Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders Preview

“Our religious conviction is challenged without end. In any period and in any territory, demons tempt us toward corruption. …”

Fifty years before the time frame of Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, a demon known as Amaruark used the power of the Ancient Heart to push the kingdom of Bersia into darkness. The Ancient Heart had the power to turn anyone who saw, touched or even spoke of it toward darkness and Amaruark’s army flooded from the East to destroy Bersia. But the country united and rose up to push back Amaruark.

The demon was far from sated, and created the Altar of Destruction, intending to unleash the power of the Ancient Heart to turn the tide of war. But the god of the world intervened and struck down Amaruark and destroyed the altar.

But the passage of time has dimmed the memories of those who lived on. The wars were forgotten and some even doubted that they might have unfolded in the manner remembered by the old men who claim to have fought in them.

What is that phrase? Is it something about those who forget history are doomed to repeat it? Dark clouds are looming on the horizon of the world and warriors are once again taking up arms, but are they aware of whom the real enemy is?

Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders is a Microsoft/Phantagram title for the Xbox slated for release in mid-August. The title is a real-time strategy game sprinkled with elements of role-playing and woven into a tale that has two nations growling the songs of war against each other. But are they the true enemies in this tale? That is up to the player to find out.

GameZone.com received a build of the game that was 80 percent complete, and eagerly took up arms to fall into this world.

The game begins with a bit of history (synopsized above) and then players are given the opportunity to pick one of four generals, each with a difficulty rating: Gerald is a Hironeiden human (easy difficulty),  Kendal is an Ecclesia human (difficulty hard, and you must complete Gerald’s missions to unlock), Lucretia is a Vellond Dark Legion (difficulty normal) and Regnier is Hexter Dark Legion (difficulty hard, and you must complete Lucretia missions to unlock).

From that point on, you are sent into the world and the game campaign begins to untangle its threads.

Gerald is ambling along, friendly jibes and banter breaking up the quick-time march through the brush of the countryside. They are bound for the city of Greyhampton to attend mass and finally reach it, only to find it in ruins and a Heck force nearby.

The battle is brief, and a hostage is taken. However, it seems that the city was burned to the ground a full day before Gerald and his force arrived. Why was the Vellond and Hexter forces in the area?

Lucretia is sent with a force of Dark Legion (elves) to investigate reports that dwarves had built a dragon’s tomb on the parched desert-like portion of Vell territory. Apparently liches are using the tomb to summon bone dragons. When the tomb is located, Lucretia finds much more – a detachment of human soldiers. Her twin blades spin through the forces and when only Vell forces are left standing, the question is put forth as to where the humans came from. A short distance away is a cliff, and there lays the answer. Below, on the plains is a vast army of Hironeidens.

Lucretia is ordered to take her squad to Wicktow and prepare to meet the Hironeidon force there.

Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders bears some striking similarities to KOEI’s lineup of RTS titles set in historical Japan. The combat is real time and you control a figure whirling and fighting through a host of the enemy. The opposing forces will run at you, and the battle is deep and personal, and all the kills your central character gets are recorded for a post-battle roundup. You can also command group formations during the battle.

And as with musou which you build and use to launch a special attack in the KOEI titles, Kingdom Under Fire employs a similar ability. Your attacks build the power you need to launch a devastating special attack against your enemies.

But inasmuch as this game has some of the same general gameplay feel, it does take a decided step away at times. For example, you can rotate the battlefield camera, to track an enemy running away. And in addition to group movement you can also command special group attacks. You have a band of archers under the command of one of the central forces. The enemy is targeted and instead of launching your typical aerial assault, you command your archers to launch fire arrows. Of course, these are only effective in certain areas and if the fire you ignite burns out of control, in addition to the enemy, it may also consume your archers. The archers also have a limited-range attack, which will do bigger damage than their typical hail of arrows.

Other features of Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders includes up to 1,000 units on a battlefield, and more than 100 units on-screen at once; customizable and upgradeable characteristics for both your troops and generals; the ability to play as either the dark forces or the human forces with a total of four available campaigns; and Xbox Live connectivity (not available on this preview build).

The background music steps away from the classic medieval/fantasy setting, and employs a straight rock field, but the feel and tone changes for each army. And while some of the voice work was not thoroughly complete, this game will not pull punches and will likely fall into the Teen rating for language.

The controls of Kingdom Under Fire are easy to use, and the learning curve will be short.

Graphically, this game is outstanding. The animations are terrific, the onscreen prompts are not intrusive and the environments are diverse and lushly rendered. The game uses a world map to pull back over the vast world and allow player movement in a strategic manner. The game did seem a tad linear in design, but was immersive with a leaning toward tactical combat.

The game is mostly about combat and to that end players will find the action impressive.

Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders offers different perspectives, but the foundation of this title is entertainment. Keep an eye out for this one. It may have some stereotypes in the build received, but the storyline seems solid and it offers both challenge as well as hack ‘n slash fun.