Game Review: Kingdom Under Fire-Circle of Doom

3 Feb 2008

I am in one of those uncomfortable phases where I don’t have a new heartthrob title to finish. Aside from my staple Halo 3 matches, I finished Mass Effect and At Worlds End, and have been trying a few different games, desperately seeking something to get attached to. The Boy Genius happened to pick up Kingdom Under Fire (MS gaming studios & Blueside) last week at the MS store so I was pretty excited to check it out. Today was my third attempt at trying to like it, hoping it’s personality would grow on me. Unfortunately we haven’t clicked well enough to develop much of a relationship.

Some of the screen shots images and videos I’ve peeked at certainly we’re beautiful and unique, and though the first territory is lush and filled with imaginative fantasy theme eye candy, I’m still in it. The game progression is like one of those dreams where your running down a never-ending hallway, no right or left turns, no changes in your direction, leaving you feeling powerless and bored and beginning to stare at the color of your ceiling wondering about a change…"hmmmm…beige.." You essentially stay on a path indefinitely, running (sluggishly) forward until you come upon a pack of baddies, mow them down, which I am sure you can do with your eyes closed, and then continue on to the same, and so on, and so on. At least those baddies, along with the drops, are quite eclectic and help save you from mind numbing boredom. From little shop of horrors, to armed and dangerous Geico geckos, to hulking troll like creatures, at least you get to best lots of interesting foes. Without a doubt the worst thing about Circle of Doom is the cludgy game play; the chirpy movement freezes slightly at times and it takes much too long to reharness the controls after certain action events. This takes second seat only to the worst camera control ever. In any game. Ever. Its so bad it should not even be an option. Your control doesn’t persist, i.e., as soon as you let go, it wobbles back into its original place like a sea sick buoy.

There is some good in the game, its just a shame that the bad outweighs it so heavily. The collectibles, inventory, and weapon and armor scheme are pretty cool, at least they are commonly in line with standards. You equip, you level up, you get new gear, and you can synthesize items. This morphs an item to its next stage of evolution and can only be done at iconic stations (paganish icon statues) that allows you to pick the price weighed by your chance of synthesis success, i.e., 100% chance of success will cost you X number of gold, or if you’re feeling lucky you can save some duckets with a lessor success rate.

You may be wondering why I haven’t mentioned the character selection or the story. What story? Lacking in narrative or even inplay story line leaves you further dulled by the games repetition. Even initial character creation has no detailed story, choosing your race is entirely about aesthetics or the random method of "close your eyes and press A".

Sad really. I keep finding screen shots of what *looks* like totally fly game play. I just don’t think I’ll ever get there without falling asleep at the controller.

Kiss kiss,