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| Game: |
Kingdom Under Fire - The Crusaders |
| Genre: |
Real Time Strategy |
| Developer: |
Phantagram Interactive |
| Publisher: |
Phantagram Interactive |
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| Related Links: |
Coming Soon. |
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Hands On Preview:
Korean based Phatagram presents Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders. Set 50 years after the first game Kingdom Under Fire, tempers fray between rival factions as sacred land plays host to a village massacre. An old enemy namely the Dark Legion who were supposedly wiped out 50 years before have returned. The village massacre and the disrespect of the sacred lands cause old wounds to burn deep within the flesh of men. War seems immanent as 50 years of peace now looks shattered as war and bloodshed rise upon the horizon.
Kingdom Under Fire or KUF puts players into one of many roles as the game features a wide variety of character classes to choose from. There are 2 main races which are Humans and Dark legions representing good and bad. Each race has 2 main factions which consist of several leaders and troops. The good factions are Hironeiden , Ecclesia and the bad Vellond , Hexter. It is plain to see from the various character types that the Dark Legions consists of more sinister members such as vampires, elves and orcs.
. The four characters that will be available in the finished product represent a different campaign each from four very different perspectives. Naturally I chose the Dark Legion character Lucretia, a dark elven female.
Upon starting the game players are offered a little back story that can read from an onscreen book. This basically fills you in on what happened 50 years ago leading up to present events. Players then get to choose their allegiance and character from the roster of four campaigns ranging from easy to hard. Once selected the game begins with an intro movie using the game engine which depicts the scene of whatever character you chose.
Lucretia and her army are wandering what looks like sand filled wastelands in search of a dragon tomb built by dwarves. Ordered by her superiors to investigate it is here where players get introduced to the basic actions of the game. The preview code features original voice acting in Korean I would assume, with English subtitles as I was ordered to move the 25 or so troops across the terrain. This was pretty simple as it involved moving a cursor to a position where I had been ordered to move to. Using the left thumb stick I was able to control the camera to pan around. In its present form this seemed a little cumbersome and not as dynamic as it should be. Once a destination was selected the troops would all start moving whilst the leaders would talk to each other offering an insight in to their objectives and personalities. With a simple press of the black and white buttons I was able to change the formation of the troops; this did feel pretty cool as your troops moved in unison across the sandy terrain.
Looks wise the character models for the leading characters are designed very well and feature a number of details close up. The other soldiers who in this case were an all female army looked pretty decent as well. Animation whilst moving was fluid and there were no visible drops in frames. However I will say that the actual terrain felt a little sparse and less detailed. I also noticed that during cut scenes (using the game engine) there was no lip movement when talking. I assume this will be added for the final build.
Once basic movement training was completed I was treated to my first battle. It is here where I was able to swiftly get stuck in to the games action. As lucretia I was able to perform limited combo moves on the many enemies that littered the screen. In its present form it was quite difficult to make out entirely who was who as characters clashed and collided with each other. This lent itself to simply hacking away at anything that moved. However as an extra challenge the player can simply hunt the leader of the opposing army and take him out first, usually wining the battle. This was a more entertaining approach as the simple hack and slashing could get tiresome in its current form. It was here that I also noticed a lack of frames and animations to the character as movement during combat didn’t feel fluid. Let’s hope this is addressed in the final build. To KUF’s credit characters will level up and gain extra abilities to perform in battle in the finished product so hopefully will make the controlled battle more varied. The main characters will also be able to perform devastating special moves and summons when a meter is filled, which once powered up will offer players a visual treat as well as dishing out suitable punishment onto surrounding foes.
Later on in the game Lucretia is joined by other armies which fight along side your own. It is here where some of the more tactical elements are performed as you position and move troops accordingly to attack foes. It is here also where the player begins to see the differences between the various character classes as Elves operate differently from orcs or archers. From what I could see, as the preview code only really scratched the surface of this feature is a lot of scope for conducting great battle plans in real time.
Playing as the good guys offered a similar experience but opened more of the game up which included entering a town on the world map where one could recruit soldiers or get vital information. Unfortunately these are performed using a simple page rather than in real time.
Reading the official press release and playing the early code I can definitely see this as an exciting title to look forward to, especially if some of those negative issues are addressed. KUF promises real time epic battles featuring melee, ranged and magic attacks with up to 1000 units and 150 characters on screen at any given time. KUF also promises 50+ missions taking place in 60+ maps with 6 weather variations each as well. It all sounds very good and yet there is even more. Players will also be able to accumulate gold and purchase new equipment/troops as well as take their battle onto Xbox Live. That’s right players can go head to head with each other and battle it out to become the most feared across the globe or number 1 on the stats. How well the servers will cope with the massive amounts of data this game will need who knows but if it succeeds then could prove an awesome title to add to the Live database.
KUF is looking to be a promising yet different title for Xbox owners when it is released in September this year. Mixing strategy with real time combat seems like a cool mix to mess around with and if the preview code is anything to go by well worth a look. Keep your eyes peeled for this one.
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