Kingdom Under Fire 2: The Crusaders Preview

Developer	Phantagram
Publisher	Phantagram
Genre	Strategy
Release Date	Q2 2003

The real-time strategy genre has long been defunct on consoles - when developers realized that in general, the genre doesn’t work as well with analog sticks as it does with a mouse and a keyboard, the titles for the most part stopped appearing in the console world. That’s why it’s not quite surprising that the first true RTS to hit the X-Box is the sequel to a 2001 PC title, Kingdom Under Fire, by Phantagram.

What is surprising, however, is the extraordinary potential held by Kingdom Under Fire 2: The Crusaders; the game looks to combine the epic battle action of Koei’s Dynasty Warriors series and all the smart planning of an RTS, and from the looks of it, this hybrid will be one of the most promising X-Box titles of the year.

As with many RTS titles, KUF 2 takes the gamer to the beginning of a great war; the Orcs have invaded an innocent town near the Sacred Land, and in order to protect the Sacred Land, two countries declare war on the Orcish land of Hexter. Things are never so simple, however, and as the story progresses, four kingdoms end up involved in the brutal conflict. The game will provide the opportunity to play through the story as each of the four kingdoms, and the story looks as though it will be suitably fleshed out through each perspective.

As an action-strategy hybrid, Kingdom Under Fire 2: The Crusaders has few peers. The last notable game of this type was the PC and N64 remake of the arcade classic Battlezone, and even that title’s execution looks to be different from what Phantagram has planned for the game. Utilizing a fully 3-D engine, the real-time strategy aspect is utilized by commanding your troops around the battlefield, manuevering them into a good position for victory. Units can consist of melee and ranged attackers, and many different factors can affect the course of the battle. Among these are the height of the terrain upon which a unit is positioned, the amount of soldiers in a unit, the position of the sunlight; all of these come into consideration in the process of picking your battles wisely. Troops that survive battles will gain experience points that increase their abilities in battle, adding incentive for a player to not rush into a conflict without planning.

Picking the perspective of any of the kingdoms at the beginning of the game places you in control of a unique Hero. Each of these heroes has different effects on their surrounding troops, and what unit you place them in will affect the outcome of a battle greatly. When the unit your hero is in encounters battle, you take direct control of the hero, charging around amongst 450 other units in the battlefield to do your part in defeating the enemy. Utilizing special moves and abilities will be key in deciding the outcome of the battle, but strategy will still be key; at any point, these melee battles can be slowed down to check in on other skirmishes across the battlefield, although how exactly this will work remains to be seen.

A Lesson in Flattery

The original Kingdom Under Fire on the PC was the subject of some ridicule back when it was released – it was a near perfect recreation of the Warcraft and Starcraft games, both also on the PC. But keep in mind that Phantagram is based out of South Korea, a country in which some of the highest revenue is generated from cyber-cafes that offer Starcraft. This sequel should offer enough to separate the game from the titles that Blizzard has brought to the PC, but we shall see.

The unique gameplay ideas are bolstered by an extremely solid graphical presentation. Melee battlefields aren’t generic, and accurately reflect the natural surroundings - if you placed a unit in the middle of a forest, they would be surrounded by trees in the midst of a battle, and so on. Each individual soldier onscreen in the melee battles are rendered with 3000 polygons, and the hero’s models feature over three times that number. In addition, things such as weather effects and the terrain heights, both of which play heavily into the game strategy, will receive some nice treatment here. KUF 2 game also seeks to capture a epic cinematic feel, a la Lord of the Rings or Gladiator, by using an interesting system of camera angles, and by minimizing the on-screen text. When giving orders, your hero will shout them instead of having them come up on screen as text, and the surrounding soldiers will respond in kind. This sort of development touch shows Phantagram’s dedication to capturing a gaming experience that ought to be memorable.

While Phantagram’s most recent X-Box title, Phantom Crash, met with only mild critical acclaim, Kingdom Under Fire 2: The Crusaders is one of their three upcoming titles that looks to set things straight between the company and X-Box owners. Look for it sometime in mid-to-late 2003.

Preview by Adam Matlock