Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes (Xbox)

LIVE

The chances are if you don’t like Single Player games then you skipped right to this section. So what’s in it for the errant LIVE player then? Well there are some new modes, a Spectator option and an optimised LIVE experience. You can also play the original four heroes from the first game over LIVE so that gives you eleven characters to use.

Troop Battle: You have an army and you fight it out, hostile to all there is little room for friendship on the field. Kill or be killed, that’s your only option.

Hero Battle: You don’t have an army, go at it with up to five others and see who has the strongest blade or the quickest thumbs.

Co-op Battle: Team up, do some trouncing and be the victor!

LIVE play is fun and armchair generals are going to love this while, while the hardcore ‘Death match’ style player is going to spend all their time crowing about their victories in the Hero Battle and be too scared to take on a real army.

Final thoughts

KUF: TC was an innovative game that broke the RTS and action boundaries much in the way of the Dynasty Warriors series, except it went one better than that and added troop control and unit support to the mix.

It added a massive and twisted story told through some incredible and very difficult gameplay. The rewards were there if you preserved through the game and the gameplay brought you back for more and more. The sequel redresses several problems, shifts the difficulty and opens the series for more new players – it succeeds a lot better than the original game and feels a whole lot friendlier.