Kingdom of Heaven First-Impressions

Ridley Scott is known for his epic productions involving elves. Sorrent is known for its pocket-sized productions involving strategic Fox licensing deals. Is this a great match, or what? The 12th-century Crusades are finally a 21st-century reality, thanks to Orlando Bloom's latest romp, Kingdom of Heaven. We got to test-drive Bloom's pronounced, aristocratic cheekbones, saving the unwashed masses in the process.

In each of Kingdom of Heaven's 10 levels, you'll find huddled groups of Jerusalem's refugees. Your job is to escort them to safety. Unfortunately, the Saracens keep doing inconsiderate things, like launching volleys of fireballs and arrows at you. It's important to dodge these and to move strategically between safe points on the map.

Some light puzzle-solving elements are present, as well. On one level, our passage was obscured by the game's isometric perspective. Call it trompe l'oeil. Players will have to fiddle quite a bit to progress past these initially insurmountable obstacles.

As far as the presentation goes, the early alpha build of KOH that we saw looked a bit rough. For instance, some of the sprites were using incorrect color palettes, and there wasn't much in the way of audio, although Orlando's character would occasionally urge his charges to "follow me!" in a snippet of MP3 sound. These are issues that are understandable in an early version of any game, however, and they will likely be sorted out before the game's release.

As an action puzzler, the build of Kingdom of Heaven we played could have used a little more variety to go along with its mostly solid presentation. It's often a challenge to deliver involving movie-licensed mobile games, and we're interested to see if the final version of KOH passes the test. Check back in early April for our full review.