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What Happened?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

So today's game market is pretty well if not over saturated with strategy games. With this being the case it makes sense that developers of the new comers learn from and improve based on titles that have been on the shelves. Obviously this logic doesn't follow through in the real world, enter Kingdom Under Fire.

Now although some of the sounds of battle are pretty well done, KUF leaves a generic after taste. swords clash with as much enthusiasm as a high school thespian take on Hamlet. Horses, arrows, trampling feet, all sound generic and uninspired. The final death blow to the sound quality comes from the voice acting. Dialogue feels cheap and meaningless between yawn inspiring battle charges and filler buster comments among characters.

The graphics have also suffered. Although character models look good form long range, animations and detail look childish at a closer glance. I simply can't say enough bad things about the animation. One such example is the way characters run through trees and obstacles, it looks more like they're running in place while the world moves around and shifts out of their way. Usually poor voice acting and graphics go hand in hand and KUF is no exception. Characters don't even speak their lines. Instead the programmers decided to have the characters constantly "chew gum" while the voice track is played. Even after they speak the characters continue to do the chewing motion-is this level of programing really acceptable with the capabilities of the XBOX?

Gameplay quickly becomes boring no matter what the mission is. Battles mean mashing your troops into enemy troops with the ocassional support of varying soldier types. This does add a level of tactics to the game but not enough to compete-or even step in the same field as other strategy titles. The core of all battles is getting your character in the thick of the melee. The quickest and most efficient way to end these battles is by finding the commander of the enemy forces and quickly taking them out. Its a good idea but translates into a random chance on the battlefield as the commanders always look like the other enemies on the screen. You'll be lucky if you find them.

With everything said, Kingdom Under Fire is a title that adds no ambition to the RTS genre. All aspects of the game range from bland to mediocre and onward to generic. This title is obviously an attempt by programmers who love RTS' to get a foot hold on the genre; the reallity is that they should have stayed out or developed a more valiant effort. For those with computers running at a good ability, there is an endless sea of RTS games. Sadly, Kingdom Under Fire throws in the towel to even the classics from the past decade. If you're curious, rent it. Otherwise pass it by on your way to a Blizzard or Sierra title.

Not what I expected...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 29
Date: October 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Because it is a Real Time Strategy game you can command up to two to four units at once, ie.. Archers, Main troops, spearmen, cavalry etc. However this at times can bring some hardship to the gamer as your main character takes damage as you switch to archers and send them off where they need to go ultimately suffering because there are NO powerups on the battlefield. In one level it was cool because you become invincable while you control the other troop but its ONLY for that one level!? Another aspect that makes it quite corny is the voice acting, everyone notices it. At times they say something different than is in the subtitles and the subtitles arent spelled right etc. I can deal with cheesy voice acting but why Gerald ALWAYS looks like hes chewing gum is downright WEIRD!

The game itself is pretty nifty in the fact that you can control many troops into battle and use them to help your quest. but in the end suffers from sloppy gameplay. It is worth a rent but will turn most gamers off with its quirks.

Medieval Mediocrity

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: March 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is mediocre, at best. It is a fantasy medieval war game with mixes of RPG, Action, and tactics thrown in. You command a squad of soldiers with certain skills and equipment; and you get to control the leader in combat, hacking up the enemies and doing special moves...

The first few missions were fun and getting to improve the leader and the army was fun as well - but it gets old very fast. There is very little surprise or innovation on the part of the character development or story progression. In fact, if you've played other RPG or fantasy games you'll notice the typical formula in this one - which is not bad if you like that style.

The graphics, sound, and performance were great - but it had a modern musical score with electric guitars and hard rock. Doesn't bother me but it does detract from the flavor of the game.

All said, the game is repetitive early on with very little in the way of excitement to offer. Players may enjoy the action - if you like button-mashing this is full of it. The graphics and bloodshed are great and will satisfy the action / gore fanatics out there.

Take care!

False advertising and misleading labeling

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: August 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well first off, check the box, it states that there is a custom soundtrack ability, which is totally absent as far as I can tell after playing for one day straight. Then there is the horrible grating rock music. I've played a lot of dynasty warrior and KUF: The Crusaders makes the same horrible mistake. I mean a gaming experience must have good atmosphere, and that is produced from the integration of music and gameplay.

I expected to hear the soldiers shout louder as they came closer
to the enemy, barely peep. It just didn't have enough "atmosphere".

Did Metal Gear Solid have crappy rock most of the time? No. Did Lord of the Ring games have crappy rock? No. Did Diablo have crappy rock? No. Everquest? No. Get what I'm sayin?

Get a good symphony orchestra, put some braveheart-ish themes, or music like from "god of war (ps2)" then I wouldn't say a word against this game. Then there has been no downloadable content when the box clearly stated that there was. Even after all this time, they still haven't made a patch that let's you have custom soundtracks or fix spelling errors in the subtitles. When you buy this game, be careful, because it promises a lot but does not deliver enough, at least to my expectations.

Battlefield controls Ruin the Game.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a GREAT game. When I first started playing I was like wow. The Graphics are amazing. The dialogue between characters was lame.. very SNESish but I was willing to let that slip by.

And the battles and action was... unique.

My problem with the game is twofold.
First.. controling your armies is VERY difficult.
I had to replay a bunch of battles because my troops would not do what I desired, or I couldn't order them all fast enough.

The view of the battlefield is shown right above and behind your current selected troop. that is nice and all, however this causes you to lose your depth with your curser. it's hard to see where you are clicking your troops to move towards. you can't tell if you are moving them 5 feet or 5 miles.
Your curser also remains on the battlefeild at all times at the last location you left it. That doesn't seem so bad but when you rotate between armies it can be annoying because the curser might be facing the wrong direction and you need to rotate it completely around in order to command your troops to go the direction you desire, and then do it again 2 sec later should you want a different troop to go the other direction.
Not so bad you say? It is when every second counts and you need to get every unit to do their own thing at the exact same time.
It makes me wish there was a pause so that you can order your units to do their assigned task and then unpause and just edit as needed real time.
It gets even worse when you have calvery. ride through the enemy, turn around and ride back through. the bad thing about that is they turn like a semi.. very wide, they are very intensive to control... so while you control them you ignore others. and the difficul curser controls tend to make you accadently force your calvery into hand to hand which it's not designed.

Yes there is a minimap that can help with commanding your units around, but even that can be difficult to use espesially in the mist of a battle. I didn't play the game for very long, however I think mastering the mini-map might be the key to getting through the game.

Another problem I had with the game is the fact that it was linear. It told me what to do step by step. send your troops here, now do this, now head this direction, now set thease traps.
it was very blah. Maybe it's because I was playing it on easy... but I don't think so. It doesn't feel very much like a strategy game when all the strategy is done by the computer for you.

if you can get by the clunky controling then this game is Great. the graphics were supurb and the experience and leveling up they have is very unique and promising.
even the hand to hand fighting is decent that you do. the only flaw is that is that when the leader goes down you win and they lose.. so fight your way ton the leader and kill them and you win nice and easy. ::shrugs::

I liked the game. I will probally try to continue my game and find a better way of controling my armies.
If you like strategies, you might like this. I'd reccomend renting first however

controls are horrible

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

i gave this game about 4 hours to become fun, and ultimately I wish I had those 4 hours back. you'll be excited when you get cavalry, but that excitement will disappear quickly when you realize you have to manually run them back and forth through the enemy while your hero is getting sliced up, and that you have to do this with a very clunky camera system. i think for real-time strategic war games you're better off on a pc. pick up starcraft or any of a thousand other RTS title out there that blow KUF away.

Nice Darkelves, But Little Else

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 16
Date: January 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to like this game but it isn't really giving me much to work with. The only thing I like about this game are the half-naked darkelves. That's about it. The battlefield simulation is woefully inadequate. The soldiers never quite pay attention to your commands. I hate to say it but the battlefield simulation of Dynasty Warriors is soooo much better. At least you can distingish between a standard soilder and an officer. This game tried to do so much and failed miserably.

Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: October 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was really looking forward to this game and seemed it would have something different that what set it apart and make it a great game. Well it didn't, it has the best graphics for it genre and a few more added features but when it comes down to it the game just fell short for me.

Cons
-Voice acting and plot gets really annoying
-Levels are extremely difficult if you try to use your own strategy then what the game intended (So much for making your own strategy)
-Most of defeating a squad is killing its leader (kind of disappointing when you were hoping for a large scale combat)
-If you fail at the end of a mission you have to start it all over again. (This gets repetitive)

Pros
-The Heroes have some really nice moves (Great eye candy)
-Setting up ambushes was a nice feature (Send one man to lure an entire army right into a trap)
-The Calvary charge was pretty cool (Storm a whole bunch of infantry men)

Overall the game wasn't horrible but it isn't anything to get excided over.

Worst voice acting ever!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: October 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game itself is not bad the graphics are slightly above average and the game play is kinda fun, very simular to kessen 2. Now on to the voice over's they could very well be the worst ever! It seem's that the voice actors are just reading text from start to finish with no effort to act out what is going on in the game what so ever! When you play the game you will see what I mean but remember the game itself is not bad it's just the voice acting although you may want to rent before you buy. If it wasn't for the dreadfull voice acting I would have given it 4 star's.

A 20 Dollar Wasteb

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: January 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First of all the game was pretty good but when its the it having the same moves, army, characters, and rip off from other games like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I would suggest you buy WARCRAFT instead. I think the game should be more of a 11 dollar game. The game defintely has its moments but not enough for purchase.

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