Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom
After the battle between Light and Darkness, where the Lord of Darkness was beaten, six heroes became trapped in the dark dimension. Their only escape - to hack and slash their way out of the grips of the Lord of Darkness and their personal demons. Doesn't sound like a Kingdom Under Fire game? It still is, except that Circle Of Doom (COD) has deviated from its original real-time strategy (RTS) roots and plays as an action heavy role-playing game (RPG). At first there are five characters to play - Kendal the holy knight, Regnier the dark warlord, Celine the elven heroine, Duane the aristocratic gunman and Leinhart the vampiric prince. The sixth character, Curian the warrior, is unlocked when the game is completed by Celine. Each character has a unique combat style - for instance, Leinhart specialises in ninja weapons while Celine is adept at bows. Your character will fight through levels in the dark dimension which include tranquil forests, desolate ruins, ornate halls and frozen valleys festering with monsters unique to the locales. Monster hordes attack at all fronts - dropping down from above, springing up from beneath the ground and even invisible ones skulking in the shadows. COD's graphics offer an eyeful of pleasure, with a beautiful play of light and shadows and delicious details such as the glistening flesh of the disgusting Flesh Golems.
Although heavy on combat action, COD offers limited combos. The only avenues for varying your tactics are through using limited spell-like abilities and swapping the two weapons used by your character. Without new combos to be unlocked, the hacking and slashing becomes rather repetitive. An innovative aspect of COD is the "convenience store" concept in the form of Idols. On each map is an Idol Sanctuary where one of three idols will appear - the Idol of Love, Greed or Death. Apart from offering different items to trade, the Idols also provide item storage and a synthesis service for fusing items together at a price. Sleeping at the Idol Sanctuary gives you insight into the characters' personal struggles and quests through dark dreams, as well as the learning of new abilities when you meet the quota of slain monsters. The Idol Sanctuary also allows for revisits to previous levels so you can chalk up the numbers of specific monster types. COD offers plenty of replayability with six different characters to play, plenty of abilities to learn and almost unlimited equipment to synthesize. If you feel lonely, you can log on to Xbox LIVE to play co-op with three other players. For gamers undaunted by the tedium of repetitive combat and who like experimenting with items, COD is worth a try.
