Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes – Review

I really enjoyed the last Kingdom Under Fire, as you can see from my previous review, though I truly do not know why, since the RTS styled games often pass me by, far more often than not as it happens. So when I heard the new one was being made I was actually looking forward to seeing how the developers could tweak what was ok about the last one and add that to what was brilliant about the last one. That is pretty much what they’ve done I’m pleased to say, despite the publishing problems this title ran into awhile back, it’s finally here and it’s pretty good. Those of you who missed the last one (highly possible given the quietness of it publicity wise) needn’t fear you’ll be lost with this one, it’s a game unto itself despite being a prologue to the last title.

The story to this game seems to take itself more seriously which is good. The characters too have a bit more depth to them which helps to bring the game to life, it still maintains a certain humor about it though which is good. I don’t want to spoil the story overall but to set you up it’s fantasy based, with half-vampires and dark elves at war. The vampyric lord has brought together the evil dark elves and orcs and intends to smite the world and all those good folk in it. The elves and humans on the other hand mean to get in his way, cue cinematic orchestral DUN DUN DUHHH and you’re part way there. A lot of text is used to impart the history and background story, all to no music, which was rather strange. Some of the spelling and grammar seemed a little off which was also strange considering it should have been picked up in edit. All in all, I’ll bore you no more, you know this sort of thing backwards if you’ve been gaming more than a few years.

Gameplay remains pretty much the same as the original, but there seems to be more depth with regards to the characterization. As stories unfold the characters lend themselves to the player, meaning you want to win for them. The addition of being able to upgrade your commander also adds a new dimension to the game and increases your interest in going into the next battle. Fights range from all out melee brawls to full on siege action. One of the cool things I like about Kingdom Under Fire is the actual action led melee combat you get to play when in control of your own unit. It’s not merely a case of pointing and clicking an army into battle and then sitting back and watching it unfold, this way you’re actually involved and it works really well. You get to switch between units, choosing the best unit for the job such as archers or all out fighters. Not to mention being able to play via Xbox Live and there are some pretty cool additions.

Graphically Kingdom Under Fire Heroes is a nice looking title though it does have a few problems, the draw distance isn’t all that it could be which is a shame. On a few occasions trees appeared to float mid air until moving forward finally revealed the missing mountain. Character models and environments are well done and give the game an added depth. As I’m not a fan of RTS titles I truly have little to compare it to other than the last Kingdom Under Fire title and I think this one does pack a more graphically pleasing punch. Overall though, the style is much the same, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Each enemy army is a clone of itself, regardless of race (ie an orc is an orc) so you always know what you’re fighting against and you can’t really confuse them with others. Battles can be completely insane, with so much happening on screen its actually very impressive, with no real slowdown spotted, though the screen did chop up at times when little was happening, another oddity of this title. The camera can also be a real pain in the behind during certain battle sequences, it would have been nice to have the zoom out option until you’d finished maneuvering, but alas it wasn’t to be.

Sound is pretty good, there’s still some camp voice acting but it doesn’t detract from the game. The music is an oddity, given the soundtrack is sort of 80’s hard rock, guitar driven which seems so of out of place in many respects, but strangely works in keeping up the tempo of the game whilst on maneuvers, still did feel misplaced in a game of this setting. Thankfully you can turn it off if it’s not to your liking, so no problem there. The voice acting, as mentioned, can be a little camp but it’s well done if a little over theatrical for the most part. All speech is also written in text on the screen, so the deaf or hard of hearing gamer can follow the story with little problem.

Female Gamer, I chose to play as Ellen, hard assed soldier woman, so at least we girls did get that choice for a change. Only complaint I had is that I really feel that dark elf warriors need to wear more armor. Although Ellen is still the stereotypical sex in armor, at least she has the brains to wear some. Dark elves fight in bikinis with shields for protection, this formula is all a little overdone, this is 2005 boys, surely we’re past the Maria Whittaker does Barbarian days? Put the female characters in good, solid armor, we don’t need to see tits and legs up to their backsides, we know they’re there, we just wonder why they’re not protecting themselves better.

Overall I really enjoyed the mix of real time hack and slash with the RTS genre, a genre as I mentioned, that usually does nothing for me. I actually think it is the mix of the two that opened up this sort of gameplay to me because it felt good to order troops around but it always felt more personal being able to run into the fray and kick some ass myself. Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is a lot of fun, but it isn’t without its problems. The camera and lack of full zoom out will cause many a gamer to pull out their hair, particularly those used to this genre. The draw distance too has its troubles, with mountains and scenery that isn’t there, then pops into view as if by magic. It’s far from perfect, but if you can get past that and look at what this title is trying to bring to the console market you can’t help but at least be a little impressed. Get the female fighters in some hauberks and grieves and that too would step it up a notch.

Review by Angela