After 12 years of growth and $80 million spent, Kingdom Under Fire 2 is lastly getting a full launch. With developer Blueside and writer Gameforge lastly prepared to indicate off their decade-plus of exhausting work, we lastly obtained to see the title in motion. Needless to say, our ideas are combined.
Throughout our time with the title, we’re advised that it’s been a tricky time to search out the proper stability between MMO, Hack-and-Slash and RTS. We’re glad the workforce has discovered their excellent stability: the builders seem assured that KUF2 is the sport they’ve all the time wished to make. Unfortunately, we’re unsure it’s what everybody needs to play.
As quickly as we begin we’re launched to the 5 lessons: the melee-and-firearm Gunslinger; the magical-melee Spellsword; the rage-filled Berserker; the pure-mage Elementalist and the dagger-and-bow Ranger. We’re advised {that a} sixth class, The Dark Sorceress, will arrive post-launch.
We began out with a Spellsword: in our infinite bouts of creativity her title grew to become MSPoweruser. She cherished her title, or at the very least she by no means complained. And so our journey started: Miss MSPoweruser was instantly thrust into battle alongside a formidable military of senseless NPC troopers. Despite being a significant instance-based battle, our introduction to the world of war-torn Bersia is solely motion targeted.
We transfer our approach by way of hordes of blood-thirsty enemies. Their assaults do little on our well being, however our assaults strike them down in a single or two hits of the left-mouse button. By combining our heavy assaults with right-mouse and our abilities on the quantity bar, we’re in a position to ship devastating however stunning dances of destruction.
Kingdom Under Fire 2’s fight feels implausible. While enemies are one way or the other much less partaking than your common Dynasty Warriors goon, combating them all the time feels satisfying. Feedback is sweet sufficient and the drowning destruction of hit-after-hit of fixed battering on a complete military makes you’re feeling extremely highly effective, even within the early ranges.
This battle doesn’t final lengthy. Despite our power-level being on-par with the Legendary Super Sayain, our efforts are all in useless. The citadel is misplaced, the King is useless, our skimpily dressed Spellsword remains to be with none efficient clothes. Our military retreats.
It’s right here the place Kingdom Under Fire 2 begins to include its MMO portion. We’re advised to speak to individuals who inform us to speak to extra individuals. Occasionally, we’re advised to kill a few deer or heal some wounded troopers. It’s as generic as MMO content material will get and, as a part of a preview occasion, appeared like a bizarre part to indicate. We’ve seen parts of later sections, ones that higher incorporate MMO construction into the instance-based MMO/RTS cauldron to create a beautiful elixir of distinctive gameplay alternatives.
It’s solely twenty minutes in the place we get to see that mixture take type, however Blueside’s initially boring MMO construction appears like an eternity. In reality, simply after we purchase our mount by way of chatting to 3 individuals in a triangle, bouncing between them like a socially incompetent pinball, we’re in a position to lastly get our arms on the true enchantment of the title: an superior combination of large-scale motion goodness and efficient RTS management. Unfortunately, our time with the demo ended simply earlier than we obtained to expertise the RTS part… So we snuck again, booted up another person’s save file and eventually obtained to expertise the primary draw of the sport.
So, now within the sneakers of a Gunslinger referred to as Janus, effectively, truly janus because the fantasy-cowboy’s creator had no love for the existence of capital letters, we stepped right into a terrifying portal swirling in demonic reds. At this level of the day tiredness had taken over: that demonic pink appeared heat and welcoming. I welcomed its evil and begged it to take me. It took me to a subject, a subject stuffed with males. One individual’s nightmare is one other’s dream.
After a brief cutscene have been launched to the straightforward RTS mechanics. They aren’t very in-depth…
