|
Kingdom Under Fire is a series that has been
bubbling-under for many years. Never having quite reached the
mainstream audience yet garnering a cult fanbase, each edition
 of
the series has allowed room for creativity. And here, we have
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of Doom, the fourth entry into the
series and the most high-profile release to date; being published by
Microsoft Games Studios as an Xbox360 exclusive.
Although, as mentioned above, Kingdom Under Fire:
Circle Of Doom is the fourth title in the series, Korean
developer Blueside has ensured that the player need not have played
– or indeed, even be aware of – the previous titles released.
Playing as a 3D Scrolling Hack-N’-Slash title, seen as a culmination
of elements from titles such as Baldur’s Gate,
Untold Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade, Ninety-Nine
Nights and the
Devil May Cry and
Dynasty Warriors
series, the title offers Randomly Generated Maps four-player online
Co-Operative gameplay and intertwining stories from six individual
characters; each with their own unique fighting style and equipment
options.
The gameplay allows the player to follow one of two
distinct paths through each character’s Campaign. The player can
choose to either play the game traditionally – moving through
Level-by-Level in order – or follow the Story Quests. The Story
Quests see you flitting backwards-and-forwards through the six
distinctly varied locals, each of which boasting the aforementioned
Random Generation; meaning the player will never play through the
same Map twice. However, with a distinct lack of discovery – items
and money only being obtained through kills – while being a
technical achievement, the result is a somewhat soulless progression
when in Single-Player.
The combat is fluid and the control System is
responsive, and the A and X Buttons representing your right and left
hands respectfully, and the amount of armour, weaponry and abilities
available is fantastic. The Role-Playing Nature follows the
traditional path of Levelling-Up when gaining Experience Points for
kills, and allows the player to allocate these Points on upgrading
Health and Attack Meters, or Luck. The enemy variety has been well
though-through and the Bosses rival even those in the Ninja
Gaiden and Devil May Cry series in terms of ingenuity.
The player’s Inventory is limited in space, which often proves quite
an annoyance, but is limited for that reason – to encourage the
player to think about which items will be beneficial, rather than
seeing just which has the best statistics. Items can be
Synchronised, allowing abilities from one to transfer to another
when successful, and have a drastic affect on the way a player
should conduct themselves when in combat.
The Single-Player may feel a bit empty at times, but
when taken online Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of Doom
heats-up. Allowing for four-player simultaneous play with minimal
Lag, players can work together through Story Quests and Maps or
simply go item-hording. When four players work together as different
characters, the game easily promotes a help/hinder strategy that is
more efficient than most; working with the other players will allow
for progress, but, as is tradition with the genre, the items are
delivered on a “finders-keepers” policy.
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of Doom doesn’t
sparkle graphically. Given all the recent big-budget competition,
such as
Halo 3,
Mass Effect,
Project Gotham Racing
4 and
Assassin’s Creed, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of
Doom should be forgiven for not meeting these standards. The
Level Design has been well thought-out, given the nature of Randomly
Generating scenery, and shows little fault in visual detail. The
Lighting Effects look good and the Character Models are animated
well in-game, although it’s clear the localisation hasn’t been
particularly too thorough, and the lip-synching in Cut-Scenes isn’t
exactly top-dollar. The soundtrack is well developed too, utilising
the now a-typical route of having numerous scores per Level; for
when the action heats-up and for the calm before the storm.
From the offset, it’s clear that Kingdom Under Fire:
Circle Of Doom is not a AAA release alongside the likes of
Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey. It is, however, a game
pushing through new boundaries in the strict confinements of its
genre. With the developers having worked hard to earn their series
the reputation it now holds, it would be a severe shame to see them
criticised for creating a game with enough refinement to call itself
groundbreaking, but lacking the graphical fidelity the consumer
demands. |
