Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (X360) (2006-2007)
Developer: Phantagram and Blue Side

Review by Faididi and Co.

Forever doomed to suck

Story: Average

The heroic efforts of the demonic barbarian warrior Regnier and the paladin commander Kendal may have saved their own Dimension of Light so far, but the Lord of Darkness is still itching to seize his rightful turn at ruling the world. The story here tells what happens to Regnier, Kendal, and some of their allies after they vanish into the Dimension of Darkness at the end of the previous installment, and it also covers the fates of the heroes from the very first game, because this dimension's hazy temporal physics are a perfect excuse for a crossover. The story has its merits, be they the still-repeated moral issues that lend the light-versus-dark struggle its uncomfortable twist, the occasional humor that satirizes fantasy cliches, or the ridiculously elaborate Korean poetry spouting out from Curian.

Gameplay: Sucks All Ass

Phantagram and Blue Side's Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom is the fourth installment in the series (following Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes), but it's completely different from its tactical real-time strategy predecessors. That's because this sequel is a cooperative action RPG that's better compared to Blizzard's Diablo, focusing on the grind-crazed slaying of monsters for experience points and items. The 6 playable characters (one of whom is initially hidden) are drawn from the previous games. Up to 4 Players are supported via Xbox Live (no luck for LAN lovers), with clones of the same heroes allowed.

Unfortunately, Circle of Doom is outright lousy as an action RPG. Dropping the unique mixture of unit command and one-against-many fighting that has made the preceding two installments (The Crusaders and Heroes) stand out in the strategy genre is bad enough, but this sequel is saturated with bizarre imbalances, nonsensical restrictions, and other aggravating problems that keep ruining the fun.

The agony begins with the horribly unfriendly item-synthesization system. It lets your character magically fuse pieces of equipment in hopes of producing more valuable gear, but at a cost that increases geometrically with the number of times the items have been synthesized. Thus, this process grows unmanageably expensive, especially when the game sets a pathetically low cap on the selling prices of unwanted items. Exacerbating matters is the high likelihood of synthesized items suffering from new penalties, such as weapons requiring more stamina to swing or armor suits having their core strength diluted, therefore reducing their usefulness again. Even worse, butchering an item by removing its upgrades still exacts a continuously rising synthesization cost, and that is unbelievably fucking retarded.

Another offender is the weak level design. The absence of treasure chests and the fact that most of the tasks are completed merely by slaying enemies give absolutely no reason to explore the game's 6 regions, which already resemble long, boring-ass dungeon corridors. In contrast to games like Diablo, there are no sanctuary-like hubs here, and there is no way to quickly warp back to a shop. The safe points, which are the only places where your character can synthesize equipment, sell goods, and learn spells, are scattered throughout the randomly arranged areas, creating a logistical pain in the ass whenever your character runs out of inventory space. Furthermore, the multiplayer mode forces all the client Players to instantly change regions along with the host Player, interrupting trading and other actions for the clients' heroes.

The hit detection sucks, too. If your character's attacks aren't being unfairly blocked, they pass ghost-like through their targets with alarming frequency. For example, projectile attacks hit the bosses only half the time, because the bosses apparently dematerialize during certain animations. For another, one of the heroes can strike down swarms of bats with single-blade weapons but not with double-blade weapons. Just to piss you off, enemy archers can shoot through walls and floors to hit your character, but not the other way around.

Controls: Sucks All Ass

The controls are pure shit, from the unintuitively organized menus to the cases of your character snagging against invisible walls on clear-looking terrain. The non-customizable button assignments make projectile weapons a nightmare to use, because the behind-the-shoulder aiming mode moronically expects you to press the right analog stick to aim while pressing the primary face buttons to trigger the attacks. (That doesn't count the overly narrow aiming arc, which prevents the heroes from shooting enemies while on moderate slopes.) The idiocy continues with one of the attack buttons being the same as the confirmation button, playing havoc with the menu prompts if your character fights near an area-transitioning gate. At the same time, whenever your character gains an experience level, the allotment menu allows the awarded trait points to be easily discarded by accident.

The separate progress files you must maintain for each hero also makes little sense. Considering that you play just one character at a time, there is no reason why all the heroes under your profile can't share the same gold and reserve inventory. As such, the only way to transfer an item between two of your own characters is to swap it through another Player online. That is needlessly inconvenient and annoying. Adding insult to injury, the item exchange interface makes trading resources a slow and clunky chore.

Graphics: Below Average

The characters and the environments look decent at first. Then, slowdown creeps in and the framerate drops during the most unexpected times, like when meeting a certain character at the safe points (when there aren't even any enemies present). Telling apart different Players who play as copies of the same hero can be difficult, because the game doesn't bother to display their names over their characters' heads. Not helping is the way one of the heroes' torso tears open while running, due to the sloppy character rendering.

Audio: Average

Parts of the music can be pleasant to the ear, but the battle tunes remain the same across the regions, growing repetitive fast. The music transitions aren't done consistently, either, sometimes abruptly snapping to the wrong tunes as your character passes between areas.

Overall: Sucks All Ass

A sequel may be commended for extending its series into a different genre, unless it's irredeemable trash like Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. This travesty of an action RPG seemingly strives to frustrate the Players in every way. The item-synthesization system's terrible penalties can render it worse than useless. There is no real reason to explore the dull, overly stretched-out regions. The unfriendly layouts of the safe points make managing items a bottleneck-prone hassle. The enemy-favoring, logic-defying hit detection and the unforgivably stupid controls often turn the game into an unplayable joke. Fans of the previous installments or those looking for a decent action RPG should not waste their time on this garbage.

Updated Version: Sucks All Ass

Against all rationality and good sense, Circle of Doom has received a patch that makes the game even more awful. This update further turns the synthesization system against the Players' favor, by reducing the benefits and increasing the penalties of the resulting items. Yet, it completely fails to address the game's flaws, not bothering one bit to slightly tweak the controls or at least show the teammates' names over their characters. At this point, Circle of Doom can go fuck itself.