Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders on Xbox (2004)

Brief synopsis of Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders

Phantagrams Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders is a truly unique Xbox game - blending strategic RTS type strategising with real-time 3D arcade battling. Its an ambitious premise, and rather surprisingly, it works very well. Rather than throwing the two genres together in a viscous hotch-potch of confusing tasks, we have been presented with a well-formed product that seemingly exists in a genre all of its very own.

It takes its lead from the PC prequel, Kingdom Under Fire, which as a more straightforward strategy game in a near-saturated market, failed to make much of an impression when it was released in 2001. As such it places you in charge of a human army, with up to 1000 units, doing battle against the forces of darkness.

Theres a variety of assorted military types with which to compose your army, all presented with the same decent, if slightly unremarkable, graphical style. Theres the standard infantry, archers, spearmen, cavalry, scouts, sappers, trebuchets, catapults and ballista. Once these chaps are assembled on the battlefield, the player will then wage war against various Orc troops: heavy-infantry, axe-throwers, wolf-riders, giant scorpions and swamp mammoths; as well as fantastically leggy and buxom Dark Elf Amazons who amongst their archers and mounted archers can summon the assistance of Wyverns and ghouls later on in the game.

Before the scrapping commences, the player has to organise the appropriate forces. Flirting with RPG type elements, you can visit the barracks to upgrade troops and warrior leaders, you can train in the fundamentals of warmongering, you can visit the briefing room, you can even eavesdrop on the common-soldiers prevalent concerns by visiting the local pub.

After that, its time to venture forth into the open plains, contemplating a suitable strategy from a god-like cartographic perspective. The single player mission slowly opens up, offering more and more pitched battle sites, and to gain ground youll have to nip on over and indulge in some epic carnage. This is where the Kingdom Under Fire experience really kicks in: when the camera zooms in and ushers in some unprecedentedly complex hacking and slashing.

The nature of the real-time battles will invite immediate comparisons to Koeis Dynasty Warriors series. You can take command of a single, specific commander and get stuck in, as the loyal soldiers that surround you help to fight off the hordes of on-screen enemies. Impressively, there is almost no slowdown, which significantly adds to the intense atmosphere of these epic battles.

When youre actually in charge of the commander, the controls are fairly simplistic. You have a couple of different sword swipes and a special move. If this was all there was to the game, it wouldnt get much praise. However, you are consistently thankful that it isnt made any more complex. Because all the while this button mashing is going on, youll have to keep a close eye on the entirety of your force and your wider, long-term strategies.

As you pile into a crowd of orcs, dealing death like the macho warrior you represent, youll still be wondering where those archers have got to. Suddenly, you zoom out to discover youre archer unit being smacked up by some angry elves. Youll have to quickly re-organise and engineer their escape, maybe bringing in reinforcements or altering your troop formations. Effectively, youre asked to play an arcade slash em up and a deeper strategy gameat the same time. Its multi-tasking at its trickiest, much like patting your head and rubbing your stomach simultaneously.

That might all sound rather complicated, and frankly it is. The learning curve is unusually steep, which might be enough to intimidate most average gamers. Even the opening missions will have most people jibbering in a panic-stricken state. The general in charge is shouting orders at you; youre still trying to work out how to send your troops over there and suddenly you get attacked by a bunch of green-skinned hooligans, and a full-on close-up slash-athon ensues. But although this may be a daunting premise, it guarantees depth and a genuine long-lasting challenge to even the most hardened strategists.

On top of all that, theres also a full buffet of Live features. At time of going to press (before the games release) were in no position to judge these extras, but assuming that they all work smoothly, they will contribute to make KUF an even better value package than it already is. Theres head-to-head online battling, theres a scoreboard for the central single player quest and theres even supplementary downloadable missions.