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It’s not easy establishing a series. Kingdom Under Fire has had several respectable attempts to establish it’s own fantasy roots in the gaming world. These Tolkien topiaries were often filled with gallant do-good knights battling an evil race of dark elves whose swords were about as big as their latex-clad wedgies. What really made Kingdom stand out from the pack was the troops you took into battle, the open landscape, and the feeling that you were always apart of a bigger war.

With another chance and another system, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom takes the series in a new direction. Instead of focusing on what made the previous titles so alluring to players (RTS-elements with an RPG-foundation), the game tossed all of that aside to focus on what made the series not so great – button-mashing combat. If you don’t see how this is going to end up by now, then prepare for a long ride.

Collecting Skills and Skulls

Starting out in a field of flowers, you’ll traverse through darkened woods, down the smooth cliffs of desert walls, and even into sparsely decorated foyer. Between all the thumb-numbing action, secure alcoves allow you to fall into a deep slumber to work through a dream world where you’re often talking back and forth between people standing only feet apart. You’ll need to play along with the game to advance the story and again new abilities. Yes, the story is so boring that it even puts your character to sleep.

But you didn’t come for the text adventure, you want action. Each of the characters has two buttons for weapons, a button and trigger for special abilities, and the shoulder buttons allow for you to take a quick potion break whenever the need arises. Combos flow from continuously using the same weapon. Switching to a different weapon or even using abilities look clunky as the character animation needs to reset itself for the next set of motions to start.

As enemies fall at the blinding speed of your digits, a sudden glow will tell you that you’ve leveled up. Every level gives you a certain amount of points to devote to health, luck, or SP. The final choice, SP, determines what you can do and how long you can keep doing it. Higher level weapons suck up more SP with every press of the button. Run out of this blue stuff and you’re helpless until your gauge refills. Early on in the game, you’ll go through your SP rather quickly; leaving you often frustrated. Regardless of how you feel about SP, the leveling system feels shallow and doesn’t allow you to move your character from a set path. Customization comes from learning new abilities – which has its own problems.

How I Got the Clap

It wasn’t as easy you think – getting the clap. With any ability, you converse with a dream guide about gaining a new skill from a laundry list that opens up as you learn new ones. Here’s the catch. Each ability comes with a heavy price – having to play more of the game. Often, you’ll have to play through the same level over and over again to accumulate enough of the required bodies to earn your new ability. You won’t know the right mixture of monsters until after you select the skill you want to pursue.

And the clap? Worthless. After twenty minutes of goblin genocide, all my warrior could muster was slapping one meaty hand against another – a single clap. I would have applauded my enemies to death, but I had to wait several seconds each time for it to reset. Not all the skills are a waste of your hard earned slaughtering. Sure, everyone could use a healing spell, but stay away from the clap.

Synthesizing items just doesn’t have enough depth to put a dent in this hack and slash adventure. By reaching one of the dealers, you can combine two similar items to with new abilities but weaker attacks. Honestly, bump your luck up as high as it goes and just find or buy what you want. The synthesizing system has all the visual esthetics of Widows 3.1 with the usefulness of Vista.

Saving Throws and Silver Linings

What can a game give you to make up for uninspiring levels, an archaic inventory system, and repetitive action? Friends! Maybe not lifelong friends or people who you would want to meet in a dark alley, but the multiplayer component of Circle of Doom smoothes out some of the glaring errors made in this title.  The on-line experience allows you to easily see who is playing and quickly jump into the combat. Up to four warriors can hack away at the incoming hordes. You don’t even need to follow your companions as you wander down the one or two other paths the game occasionally tosses in. Somehow, the mediocrity stings just a little less once you have someone else suffering with you.

Doomed from the Beginning

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom fulfills its obligations but only barely when it comes to visceral carnage.  Though you’re given a choice of five characters from the beginning, most of them feel the same and leave very little room to make them your own. Random boards allow for variety, but leaves out those spectacular set pieces that makes you glad you brought a couple of friends with you. Multiplayer action adds as a bit more life to this bare bones game. Coming from a series that understands character progression and massive battles so well, Circle of Doom seems more like a quick way to put out a title instead of a fully developed idea.

Review by: Rob Manuel
Video Produced by: Joel Rubin