Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders was a surprise hit when it was released; featuring a mixture of hack and slash game play coupled with some strong strategic elements. Combine this with some fantasy characters and an unusual rock soundtrack and you have the basic of the game. Well the team at Phantagram have decided to release a follow up game but rather than thrust the player into a new story following from the original, have decided to place the player into the heart of the secondary characters (from Crusaders) to give them some back story. So in a nutshell Heroes is a prequel to the events of Crusaders.

Gameplay

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the workings of Kingdom Under Fire let me explain. At the start of the game you pick one character and in the case of Heroes there are 7 to choose from; although you will have to unlock some of these by completing the campaigns of the others. Each character represents a faction within the fantasy world but to strip it down to basic form you have humans on one side and then dark creatures on the other (things like orcs, vampires, elves etc). Each of the 7 campaigns also represents a difficulty so choosing wisely is a must here for beginners.

Once a character has been selected then you can start the campaign which consists of a specific story related to your chosen one. Playing the game sees your character in control of a small army of soldiers maybe alone or as part of a larger force. You are able to move this army across the terrain as you please. Later in the game you will also take control of other units to accompany your army; these consist of archers, Calvary, Infantry and strange beasts to name a few. Controlling these units is pretty straight forward and easy to get to grips with especially as with one touch you are able to move all units at once. Now this brings in the first style of the game and the more strategic element because the positioning of your units is crucial and keeping tabs of them during the heat of battle is crucial. For example if your archers get tied up in melee combat then usually they will be cut down to pieces very quickly because their melee skill is not that high (unless you make them more formidable in this area). Another example with the archers is the height of the terrain or whether the sunlight is blinding them. These tactics come in to play for all of the units and it’s up to the player to decide what unit to use, when and of course how.

The second part of the game is when your main unit becomes enveloped in enemy soldiers and you are forced into melee combat. Here the game switches where players can take control of their chosen hero and slash away at enemies until the opposing force is crushed. You can try and hunt the leader of the opposing army here but this is not very easy because of the masses of troops that litter the screen. If you do successfully kill the leader then his army will simply crumble in mere seconds. In fact I found it much harder to hunt down the leader in Heroes than it was in Crusaders. The combat here has been slightly refined compared to Crusaders and is very much hack and slash. You can call on your officers to aid you by pressing the white or black buttons and also unleash special moves. As I said the real challenge here is to hunt the leader rather than sitting there slashing away at foes until no one is left. What is also worth noting is the fact that your other units can be selectable at any time here and ordered to move, attack or retreat. Unfortunately you can’t control the leader of the other units in melee battles.

So these two forms of play are pretty much the basics of the game; however there is more to it than that because players can gain experience points and gold from completing missions. These points and gold can be spent on upgrading weapons and armour and also upgrading your hero’s abilities. Special moves can be used such as poison attacks lightning, fire, ice and the like as well as increasing your hero’s attacking power in melee combat. What is more players are able to change the Job type of each of their units under their command which basically means you are able to change infantry into knights or Archers into Calvary troops should you so wish. There is a fair amount of depth here especially as you are able to recruit more officers to add to your growing roster of selectable units.

What is a new addition to the game and a very welcome one at that is the option to create custom missions of your choosing. This basically means you can pick any of the 7 characters and then create your preferred units and then battle against the enemy in player created scenarios. This really does offer a lot of replay value and is an excellent training ground for those learning the ropes.

Graphics

The graphics are the same as crusaders which on the whole is very nice apart from some basic textures for the terrain at times. That said there is a lot more visual variety in the terrain this time round which is great. The character models look great with a distinct level of detail and great looking designs and what is still amazing is the sheer number of characters on screen at any one time; I didn’t notice any slowdown at all. The lip synching is still the same as the previous game which means characters simply move their mouths open and shut regardless of what is being said but this is a minor point of contention.

Sound

Sound is still epic at times when in the thick of battle with the cries of dying enemies and the clashing of metal but again the music is the same rock that accompanied the first game. To me I would have favoured a more traditional sounding musical score but I guess that’s me and that is what the mute the volume is for. The voice acting in English remains pretty much the same as before with performances ranging from good to terrible. I noticed that the voice actor for Gerald had changed which was unusual because I liked his gruff tone from the previous game compared to his posh English he speaks in this one! As with before, players can opt to change the language to Korean with English text subtitles for a more authentic sounding experience (considering that’s where the game was made).

Longevity

Heroes is a lengthy single player game and with missions that can take quite some time to beat means that you will have hours of fun playing the campaign missions alone. I guess more time is added on due to the fact that you can’t save mid mission which can get annoying if you die near the end of a mission. The added custom mode has pretty much infinite replay value and therefore longevity is one of the game’s biggest assets. There is also Xbox live play for those connected which offers various verses modes for up to four players.

Overall

Heroes is pretty much the same game as its predecessor with the addition of some new unit types such as Ice maidens and more characters to play as in the single player. The biggest change is the inclusion of the custom mode and as mentioned earlier I think this adds a great deal to the game. The basic combat still remains fairly typical hack and slash but I think generally remains fun when you have the option of switching to other units at the same time. If there is only one Kingdom Under Fire game on your shopping list then I wholeheartedly suggest you invest in this one because although the two games are pretty much identical, this one offers a lot more value and is slightly more polished. A definite must for strategy / action fans.