassing secret), and Walter (a warrior leading with iron mace and shield in hand). Many fans of Crusaders may recognize Rupert and Ellen, who were support characters in the game. The Dark Legion side has four playable characters-the sword-wielding Dark Elf Cirith, an iron chain swinging half-vampire named Morene, the half-vampire Leinhart (who, like Cirith, also has his own sword) and Urukubarr, a massive ogre whose weapon of choice is his own bare hands.
All in all, the game 50 separate missions to play, though not all of them are pertinent to the storyline. Many of the missions are side-quests that are completely irrelevant to the plot, though they do come in handy while trying to level up one?s troops and hero. Each campaign is assigned a difficulty rating, ranging from Easy to Hell. At first, only three of the seven heroes are available ? Ellen and Walter for the humans and Leinhardt for the Dark Legion. Each completion of a storyline for a character will unlock another campaign for another hero, with Urukubarr of the Dark Legion being the last. The reasoning behind this system is if a player cannot complete the preceding storyline, chances are high that they won?t fair much better on the next campaign.
Now with the basics out of the way, its time to enter bitch mode! First off, in the graphics area, this game excels the most during real-time gameplay. The graphics of the soldiers are nice and smooth. A slight drop in frame-rate occasionally occurs, but only when the battlefield is littered with units. The battlefields itself is nicely designed, with forests, lakes, and mountains abundant. These environmental aspects actually attribute to the gameplay, but we will get to that later. The landscape is actually difficult to see most of the time as it is mostly covered with a fog, which I am guessing symbolizes a ?fog of war.? This is a major downside, for it really covers up what could potentially be a beautifully designed environment. However, once one ventures outside the real-time realm, all hell breaks loose in this area. The cinematics are poorly presented. I?m sorry Phantagram, but static shots of characters with a rotating camera are hardly going to cut it.
As for the audio, don?t even get me started on the voice acting. Oh, you really want to know? Well, this might be the most monotone, non-emotional, dull, poorly translated, driest script I have ever heard in a game?EVER! Scattered throughout the game is grammatical errors, due mostly in part to poor translation from Korean to English. Repetitive command shouts from the unit leaders become unbearable. Generic commands are shouted out after every command is issued?EVERY COMMAND! After the 100th ?Move Out,? I was more than half-tempted to stab the speech comprehension section of my brain with a pencil inserted through the ear! The music, though exhilarating and exciting at first, eventually becomes very repetitive and annoying after a few hours of gameplay. Even the most hardcore of metal fans can only take so much of the same guitar and drum rock outs for so long. Warning: No beautiful orchestral soundtracks found here! The sound effects are nothing special. The game is filled with war sounds including explosions, sword clashes, and the occasional death grunt. In short, the mute button (either in the game or on your TV, your preference) will be your best friend!
The gameplay aspect of the game can only be described one way: chaotic. When you begin the game, you are thrown in with basically no tutorial whatsoever. Novices and beginners of the real-time strategy genre may have many problems in handling all aspects of the game at once, at least initially. Proficiency in troop movement, battlefield tactics, and special moves/magics is essential in this game. If you don?t have it at first, you better damn well learn it, or it is going to be a long game. The system can be extremely nerve-racking. Sans the fact that it is much easier to play real-time strategies on a PC than on a console (thanks to a hot-key keyboard layout and an easily maneuverable mouse), the button layout/command system could be better. One can find themselves fiddling with the controller to get your troops away from certain doom?never a good feeling.
At anyone one time, you can control your main unit as well as up to four other different units. Each type of unit is proficient in some areas and weak in others. For example, cavalry is excellent in slaughtering infantry and archers, but fall quickly to spearmen. Bombers are invulnerable to all types of foot soldiers, except those who launch projectiles such as archers. I think you get the point. As mentioned earlier, the game is fully of irrelevant side quests. During these side quests, you earn gold and experience points which can be used to upgrade troops, officers, and heroes. As the skill of an officer is increased, the troops he/she leads also gain the skill increase. As specific skill increases and level ups are met, ?job? classifications for the troops can be changed. As melee skills increase, regular infantry can upgrade to knights. Knights can upgrade to cavalry with a skill in melee and horses or to a paladin with skill increases in magic and melee. The list goes on and on. Though each race has different ?jobs,? many of them are very similar and well balanced for the most part. In addition to the jobs, there are four creatable elemental units: ice maidens, earth golems, thunder rhinos, and flame wraiths. Though it takes a good amount of experience and skill to create one of these, you will find it is well worth the time and effort. Jobs and skill aside, experience and gold can also be used to upgrade armor and weapons of troops, officers, and your hero.
At the point that strategy is out the window, and you find yourself engaged in chaotic combat, the gameplay turns to hack and slash warfare. With dozens upon of dozens of units attacking in battle royal melee, it can be difficult to focus on one target. Therefore, you can choose one of two options. First, you can simply repeatedly hit the X button, hitting everything in your path. Though the game does offer different combos and special moves, there are not effective enough to consider. Secondly, one can hunt down the enemy troop leader. The game is set up so that once the enemy leader falls, the entire enemy group is defeated (which doesn?t make too much sense to me. I guess it can be blamed on disorganization in the absence of leadership, but whatever, I?m not complaining). I, myself, prefer the second option. The leaders usually aren?t that much stronger than the troops he leads, and therefore, you can take down an entire enemy group with the defeat of one slightly more difficult enemy. Sounds like a good deal to me. The game sports some other features, including the assistance of a subordinate. With the simple click of the BLACK or WHITE button, a subordinate officer can launch a special attack, striking the enemies closest to you. This comes in handy when you are surrounded or being chased. As for the camera?junk. In trying to stay focused on your selected troops, it is extremely hard to look ahead of the group. The developers configured the controller so that the right analog stick ?controlled? the camera, but it in itself is difficult to use. Camera sucks, end of story. Earlier in the review, I also mentioned how the environment comes into play during combat. Well, basically, bonuses or penalties are given out depending on how and where you attack from and with which unit you are attacking with. For example, archers receive bonuses when they are attacking from the high ground, however, they incur penalties in close combat, when firing while facing the sun, or while firing to or from a forested area. In general, the controls, camera, and combat all need significant improvement. The only redeeming factor is the beauty of all the troops on the map in one great epic battle that would give Aragorn cold chills.
As for replay value, it gains the highest honors in this review. For players with XBOX Live, you can go online and battle with up to six players. Do you want to team up with a three-on-three battle, or just have one massive free-for-all? How about ignoring troops all together and doing three-on-three leader combat? It even offers a three-versus-CPU Invasion Mode. It?s totally up to you. Experience points are gained online which can be used to upgrade troops (like in single player offline) and carry over into the next match. As with all online play, a bit of lag can be expected when playing with up to six players, but this is a risk this can be easily offset if you have a good Internet connection. Custom games are also available offline if you don?t have an XBOX Live connection, where you can play under one of the seven heroes from the game or under one of the four heroes from its sequel Crusaders. Lastly, the ability to play seven different story campaign modes greatly contributes to such a high replay value score.
Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is not for the casual gamer. High difficulty, poor construction, and annoying audio make this game a rental at best for all but the most hardcore of real-time strategy gamers. I personally feel this prequel was rushed, being released less than a year after its predecessor. This most definitely attributed to the game being sub-par in real-time strategy standards. Next time Phantagram, don?t be in such a hurry. It isn?t easy to make a real-time strategy game on a console. Fix the controls, allow more freedom with the camera, get some real voice actors, and quit being lazy with the cinematics. I invite you to try again when it looks like you give a damn about your game and not about its title.
Bob Labla
