While composing this article, I’ve found myself running out of adjectives. When I first heard about Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders™, it didn’t get me excited really. I knew it was going to involve large forces and lots of combatants, so I was expecting something tactical and dry, like chess with backstory.
Well, I would like to take this opportunity to say I was wrong. So very, very wrong.
I’m not sure exactly when I made this realization. It might have been while I was marching along with my companions, bantering wittily as we heroes are wont to do, discussing the quality of the ale in the surrounding hamlets, when suddenly we spotted something. At first, it was a distant blur, but we squinted and the truth came into focus: a column of scantily clad Dark Elven Amazons blithely filing out of a torched human village.
Knights of Ecclesia.
Blood heated in our veins, “Get them!”
Dust billowed up in clouds as we made a charge across the open ground toward our foes. My view shook unsteadily with my stride. Armor clanged against itself with the beat of our boots against the dirt. Shouts of vengeance filled the air as we clashed against our enemies, and our swords rang against the steel of our foes. My men took their own opponents, each fighting his own battle as I waged mine. Blood spattered as my blade found its mark time after time. I struck down one foe only to turn and help my nearest man with another. There were many, but soon the fight was over, and we were victorious. But, we knew this was only beginning.
If the Dark Legions of Vellond were inside our homeland, then there could be no peace in the days to come. We would soon be on the march, to take the battle to them.
And it was just like that.
Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders had converted me in just those few minutes. Sure, I had a map and forces at my command—a War calls for maps and the movement of forces to meet the enemy on the field—but I wouldn’t be crunching numbers and rounding off production figures to get the best value for some sort of resource point. Oh, not by a long shot.
Knee deep in enemies, up close and personal.
I’d be face to face with a giant scorpion, dealing with the business end of its huge pincher and getting ichor on me as I killed it. I’d be jabbing my blade into the ogre that the Orc forces advancing out of Hexter had put in the front ranks. Though twice my height, it was decimating my men, and that meant the vile creature had to die — not by some remote command to my army, but by my own blessed sword.
Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders offers an incredible mix of tactics and first-hand action in its combat gameplay, giving you complete command of your forces, but never taking you far from the sweat of the battlefield.
But, the campaign promised to be long, and we’d need replenishing. In a nearby town, my men were able to find a pub to feast at, and I discovered I could also find new warriors there. Progressing through the game, I’d have the opportunity to hire specific NPC mercenary characters, all with their own special talents. I’d also get the chance to work on my own forces and abilities. In this aspect, the game steals some of the most fun aspects of roleplaying game, by giving you not just a Mercenary, but a specific person.
Play the other side as the dark elf Lucretia.
The game also offers the tremendous replay value of playing from one of four different points of view, all of which are presented vividly. Take up arms as Kendal of Ecclesia, Gerald of Hironeiden, the Dark Elf Lucretia of Vellond, or as the enigmatic human leader of the orcs and ogres, Regnier of Hexter.
You’ll have the forces of infantry, archers, fantastic creatures, monsters, and high magics to call upon as you wage the new War of Heroes across the land in search of the Ancient Heart, an artifact of legend that promises to bring swift victory to the force that discovers it.
