Title: Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders
Available on: PC, Xbox, Steam, and GOG,
Publisher: Blueside, BSV Holdings
Developer: Blueside
Genre: RPG, Strategy, Hack and Slash, Action
Official Site: https://kuftc.blueside.net/eng/
Release Date: Feb 28, 2020
Where to Buy: Steam, GOG,
Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders first released back in 2004 on Xbox is the second game in the Kingdom Under Fire series, and recently it received a PC port onto both Steam and GOG. Today I’ll be sharing my thoughts and experiences I had while playing the Steam release of the game.
Gameplay Overview
The premise of this game revolves around commanding one of four choices of heroes, two for each faction The Humans and The Dark Legion. Players will command whoever they choose, be it the humans or The Dark Legion through a series of missions with varying objectives. Sometimes in these missions, players will be defending a retreating army or burning down enemy encampments or even protecting diplomatic messengers through orc infested woods. These missions also make up the battles in the game, where players will encounter various types of enemies, depending on the campaign chosen at the start.
Players also have several units to command during these missions, along with their commander. Commanding these units during missions is also what makes up the majority of the game. The player will control them through a 3rd person perspective, including their hero lord, which they will control directly once they come in contact with an enemy unit. The game also has some additional features such as unit customization in the form of purchasing weapons and armor for them with gold earned after battles in towns. Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders also has a pretty extensive spell system and unit special abilities to help turn the tide of battles. These can range from raining giant meteors from the sky to the typical healing spells or even an explosive suicide attack ability for the ghoul unit in the game.
After Sixteen years
Overall the gameplay, I must say, holds up rather well after all these years- sixteen to be exact- despite being a dated title as painfully shown through the dated graphics. Nevertheless, it still manages to provide both a fun and engaging experience that can honestly rival some games released nowadays. The missions played well and provided for some really engaging and immersive gameplay. The battles during these missions were also immersive and intense; It was a joy to control the various choices of units during these battles utilize the spells and unique abilities.
Each of them felt unique, and all their special abilities felt great in use; my favorite so far was the archers and their flame arrow special power. The combat during these battles was also spot on and felt overall enjoyable and familiar to similar titles like God of War and a lesser-known one called BLADESTORM. The combat system also has an interesting system involving officers, where if you press either two-button combinations, one of the officers will perform a special attack.
I found this system to be both engaging and fun to use, especially when outnumbered by enemy units. The game’s battles also have an interesting choice of musical soundtracks, which primarily is heavy metal. At times It can feel out of place, but eventually, once things start kicking up accompanies battles nicely. Overall I would say I did not have any problems with the gameplay. I really liked the unique blend of both RPG elements with that of strategy with the dash of action hack and slash games. However, I did encounter some major problems in regards to the voice dubbing and the PC controls for the game.
Clunky PC Controls
For starters for an apparent PC port, the controls feel horrible and clunky, and I do not recommend attempting to play this game with a keyboard and mouse. It also does not help at all that there are minimal instructions for the PC controls, and the tutorial training missions in towns only refer to Xbox controls only. Overall the controls feel imprecise and are a major detriment to the overall enjoyment of the game. However, the game does control better with an Xbox controller; that said, if you own one, I highly suggest using it for this game. But still, you may run into problems as I did with the controlling of units. At times it can be a little tricky to get used too and still feels clunky and imprecise but, in the end, is far better than the former option.
Awful English Dubbing
Now in regards to the English voice dubbing, the main characters, for the most part, sounded fine, but the side characters at times sounded awful. I found myself laughing out loud at how absurd their voices sounded; however, they are no means the worst I have seen and heard from games. Overall I would recommend when the chance arrives, switching to the Korean voices with subtitles for a better experience.
There are also some issues regarding how cutscenes work in this game. I found that they were often awkward and seemed to transition out of nowhere. For example, I was in the middle of fighting orcs, and then all of a sudden, the game started to play a cutscene with no music, and it really just felt out of place.
The game’s ending cutscenes also suffer from this and, in the end, felt confusing. The game also seems to have some issues with certain words in dialogues because, at times, the audio would either just skip one word or start to say it and move on. This, in the end, leads me to recommend further avoiding the English dubbing in favor of the Korean voices.
Immersive story
Now the story was really interesting and enjoyable; I also felt invested in seeing it play out. The characters’ side and major were all likable in spite of their dubbing issues. However, I take issue with how the plot is first introduced to players at the start of the game. The plot is first introduced by several lines of scrolling text, which in the end I feel could have been done better to help introduce the story to starting players, but despite this, the plot was overall phenomenally written.
Verdict: Kingdom Under fire: The Crusaders I found, in the end, is a pretty awful PC port in terms of being playable with a keyboard and mouse. However, the game still is quite enjoyable if you play it with a controller but ultimately defeats the point of being a PC port. If you are a fan of the original Xbox version or have a passion for hack and slash games, I would recommend this title for you.
Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders Review
Intense and engaging battles
Interesting plot and the overall premise
A great blend of popular genres
Horrible clunky PC controls
Awful English Dubbing
Audio dialog issues
