Great Game
Gameplay
Heroes is the prequel to Crusaders, and it helps give a little more back story to the characters from the first title. You get the original six characters plus one new one, Walter, and it has a total of seven different story modes. Like the previous outing, this is a hybrid RTS type game. While you control a very large force on the field of battle you can still have direct control of three specific characters during a fight. It is wonderful hack and slash action. It is organized chaos on the screen with your soldiers laying waste to enemy forces, and you trying to hunt down their leader to end the battle quickly. Heroes relies heavily on the old metaphor of “cut the head off and the body dies”. But it is not all organized chaos, you have to have a good handle on some tactical decision making skills. Simple things like, don’t send the archers in to fight the infantry’s war. This game is very easy to pick up, but is impossible to put down. I found myself losing track of the time as I tried to level up my armies and characters. I felt the controls were very solid during the heat of battle, as long as you don’t get too confused by a lot of people on the screen you should do well.
Graphics
This was a stunning display as the original Xbox era begins to see it’s twilight. I felt that this game really showed off exactly what’s under the hood of the big black box, and that developers have really yet to truly tap out all of the possibilities. I know we are still going to see Xbox titles come out for a while, but as the 360 gains momentum, we won’t see many titles like this. One of the things I found so beautiful was the use of so many different environments to fight in that we hadn’t seen before. There is one battle that takes place along the coast with your armies fighting, great winged beasts in the air, and all of this takes place in the winter so everything is covered in snow. It truly was a sight to behold. I found myself losing that battle the first time because I was paying too much attention to how everything looked. I guess that is one of the reasons I am not in the Army.
Audio
This installment does a little better in the audio realm than the first, but not by much. The voice acting has gotten a little better, but it still has that same disinterested British tone to it. I personally could have used a little more heart in my hero’s voices, but hey you can’t get everything you want. Also the background music is that grinding kind of medieval electro-punk that keeps your soldiers going. It really did not do much for me, but some of you might like it. I would have just preferred the trumpet fanfare as you change down the hill and to let sword and shield make their music.
Depth and Fun Factor
You could play this game for days and days and really not tire of it. The Xbox Live experience is great. As this title started on a PC there are a large number of people on consoles playing this online and that really adds to the lifespan. The developers took it from just simple one on one deathmatch to three on three melee ruckus. Oh man that is a lot of fun. The Invasion mode is horribly addictive as well. This game also goes really deep with so many characters to explore their storylines with. I figured that you must have thirty some odd variations of how you can do the story mode, so this should keep you truly glued to this title.
Closing Thoughts
As its predecessor, I loved this title. The sun begins to set on a bloody battlefield and you just have to be amazed at the power in your controller. This is a wonderful send-off title for the original Xbox. I really hope to see a third chapter come to the 360. While I do not like to play RTS games, I love this series. It gives me that wonderful old hack and slash goodness from when I was a kid in the arcades, and tosses in the strategic aspects I have come to respect as I have gotten older. This title is a real must have in your library. Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is available now.