Customer Reviews

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I normally play FPS games. This is the first RPG in my game collection. At first, I was stunned by the beautiful graphics. The game creators put a lot of work into visual details of the scenery. The next thing that struck me was the originality of the gameplay overall. I loved the concept of the "Idols" in each board. Each of the three idols has slightly different items for sale, each idol's appearance depends on the moon's phase. The idol alters are also where the character "sleeps" - slips into a haunting dream world where an old guru grants abilities, quests, and advice. This is the kind of originality that too many games are missing in today's market.

I only have a couple of gripes about the game. One is the tediousness of grinding through the boards to accomplish quests. For example, in order to get a certain ability, you have to kill the "Forest Guardian" twice. BUT, to get to the Forest Guardian, you have to start at the beginning of the Forest realm, and grind your way through all the boards of that realm. Needless to say, it gets a little monotonous the second time around. I also thought the EQ purchasing could be greatly improved by limiting what a character can BUY, not just use. Certain characters are limited to certain EQ, fair enough. But, the limitations are in the written descriptions of the items. A character can spend a ton of gold on a killer weapon, only to find he/she can't use it because they failed to read ALL of the item's description. It would be nice if the developers could either gray-out the items not available to certain characters, or create character-specific lists of weapons and armor.

This review was written by my son, James Shea

A radical departure from the rest of the Kingdom Under Fire series, "Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom" changes the series from a RTS game with some hack-and-slash elements to a pure hack-and-slash.

First, some history: Kingdom Under Fire started as a PC game that was basically another Warcraft clone. Later, it moved to the Xbox with KUF: Crusaders and KUF: Heroes, which had a really unique system - most of the time it was strategy, used from a third-person perspective from your different platoons, but when you got into melee with your leader's group you would take control of your leader and hack-and-slash your way through the crowd. This helped you win battles that would otherwise find you outmatched.

In Circle of Doom, the series has moved entirely to that Hack-and-Slash mechanic. There are six characters, all of whom are from previous KUF games (4 from the Xbox titles, and 2 from the original PC one). These characters differ in their speed, their strength, and the types of weapons they can use. In the beginning, five characters are available, with one more being unlockable. Their storylines mostly revolve around their disappearances at the end of their respective games - now they are in a new realm, devoid of humans besides themselves. The only characters in the "real world" are the three idols that you encounter at rest points. These act as the game's merchants, selling you different gear depending on which idol is there (the bubbly Idol of Love, the dark and shrouded Idol of Death, and the Buddha-like Idol of Greed.) Furthermore, you can fall asleep at rest points, and in your dreams you will be transported to the Realm of Darkness, a subdimension that holds the dead spirits of the game's other characters. These spirits are also recognizable from previous games. They assign quests, teach abilities, and provide general story information. Other than those two minor sources, there is almost no story or interaction in the game.

The gameplay should be at least the redeeming part to the game, but for the most part it's not. Swinging a weapon requires "SP", or "Stamina Points", which recharge naturally. This means that most of your hack-and-slash actions will be punctuated by waiting for your stamina to recharge. This really takes you out of the game and is downright frustrating most of the time. There are lots of magical abilities to be learned, and this requires not just leveling up but also doing quests (most often "kill X number of this type of enemy"). For the most part, the gameplay lacks a lot of the combo attacks and excitement that the Xbox games held in their hack-and-slash sections. It's also possible to do a co-op mode with up to four people over Xbox Live, using head

The graphics are without a doubt the game's best part. The characters - friend and foe - are all really detailed and textured, and all the effects are really fantastic. The lighting, especially, looks fantastic. The environments - including a forest, a ruined city, and an underground area - are all rendered impressively, with lots of little details and side parts. Blood - which can be turned on or off - is shown as artistic sprays of color. The music is also very haunting and beautiful, conveying the sense of a dead, empty world. The voice acting isn't great, but it comes up so infrequently that it doesn't matter.

As a whole, this game has a lot going for it (the graphics and the co-op option being the main two) but also a lot more not going for it (the gameplay, the lack of story, the comparison of this game to other KUF games). Even as a hack-and-slash, it's not a whole lot of fun. It seems like a lot of wasted effort on the parts of the development team.

Rating: 6/10

If you are looking for some co-op fun with some friends over xbox live this is a pretty good game. If you are looking for a deep and involving rpg, or the old KOF action rts forumula this isn't the game. To me it feels like a mix between Gauntlet and Diablo.

I've been a fan of the Kingdom Under Fire series since I played The Crusaders when it came out. As a fan of strategy games, I loved the fact that you had so many different units, weapons and armor to choose from, and I loved the fact that you could play as so many different characters in Heroes.

I downloaded the Circle of Doom demo off the XBox 360 marketplace, mostly because I was SOMEHOW hoping that, despite all the bad publicity and reviews the game has gotten, it would be a good game.

Boy, was I wrong.

To start, what happened to the strategy elements? That was the main point of the first two games, so why take it out of this second one?

Secondly, when did the game reduce itself to pure hack-and-slash-styled gameplay? I compare it to Dynasty Warriors for that reason (though I WILL say that Koei's Dynasty Warriors franchise is LEAGUES ahead of this game.)

To give you a rundown on the gameplay, it's like this: You start out by playing as one of the main characters, then engage in a tutorial mode after a cutscene (which I skipped, because I could barely hear the characters talking, as well as the fact that the voice acting sounded horribly lazy.) This tutorial mode teaches you how to fight (not very well at that.) You use the A and X buttons to wield your weapon(s), as well as the B and Right Button (don't confuse the button with the trigger) to use your magic. The first thing I noticed was how slow the response times were. Another thing I noticed was that, when holding the right button (as it tells you to do to use one of your special abilities,) it didn't always respond. You end up clicking or holding the button.

Another thing: The combat. When I engaged in battle with a few simple enemies, I found a fourth of my health knocked down based on the pure fact that I couldn't attack them fast enough (The Crusaders and Heroes' respond times were MUCH better and faster.) I don't recall there ever being a block button (which was in the previous two games.)

Added to this slow combat, movement is also slow. I can understand that the characters are carrying a good amount of weaponry and armor, but that gives them no excuse to move like snails. (The only excuse for that would be if they were carrying a hammer or some other weapon, which my character--Leinheart--wasn't.)

Finally, the map has you following a set path. In The Crusaders and Heroes, the map was free roam--meaning you could go ANYWHERE you wanted. In this game, you are stuck to a set path, which makes moving frustrating (and even more tedious.)

They're trying to pass the game off as an RPG, but the only RPG elements I see is the story (which doesn't seem all that good, considering you can't even enjoy the voice acting) and the weapon/armor customization (which there is hardly any.)

I didn't try the co-op mode, but I didn't plan on playing more of this horrible game. I wouldn't be surprised if people didn't buy the fourth installment based on the fact that this one was so bad.

The only reason I gave the game two stars was because... well, I played it for ten minutes, and enjoyed that small amount of time I played it (though I had no intention to play it further.)

One final note: I see that CoD was made by Blue Side and The Crusaders and Heroes were made by Phantagram, which is an obvious indicator as to why the gameplay (and everything, for that matter) is so different. I CANNOT, however, fathom why Phantagram would entrust a different company with their series. Seeing how CoD turned out, I hope they reconsider giving another company a right to make another game in one of their series.

If you plan on playing the Kingdom Under Fire series, skip CoD and play The Crusaders and Heroes (in that order)--you won't be disappointed in either of the two.

The games seem good for a while and then it just never changes. The spells are almost Impossible to get and if you do theres no needed the whole battel system is not needed, its just hack & slash. Overall the game just gets boring

Looking for a new hack-and-slash/strategical RPG game, I happened to have came across Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. Though aesthetic, the game does fall short when compared to any of it's other hack-and-slash competitors. In all honesty, I am not entirely sure if the Kingdom Under Fire series will last too long.

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GRAPHICS - 8/10
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"What a Sight for Sore Eyes!"

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, the characters look wonderful, as do the enemies you will be facing throughout the game. There were times when the motions of the characters or of the free-flowing parts (such as hair, tassles, etc.) on the character were a little erratic, but this is something experienced with all games in general, so it's nothing to knock down Kingdom Under Fire's graphics for. The environment in each level is awe-striking, and the noir-esque feel of the environment was well executed and was not overkill.


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CONCEPT - 3/5
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"Here's a Consolation Prize!"

I somewhat understood the idea the designers were going for when it came to each character's storyline. It took a somewhat different approach than typical hack-and-slash RPGs, as there were plenty of missions (more-so when you are upgrading your magic) to partake in without being timed, or without having to complete it before you leave the stage.

However, this is where design of the stages also is a downfall to the feel of the game; the environment in each stage was distastefully linear; it didn't do the graphics justice, and made going through each level rather boring, making you inclined to just calling the levels 'generic'. The only thing 'randomly generated' with each map are just the enemies, although you might find that you will come across the same pattern of where and how many enemies respawned. After you go through each realm, it seemed to just become tedious to go back and forth to level-up.

There was no in-game character development, as Circle of Doom seemed to just, overall, be the cliche idea of playing a "character with a perilous goal that may mean the death of his or herself or others." There were pretty much no cutscene-sequences, save for the beginning of each character's story, and the end, and did not allow you to make an overall judgment of the persona of the character you are playing as, let alone get a good idea of the storylines overall. None of the character's stories really intertwine with each other, and if they do, it's generally a vague method of getting characters associated with one another.

The voice-actors were, at best, well chosen. Though some of the characters sound a little goofy or monotonous, the voices were pretty good; though script-execution could have been a little better, as well as the overall script for each character, the voices were at least not annoying.


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GAMEPLAY - 3/5
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"Houston, I Think We Have a Problem..."

The movesets and the controls were absolutely terrible; your character loses stamina with each hit you execute with your weapon; once you've lost enough, you have to recharge, which could take a while as the stamina's gauge bar reaches higher levels, and the potions that replenish the stamina were often expensive.

The moves for each character don't develop as the stamina gets higher; it's generally about six or seven motions (all executed by only hitting the attack button), and as the stamina increases so did the length of the motion-cycle. There aren't any branch-offs for the movesets, making even watching your character fight just repetitive and boring.

As with the movesets, Magic also required a certain amount of power to be executed; you are allowed to assign to spells to two of the triggers on your controller. However, there are times when you need to get to a certain spell, and have to go all the way through the menu if you do not already have it assigned. The length of time it took for the magic to replenish also took long, often making healing spells not even worth trying to execute, even when running out of potions. The spells also seemed to do very little damage, and lacked the ability to aim or pinpoint where you want the spell to hit. If the enemy dodges, you're down on one spell, and are most likely going to take damage in the process.

The weapons were displeasing; it would have been wonderful to have seen the weapons take on more ethereal or intimidating appearances as you reached high enough levels to grab more heavy duty swords/guns/slingshots/etc., but it does not happen that way. The only thing that often changed was the attack power, how much stamina was drained from each hit, and the name/abilities of each weapon. The design of the weapons are mundane, and the randomly generated abilities and attack power often made trying to find a more decent/powerful weapon absolutely tedious.

The costume-changing is a wonderful little gadget implemented into the game; if you happen to grow tired of your character's costume, throughout the game, you are able to change their outfit into something more appealing. However, there does seem to be a level-prerequisite to get to the 'final' or top costumes, which at least offers a little incentive to level-up for the costume, or get the costume by leveling up. However, some of the designs often looked similar to one another, or just carried a boring look. Like the weapons, each outfit also offers abilities and power-ups, as well as ever-changing defense power, etc., also making the search for appealing armor in both appearance and abilities just as tedious as searching for weapons.

The accessories held the same curse to them. Though offering abilities and power-ups, these little buggers would be difficult to find when it comes to getting one that is at a satisfactory level of usefulness.

The Idols were a nice idea to toss into the RPG; however, the Idol that appeared depended on the phase of the moon in that level, and purchasing tablets that change the moon phase seemed to not do much when it came to replacing the Idols.

Even with the Idols' inventory, there aren't always any decent outfits/weapons as you leveled up; but they offered increases in health and magic capabilities, and other little things for your character's development as a whole.

The item-fusion was terrible. Often, weapons/items did not increase in power/defense/etc., and often got knocked down a few notches. There was no winning when it came to item-fusion, and finalizing the fusion often made you wish you didn't, even before the overall result appears. Of course, you could fuse the items with potions (which seemed to be the only time item-fusion isn't useless), but if they were not the red or white potions, then you had minimal luck finding other potions, even if you do play Co-Op. The item-fusion, if ever brought back to Kingdom Under Fire, needs massive work.

When you've finally played through each character's story, you come to realize that there aren't really any benefits to reap; only one character is unlocked (Curian), and the roster remains small. Characters from earlier parts of the series, such as Morene Strident, should have been placed in Circle of Doom's roster. Also, Celine is the only female character to be playable, but not the only one seen in the game, considering Morene does make a very brief appearance in Leinhart's introduction.

Co-Op is the only place where playing Circle of Doom is at least mildly entertaining; you choose a host's room (or create your own), and jump right into gameplay. If you're lucky, you're able to pick up what others have so kindly left behind. There were a lot of cases where pick-ups were generally nice (there was always a good chance that the amount of gold to pick up reached over 1 million, especially when other individual's characters were at higher levels). However, you are able to be kicked out of the room; if you're coming into the room, it would be in good interest to interact with the other players (Nobody likes someone just jumping into their rooms to leech dropped items from them.) The amount of players can make Co-Op fun, or as boring as playing offline. The stages do not change in Co-Op, so it's still the same routine.

Boss Fights were either unreasonably difficult, or ridiculous; Circle of Doom's lack of a storyline often caused you to stare at the screen and wonder what the point was for the Boss's existence in the level. The bosses, though often well-designed, turned out to be silly and generally had no purpose.


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REPLAY - 1/5
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"Send a Fruit Basket and Be On Your Merry Way"

I didn't want to completely shut down the fun of replaying through Circle of Doom and give it a zero rating; but unless you're either very dedicated to the series, or are absolutely focused on creating the ultimate tank-machine of all the characters offline and online, you'll most likely let this collect dust on the shelves when you finish it (if you are even willing to try to complete the whole game.)

As said, there are no benefits to reap from completing the game; download-content only holds a purpose for aesthetic appeal, as it only offers little trinkets to equip to your character (fake wings, [obnoxious] horns, hats, and silly items such as 'disguise' masks created in the form of the designer-team for Circle of Doom, or faux facial hair.) Curian has no special part when unlocked, and is in the same boat as the initial characters, only providing another handsome face in the roster.


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OVERALL - 3/5
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"Pretty Shell, Bad Egg"

Though below average when it comes to controls and the execution of the storyline, you have to offer Circle of Doom credit when it comes to the design of the characters and levels, as well for having pretty genuine ideas, even if they didn't seem to work out in the end.

Unless you are dedicated to the series, want to play a watered-down game for those small hours where you're doing nothing but don't want anything complicated, or just want to check off another game in your collection, this part of the Kingdom Under Fire series is probably best left alone. With the latter suggestion, the $10.00/$15.00 should probably go towards something else, as you should just check out videos to see how gorgeous the design of the game is.

If the series does so happen to make a comeback, I do hope that the designers learned from the errors they made in Circle of Doom, and redeem the series.

This game is a classic hack-and-slash. While it does not hold true to the orignal Kingdom Under Fire in almost any way at all, it is an enjoyable title in itself.

There are some things that tie the game down, however. Voice acting leaves much to be desired, the characters don't have their own unique skill trees, grinding can be a bit of a pain, the class quests are lengthy, but mainly enjoyable. Some minor tweaks here and there leave some certain areas and boss fights to be aggrivatingly absurd.

Overall, the game is face-paced and mainly enjoyable, with a nice selection of 5 beginning characters to choose from (a sixth becomes available after you complete Celine's questline). Each character has a distinct fighting style from the others, so it's really up to you to decide which one fits your playstyle the best.

Great for multiplayer grinds and singleplayer playthroughs. I would give Kingdom Under Fire:Circle of Doom a solid 7.5/10

I bought this game thinking it would be like the previous "Kingdom Under Fire" games. Alas, that was an idiotic assumption. This game is utterly different from the previous incarnation which was like "Dynasty Warriors". This one is a basic button mashing dungeon crawler. Honestly, the only thing given great thought was the graphics and the item creation system. Those two things are insanely fine tuned and awesome. Albight, they kind of crippled the item creation system with their patch. The idea was that they'd slow down the process of super items being created and force people to spend more time on the game. What happened instead was that now only a handful of those people that WERE playing the game are left. If you wanna play this one, rent it and enjoy it while you can.

I bought this for my husband because I read the reviews of the game.

We love the graphics, the ability to search for items (armor, coins, health potions, etc). We like killing the bad guys, it gets more difficult as you play the game. A previous review compared it to Diablo and we agree, you have life and 'mana' and an inventory.

What we don't like about the game is that it's a little boring. You travel along a path to attain quests but it feels like the same game over and over again. Also sometimes when you find an item, the graphics don't allow you to pick up the item (game glitch). The third disappointment is that you can't play 2 regular players at the same time as you can in Diablo, you can only play multiple players if playing XBOX live.

Overall a good quest game with fighting bad guys and picking up cool items. Small game glitches but not serious enough to start the game over or quit playing. Not as flashy as the new games out there but a great overall game to play. Fast shipping time.

It seems to me that the realm of button mashing games is coming to a halt, (not an end) and this game is exactly that. I pre-ordered this game because people had been telling how how much fun the other games in the series are, so I bought it and have got to say, there really isn't anything special about it. The weapons system is far more complicated than it needs to be, the story line for each character is no more than a whim of thought and there isn't really any reason to play this game a second time unless of course you wish to see what the other characters do, which isn't very impressive to say the least. The one thing that the game has to offer...the graphics. The graphics and sound effects are pretty darn good but nothing so impressive that will make you want to play it again to see them again.