Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom

"Mediocrity is thy name"

I never played the original Kingdom under Fire but a friend of mine proclaimed it the greatest thing since Jesus. So with that said I can't make any comparisons between the two or be annoyed that it is no longer a strategy based title but now a hack and slash snorefest.

My first impression with the game was that there was a good size cast of characters but we get no story, just stats and we need to make a judgment based on that which seems a bit silly as we should know something about who we are about to spend a good five hours playing as.

Granted we do get a plot about idols and other silly nonsense. I gave up after a while with cut scenes happening once every 5 sections or so. The plot really doesn't make up for anything and seems like another link in the chain of monotony.

After those first impressions I was amazed by the visuals. The locations are down right gorgeous and they made me think of the CGI scenes from Valkyrie Profile 2 on the PS2. Very artsy fantasy.

A problem comes from this though. We get absurd load times which is sad because this should be about action and each section (which are of decent length) needing to load is an annoyance in itself but a 2 minute load is just not acceptable.

To make it worse the 5 secrets per location have the exact same theme so it gets very boring quickly but what makes it even worse is that the path is very linear or you may run into a circle path along the way that has some enemies. Now imagine a path so linear that you can't even step on some grass for no reason, it's not a hill but a piece of land beside the path and the game just doesn't allow you to go there.

Now I only played as one character so I can't comment on how all 5 play but my god did this character fight slow. It was as if I had put in a slow-mo cheat code. The combat feels very stiff and limited. it's pretty much just hit X over and over to proceed the same combo every time. You can equip a second weapon to the A button which I liked to use for projectiles but they took much longer to load and weren't nearly as helpful.

As you bash these enemies to pieces you'll be gaining to some experience. I found myself gaining 2-3 levels per section. You get a crap load of ability points. You have three sections to put these into. HP which gives you more health, SP which allows you to equip better stuff, and luck which causes enemies to drop better and more equipment. A bit limited but the game doesn't give you any hint about how to play.

I went with a focus on HP and by level 15 I had it maxed out. Along the way I had added to the SP as I had figured out how it effected the equipment. Then I started upping my luck when enemies suddenly started dropping ATK 2 weapons and I had a 33.

You can also learn new skills in this game. You can learn two at a time and you just need to kill a specific amount of a specific enemy to get it and a nice little meter shows on the screen each time showing how close you are to not needing to kill those enemies any more. It's a nice idea and makes the fighting a little less bland.

You can also synthesize weapons but this just lowers SP and stuff. Not bad but it feels a bit clunkier and there's no way to really know what kind of effect an item is going to have and it could also fail. Just a bit too clunky and doesn't really fit.

The game does offer downloadable content in the form of equipment which is kind of boring and should have been stuff that was included in the game in the first place.

The game also features on-line co-op but I can't imagine that being fun as I found the combat that boring. Maybe it is though but my internet has been on the fritz for the past few weeks.

I can't recommend Kingdom under Fire in any playable form. I rented it and felt ripped off. If I had bought it I would have been annoyed at how boring it is compared to other titles in the genre. Fans might not like it either as it's a step back from what the series is known for. So maybe try the demo on the Live marketplace which is what I probably should have done.

Story - 4/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 6/10
Control - 8/10
Game Play - 5/10
Replay value - 6/10

Final Score - 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/08

Game Release: Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (US, 01/08/08)