Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on July 13, 2005

First Impressions: More action, bigger battles Ц and half-nekkid women with swords!

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Last year's Kingdom Under Fire: Crusaders was a unique blend of action and real-time strategy set in a medieval fantasy world where you and your armies fought in huge, epic battles against evil trolls, orcs, elves and dragons. Crusaders was an Xbox exclusive, but is actually a sequel to the successful PC franchise, tweaked for a greater emphasis on action to satisfy the tastes of console gamers. And generally, it was well received Ц gamers loved the action, but a clunky camera and an awkward RTS command-and-control system was a source of some frustration.

Fortunately, South Korean developer Phantagram listened to the criticisms and is promising that the upcoming sequel, KUF: Heroes, will not only resolve the weaknesses of its predecessor, but will be bigger, badder and more fun than ever before. For example, where gameplay was split roughly 60/40 between RTS and action in Crusaders, Heroes will be the exact opposite with a 60/40 emphasis on action. You've got to love the sound of that.

Story-wise, Heroes is actually a prequel, taking place five years before Crusaders. This time around, you will be playing as the secondary characters who originally appeared in Crusaders, while the main characters in the first game will be secondary NPCs this time around. Overall, you will be able to play seven Hero characters, including Ellen and Rupert (who were loyal NPCs to Gerald in the first game), the sexy but deadly Morene, and even a giant ogre who can pick up and smash enemies around like dolls. Each Hero will have four to five unique combo skills and special abilities; for example, Rupert has a warhammer baseball attack, where he can throw a person up into the air and then smack him on the way down. Morene can use her Bone Blades to hook onto enemies and swing them around like a bolo to bash other enemies, and can launch herself into the air. She can also summon fire-breathing dragons to lend aerial support. But perhaps most impressive of all is her supernatural ability to keep from falling out of her impossibly skimpy leather bikini Ц apparently a sensible choice of clothing to wear in battles filled with razor-sharp swords and spears.

Your Heroes will also be able to level up throughout the game and improve their attributes like strength, special abilities and so on. Combine that with the increased number of skills, weapons and magic, and you'll be slicing through enemies like a hot spork through microwaved yogurt, right? Well, considering that you will be facing a lot more enemies Ц who will also be bigger and nastier Ц you'll need every advantage you can get. The battles will be massive, with up to 200 characters onscreen at any one time and 3000 individual troops simultaneously duking it out off-screen Ц all while maintaining a steady framerate of 30 FPS. And yes, folks, it really does look as impressive as it sounds.

Gameplay-wise, Heroes is more of an evolution than a revolution over the previous edition. Combat controls are virtually the same but the troop management system has been significantly improved to make things a lot easier; simply click the mini-map and you can adjust troop positions, switch between divisions and issue new orders on the fly. A new camera system now allows you to pull back and get a much wider strategic view of the battlefield. This is definitely good news, considering that five new troop-types have been added for a total of 40 characters assigned to your main character.

New environmental features will now affect your strategy and tactics. The maps are much bigger with variable terrain that will affect gameplay; for example, troops on high ground will dish out more damage compared to those below them. As well, the game will feature eight different weather systems that you will have to deal with; snow, for example, will be slippery and slow your progress.

The single player campaign will have over 50 missions providing about 30-50 hours of gameplay; as well, two additional difficulty settings have been added, for a total of five. But the big news is that Heroes will be able to support up to six players over Xbox Live, triple the number in Crusaders. There will be three multiplayer modes: Troop Battle, where you take your Hero and troops to fight against other players; Hero Battle, where players take only their Heroes for some good old fashioned mano a mano hack and slash deathmatches; and Invasion Battle, a co-operative mode where three players and their AI troops work together to fight against huge waves of enemies. Unfortunately, those without Xbox Live will be out of luck as Heroes will not support offline multiplayer, at least at this point in development.