What the developers here have done, is essentially scrap everything that's related to real-time strategy, and have instead opted for the RPG route. Gone are the massive battles and strategical need and in are the dungeon crawls and the leveling up. It seems a rather drastic move but at the same time, it could be argued that it does make the game a little more appealing. Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom has some interesting additions and you may want to like it, but it falters under a few poor and archaic design decisions.
Fans of the Kingdom Under Fire series will be glad to find that Circle of Doom essentially follows from previous titles. So a lot of the characters will be familiar and there are a lot of familiar references throughout. For non-fans, there is brief prologue that can be viewed, though it's no substitute for prior experience. There are six playable characters (including one that needs to be unlocked) and each follow their own loose story. By loose, we mean that you could effectively get through the game without actually experiencing anything that resembles a story.
OK, who's first?
The world in the game is divided into the Age of Light and Age of Dark. The two Ages are meant to be at a transitional phase, though it seems that the Light leader doesn’t want to relinquish his time. The result? A mess between dimensions. You spend most of your time in the Age of Light, but whenever you get to a sanctuary point, you can go to sleep and 'enter' the Age of Dark in your 'dreams'. Here, each character will have a chance to interact with other important characters and gain quests. A lot of the interactions are deliciously covered in dark humour or a foreboding undertone, which manages to set the game apart. It made us wish there was more of it in the game.
As mentioned above, the game has jettisoned all the strategy elements and replaced them with RPG elements. Basically, players have six dungeons to explore, and they pursue quests if they want to. To get from one dungeon to the next, players need to travel through a couple of areas and find the boss. Upon defeat, players will find themselves in the next dimension (though there is one exception to this). One of the touted features of the game was that each area in the dungeon was subject to some random generation. It’s not completely random, it’s just each area is essentially made up of a few preset tiles and some are randomly placed, while others are always always the same. It’s a nifty little feature, which is slightly let down by elements surrounding it.
The gameplay in Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom can be described as a cross between Dynasty Warriors and (loosely) Diablo. The game is a little deeper than DW, as you need to take care of your weapon selection. You’ll spend a lot of time with melee attacks, but ranged weapons can be extremely useful. By holding the L trigger, a reticule will come up to help with melee attacks. Each time you swing a sword or fire an arrow, you use SP. However, it will recharge quickly, though this will depend on the weapons and the equipment you have. It really just comes down to choosing the balance that suits the individual. While it does demand a little more thought and there is a slight element of “just one more room”, it’s still going to get remorselessly repetitive for most players.
In terms of the RPG elements, only your HP, SP and Luck are increased with each level. Attack power solely depends on weapons and your best form of defense is a big HP bar. Of course, you have spells and abilities that can be learned. To do so, you have to speak to a particular character in your dreams and choose a spell or ability to learn. It's a rather simple task, as all you have to do is go out and kill a bunch of different specified enemies and once that’s done, go back and you’ll have learned a new spell. The spells across characters don’t have a lot of difference between one another, though a few did seem to be rather quirky.
You can't complain about not having enough enemies.
Another one of the game’s touted features is that of synthesizing new weapons and equipment. While it is indeed a fascinating feature, it lacks satisfaction when you’re experimenting and there is very little to help you figure out how to do it ‘right’. So long as you’ve got the gold, you can synthesise just about anything. Unfortunately, while there are a few specifics for successful synthesizing, experimenting can frustrate, as you’ll often produce duds, such as weapons with decreasing attack power. It isn’t until you start getting better weapons, equipment and useful items much later in the game that synthesizing becomes somewhat fruitful.
There are a couple of flaws that set back Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom as a single player game. Firstly, the quest design is borderline on shambolic. Basically, you’ll spend most of your time fetching items whose location has been very discretely disclosed. What this means is that you’ll have to stumble upon the correct dungeon and the correct location within the dungeon to find a glowing orb (which are unbelievably easy to miss). The problem is that unless you can remember your previous locations or manage to suss it out, you’re left with A LOT of aimless wandering.
Secondly, the overall design is awfully archaic. At its core, it’s a very linear game (and not in a good way) and it’s incredibly repetitive. The new additions that have come to the game are heavily overshadowed by this. You don’t have a block, you don’t have a strafe, and so combat becomes completely one-noted. You’ll fight endless hordes of stupid, brain-dead enemies with long HP bars, who only take long beat because you may not have the best weapon on you at the time. They only really start to challenge late in the piece. That, and game seems to bring dungeon crawling to a literal and discouraging crawl. It doesn’t help that your character gets stuck on any fixture that’s higher than an inch.
The bosses redefine annoying if you're on your own.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The game is much more enjoyable when played in co-op, and you can have up to four players at once. Put it this way, with one more player, hacking through enemies seems like it takes half the time! Which just may be enough to retain some of that hacking satisfaction that wears out so quickly when playing on your own. This is especially true of the boss battles, which are really painful when played on your own. Unfortunately, it’s confined to the Live play, as you can’t play co-op on the one console. Shame. Still, it’s best to play with people that you know.
Graphically, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom is in reality, a previous gen game with a coat of paint. Sure, things are nicely built, textured and animated, but there are numerous tech issues. There is at least one instance of every conceivable tech issue. Clipping, tearing, pop-in, framerate stutters and even some awful aliasing in the only indoor dungeon. Still, it only has a negative affect on the gameplay quite late. Otherwise, the game has a rather subtle but distinguishing style and despite lack of variety, the game can look pretty. In terms of sound, there isn’t a lot of voicing, but it backs up the dialogue very well. The music is certainly suitable but it gets repetitive as well. The sound effects aren’t that varied but get the job done most of the time, even with instances where it feels like it’s missing.
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom is certainly a bold step for the franchise, though it’s where the game doesn’t make the bold step that it falls apart. The additions such as randomized dungeons and synthesizing are good, the links to previous games is good for fans and it is a game with its own character. That, and playing through with each of the six characters and hunting all the Xbox 360 achievements could take as much as 100 hours. However, as a single-player action RPG, it’s really only passable in the grand scheme of things. Unless you’ve got some friends for co-op action, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom will likely leave you wanting.
Loading...
