Gamers who want to play a real-time strategy know that they will have to own a PC to get that fix. Every so often developers port their RTS games over to a gaming console, but due to the limited amount of buttons on the controllers, the interface really never works out that well. Last year the developers Phantagram released Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders which proved to be a really good success. Since that turned out to be the case, it was only a matter of time before a sequel was made and released. Read on to find out more!

The story for this game is what anyone would expect from a fantasy-based game. The many races of the world, Humans , Elves, Vampires, Orcs, and many others are at war with each other once more, which has come to be known as the Encablossa War. The war is basically a war between the good guys and the bad guys: Human Alliance verses the Dark Legion. Players will get to play with seven (one is hidden) Heroes as each fights this war, and get their different perspectives on it. It is your job to see if you have what it takes to fight for what your Hero believes in and to see if they can get their goals accomplished.

The way that the game plays is one of the biggest reasons why it succeeds while other RTS game fail on consoles. First players will move around with a huge army trying to complete a mission. When the army you are controlling encounters another army, it is then that the game switches to an action game in the same vein as Dynasty Warriors. This is where you will take direct control over one person (the Hero) and take down the enemies in the area. Once your battle is complete, you go back into RTS mode where you are controlling an entire army trying to accomplish your goals. Even though you might be shaking your head about the concept of this game, it works really well and provides many hours of enjoyment.

One of my complaints with this game is that it will take you a while to get really adjusted to playing this game. Since this is an RTS game and you are playing with a controller that has less buttons then a keyboard, it will just take time to understand how to do everything. This brings me up to another point, a game of this nature really needs to include some sort of tutorial mode. When you first boot up the game and choose a Hero to become, you are just thrown into the game. The game almost expects players to know what to do in this game. What makes this a little easier is the AI is not as fierce in the early missions, but still it would have been nice to know what to do other than looking at the instruction booklet for help, and then just play by trial and error. Once players get over the learning curve for this game, they will see that everything that the developers did makes sense, it is just hard to process it all when you play the game for the first time.

The graphics for Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes are really good. I am amazed at the amount of characters on the screen at one time and how big and varied the battlegrounds actually are. The various locations where you will do battle will have rivers, hills, forests, plains, and other terrain that really help prevent any repetition one might get when fighting. The enemies that you will do battle with are also really well detailed. Not only that but all of the units have really good and somewhat unique animation that really sets them apart from other unit types. You will see them in various battle formations so that will make you think that you really are in a midst of war.

The sound effects for this game are what you might normally expect from a game of this nature. During the course of battle you will hear various sword clashing, lots of big explosions, and many grunts from fighting and dying characters. If you like harder rock music this game will be right up your alley. What is really bad is that this game does not feature custom soundtracks. This would have made this game much better because killing tons of enemy warriors to your own tunes makes any game better. The voice acting in this game is something less than to be desired though, but that is why they made the mute button on your TV.

If you are wanting to play this game with more then one person then never fear because the Xbox Live is here. The modes that you can play are Hero Battle Mode and Troop Battle Mode. In Hero Battle Mode, you can choose your favorite Hero and you can play with up to five friends. There are two different modes you can play in here: Hero Battle which is where you choose one Hero and you play with that one throughout the entire game. Also you can play invasion where you choose a Hero and then you protect your castle from being invaded by enemies. The other game mode you can play in is Troop Battle Mode. In that mode you start off with a Hero, three infantry units, archer, and one aerial support unit, then you will have at it to see who is the best commander out there.

Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is rated M for Mature Audiences.

Gameplay: 8.2
What makes Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes really good is how the game really fits to a console controller. The combat to this game is really good and will have you entertained for hours on end.

Graphics: 8.7
This game looks really good and the characters models are highly detailed. I like the high character count while you are in the midst of battle and how the frame rate rarely drops.

Sound: 8.4
The music for this game is pretty good and fits the game theme perfectly. The sound effects also feature the normal clashing of weapons, war cries and other battle sounds.

Difficulty: Medium
Since I did not play the previous game released last year, I was in for a hard time because the game expects that you know how to play it. Of course, the first few missions do act as a small tutorial, but if you have never played the game series before you will be in for a rough ride.

Concept: 8.0
I really liked how the developers created a good RTS game for the gaming consoles, especially since finding a good RTS game for console is a rare thing.

Multiplayer: 8.5
Playing online against another person is always better then playing against the computer AI. What makes this even better is that I rarely, if ever, ran into any lag while playing online.

Overall: 8.4
If you are itching for a good real-time strategy game, with heavy action elements, for the Xbox, then look no further then Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes.