Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes (Xbox)

Knights, elves, orcs, we bet this is sounding like another lord of the rings remake to you and you dont know how wrong you would be in assuming that. Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is the second instalment in the series although the events in the game come just before those of the first one. If you have played the first then fret not as this is not just another remake. The controls have been tweaked and there are twice as many playable characters now including Walter and PrinceLeinhart.

For those of you who have never played any of the Fingdom Under Fire games, they are third person action/adventure/strategy games where you controll a group leader and you move your troop around the map attacking enemies, or defending certain places. Once you become engaged in battle with the enemy you gain controll of your character, giving you a chance to pulvarise your enemies with your skills...or if just button bash and see what happens. The strategic aspect to the game is the fact that you will get different types of troops such as archers, infantry, cavalry and even things such as wyverns and swamp mamoths which are huge creatures. You can move around up to 5 different groups of allies at a time meaning your main troop with your character might be engaged in battle, fleeing, while you use your archers to put fire on your enemy and perhaps send in a cavalry charge if you have control of a cavalry troop. This really adds to the enjoyment as sometimes you will find yourself in breathtakingly large battles where you just dont know where to start first. In those cases you wont controll every ally on screen, however your allies who are computer controlled are pretty helpful in sticky situations. After each battle you gain points and money depending on how many kills you have. The more kills you get the higher the pay and experience. This is used between battles where you would usually find yourself in a base camp or castle. There you can go to the barracks and 'train' your soldiers. Money is used to buy and upgrade your and your soldier's weapons, and experience is used to upgrade your own and your soldiers stats such as agility, melee, ranged and so on. The melee level of a troop determines their overall level which in turn determines the armor they can wear and weapons they can use. For instance if you want to buy a lever 15 armour then your troop must be level 15 or higher to be able to use it. All other skills that the troop pocesses will depend on their job. The job of a troop is what they are basically, whether its archer, cavalry, or paladins. for instance to change the job of your infantry to archers you will need to ensure they have a 'ranged' skill. Furthermore each troop has elemental skills and these can also determine a troop's job such as paladins which are simply knights with 'holy' skills. The main use of elemental skills though is for magic attacks. These include things such as meteor strike, thunder storm, dark mist, holy explosion and so on. Once again the ability depends on the elemental skill of the troop. These become very handy in battle for instance when you need to heal your troop or you want to weaken the enemy by casting lightning just before you attack. Of course there is also a strategic aspect to every soldier's weapon and armour which further intensifies the amazingness of the game.

The second game in the FUF series boasts more enemies and more attacks to kill those enemies with. Although there are no new troop additions to the game there are already more than enough to keep fans occupied. There is probably a very slight improvement in the game graphics wise although it is barely noticeable. That is not to say that the graphics are bad because they are not. Although the environments can be abit too samey, the characters ooze with colour and life. Perhaps another slight graphical improvement in this game is the fact that there are a few more cut scenes thatn in the last one but the fact that there was only one cut scene in the previous one doesnt do much for the second in the series. Another thing which has been changed slightly for this game is the music. We can gladly say that it is less repetitive than that of KUF: The Crusaders and easier on the ears.

Gameplay wise the game is still very strong. There are now 7 playable characters as opposed to 4, which gives the game alot more depth and increases the longevity. Also more characters mean a bigger range of difficulty levels ranging from easy to very hard. Trust us when we say that the very hard mode is indeed very hard. Furthermore as you may be able to guess, more characters means more variety and a different experience with each character. For instance Urukubarr is incredibly strong and can use his strength to fling enemies across the place like dolls, but he is very slow and unmaneuverable. On the other hand you have someone like Morene, a half vampire who is very agile and uses her claws in quick succession for quick attacks. Of course also most characters have different troops. For example if you choose to be Rupert, Walter, or Ellen their escorting troop will be infantry whereas if you are Urukubarr your escorting troop will be orcs.

For those who have played KUF before they will know that the fighting is very strong. Once again this has been tweaked ever so slightly in the second game and for the better at that. When you need to call one of your commanders for aid you press either the white or black button depending on which of the 2 you want help from. This is an improvement from the previous game where you had to press a combination of 2 of the a,b,x,y buttons. Alot more combinations have been added to the attacks of different characters ensuring more variety in their attacks and cooler moves. There is also a new attack available for every character which can be used when an enemy is down but now not yet dead. It is deadly when executed and incredibly fun to watch your character perform. Button bashing can work when fighting however its not recomended as usually your character will end up performing moves in the middle of nowhere which you cant prevent and this wastes time. After all you have to try and kill your enemies as quickly as possible or your troop will take more damage which will end up in casualties. You can heal the wounded, but you cant revive the dead.

All in all this is one amazing game and if you have played the first then this is definately worth getting because all the tweaking that the developers have done to it has worked exceptionally well. The second KUF game on the Xbox boasts better graphics with more frequent cut scenes so you can enjoy those "wow" moments more often. Improved gameplay and alot more added content and variety.

Sound 9/10 - a very nice compilation soundtrack that doesnt get too repetitive

Graphics 8/10 - you wont spend very much time looking at the graphics due to the frantic gameplay, however the graphics have been improved since the last game and everything looks more polished

Gameplay 10/10 - Solid gameplay. Absolutely no complaints. All we can say is - we need more!

Value 10/10 - This came out in 2005 so you could probably get it for around £10-15. Even if you were to buy it for £30 it will still be worth every penny. There is tons to do in the game and all the new characters and slight tweaks made to the game have improved it massively.

Final Score 9.2