![]()
Hello gamers,
In this article we will be reviewing
Kingdom Under Fire II, a Korean MMORPG developed by Blueside.
Kingdom Under Fire II original concept was to be a single-player game for Xbox 360, a sequel for Kingdom Under which was released in 2005, a game that mixed hack-and-slash with RTS combat. However, in 2009, the developers decided to make the game for PC only. And so the game’s release date was postponed for 2013 and also the game was remodeled to be a multiplayer online game. But once again during development, the team decided to make the game a full-fledged MMORPG while maintaining its unique core features which was the RTS element of course and also release the game for PS4 as well.
![]()
The PC version of
Kingdom Under Fire II is currently in open beta testing in SEA regions with English client and there was also a Closed Beta event for the Chinese version a while ago in which I participated. Beta test for Europe and US have been planned before the year is out, but without set date.
If you are interested in trying out the game, you can download the SEA version which is supposedly Open-Beta, but the truth is that the game is pretty much dead there and hasn’t been updated for years. That’s why I’ve played the Chinese version too in order to write this review.
I’ve played both the SEA version and the Chinese version of the game for about 15 hours all together. I’ve tried the SEA version since it was in English and I wanted to understand the game’s basic mechanics, before jumping into the actual version of the game which was the Chinese one. The game is eons ahead compared to the SEA version, not only they have an additional playable class, they also have more troops to choose from, more PVP and PVE maps and even the prologue is different. But we’ll get to those things later, for now let’s just start with the basics.
The game has of now 4 playable classes from which you can choose from. Unfortunately, the classes are gender-locked which might be an issue for some people, not for me though. The classes are:
Male Gunslinger, Male Berserker, Female Spellsword and Female Ranger.
The SEA version has only the first three while the Chinese one has all four of them. I've played with a Berserker in the SEA version and a Ranger in the Chinese one. I'd like to make a small parenthesis here to talk about the Ranger class here, since it doesn't exist in the SEA version and I figured that people might want to hear about it a little more.
Ranger: Female elf, yielding a yew longbow and a pair of short-swords. Fast and nimble, she is able able to take down multiple of enemies from afar with her arrows and finish off the survivors with her swords. Personally I really liked her fast play style and her animations which I believe were much better than Berserker's. Enjoy the 60 FPS.
Parenthesis closed.The developers have said that there will be 5 classes upon release, but the only thing we know about the 5th class is that it will be a Mage class or something similar.
Also, I should mention that the game is heavily instanced. While there are Open world regions where you can roam around and do some quests, basically your whole gameplay will revolve around you going back and forth you home town and mission areas.
Moving on, I’ll talk about the stuff I enjoyed in the game, explaining them in depth along the way.
The GoodThe Combat is fun and innovative
As I’ve mentioned above,
Kingdom Under Fire II blends MMO, RPG, hack-and-slash and RTS elements resulting in a fine mixture of dynamic and consistently engaging gameplay.
The gameplay reminds a lot the
Dynasty Warrior games, add to that a little bit of the
Total War games and you can get a generic picture of how you play the game.
Here’s a video to get a better look:
As you can see, you are basically an
one-man –army, able to easily fight
1 vs 10000. Each class has its own abilities and combos and while you slaughter your way to victory bathing in the blood of your fallen enemies, your allied troops will stand there beside you ready to aid you at any moment. Which leads us to the next feature RTS combat and troops.
RTS combat is a fresh and nice addition to a market full of action and shooter MMOs
In early levels you will only be able to control your character, but that will soon change when you will be given your first squad of troops which will follow you in your future battles. You can have a total of 30 troops in reserves, but in the battlefield you will only be able to bring up to three squads to accompany you and some reserves. While in the battlefield, you will be able to either to micromanage all their actions or you will be able to set them on auto pilot by telling them to follow one of the following tactics,
Offense, Defense, Support.HUGE troop diversity
What can I say?
This game has it all. The developers have done a superb job at this. There are all kinds of different troops to choose from, from so many races with so many upgrade paths and millions of possibilities on how to use the and combine them. It would take me a few pages if I were to list them all. So I will try to be brief.
Troops can be categorized in 9 broad categories:
Infantry, Archer, Cavalry, Spearman, Special, Air Units, Big Unit.
Ballista or Steam Tower which are non-living type troops and can be categorized as Vehicle Types, while also belonging in the Big Unit category.
Infantry
Human Infantry. Long Swordsman. Paladin. Inquisitor, High Elf Infantry, Dark Elf Infantry. Orc Infantry, Orc Assault force etc.
![]()
Archer
Rifleman, Dark Elf Archer, High Elf Archer. etc.
![]()
Cavalry
Armored Cavalry, Dark Elf Cavalry, Dark Elf Horse Archer etc.
![]()
Spearman
Halberdier, Spearman etc.
![]()
Special
Sapper, Spellcasters, Mortars etc.
![]()
Air Units
Bomber Wing, Storm Rider, Wyvern etc.
![]()
Big Units(including Vehicles)
Ballista, Organ Cannon, Ogre, Juggernaut, Golem etc.
![]()
You won’t of course have access to all of them right off the bat, but as you progress through the game, you will be able to recruit them in your roster.
Rich skill development and strategy
In
Kingdom Under Fire II as you level up, except for character abilities which directly affect your character’s stats or give him more skills to use in combat, you will also unlock troops’ buff spells which affect a wide variety of troops’ stats when used. There are spell for every occassion, for example say your infantry is being bombarded by a group of archers, you can then use a Defense spell to bolster their resilience and minimize their losses.
When you recruit new troops, they will all be level 1, in order to upgrade you will have to first level them up with combat points which you gain in each battle and then you will have to pay with in-game money for a class change; basic classes need only money for a class change, but as you progress you will also need to craft some items in order to upgrade the troop.
Say for example you want to change a group of light infantry to spearmen, you will have to craft spears and pay the upgrade fee, but if you chose to upgrade them to veteran light infantry you would only have to pay the upgrade fee. Usually the upgrades with no required items are weaker in the long run, but in early game they can be quite helpful since you may be lacking ingredients to craft the required upgrade item.
Later on, your troops will also be able to learn abilities which you can order them to use in combat. For example, Archers learn the Fire Arrows ability first, spellcasters have by default one.
PVE mission are epic and make you feel like true General
There are the standard PVE missions which you basically play at least once in order to progress with the main quest and you can later play them again at higher difficulties for better rewards. But those are basically the farming areas to gather materials for crafting etc.
The awesomeness of the PVE lies with the Invasion mode and of course the newly added Siege mission.
The Invasion mode is 16 Co-op player mission in which you basically fight endlessly against hordes of enemies. Enjoy!!!
On the other hand, the siege mission is 4-man co-op mode where along with other players you will need to conquer a rebel fortress. Easily said that done right?
Well, truth is this mode is for end game only, it requires top-notch equipment, highly trained troops, strategy as to how you will deploy them and of course coordination between the players. And as if being bombarded by hundred of archers from the walls or facing big –ass monsters like mammoths and giant worms isn’t enough, you will also have to watch out for enemy reinforcements from time to time.
PVP is a blast!
PVE is really fun and addicting if you invest time in it, but personally I have to say that I enjoyed the PVP way more than PVE.
Unfortunately, you can’t start PVP until you hit level 24, but once you’re there I can guarantee that you will have a great time. There’s the hero PVP where you compete against others with only your character which basically what every others MMORPG has.
But what I’m talking about is the Troop PVP. You team up with up to 8 players and combine your armies against another team of 8 players to fight over dominance of the battlefield.
The Bad
Now, I’m going to talk to you about the stuff that I believe are lackluster and some stuff that I didn’t like.
Outdated Graphics
I know that graphics don’t make a game and I am also aware that this is a completely subjective opinion based on my tastes, but let’s be honest for a moment. It’s 2016 and most of the games that come out have AAA graphics or at least are good looking enough to please the average person’s eyes. Of course there are exceptions, but those concern either Indie games or games that have been around for years like World of Warcraft and already have a stable playerbase.
The game doesn’t look terrible, personally I wouldn’t mind playing it even its
XBOX 360graphics, but I know that a lot of people would. The game’s development began in 2008 and it was supposed to be for XBOX360, a previous generation console, which means low grade graphics compared to modern day PCs and PS4 aka the actual release platforms. It’s not that they haven’t tweaked with them since then, I thought that the characters in-game were quite good looking, but overall I consider it inferior visually to other popular MMOs like Blade and Soul, TERA which are also a few years old, even AION which was released in 2008.
It has some P2W elements
Well, to be honest though. It’s not on
Black Desert’s camo suit level which is downright broken and unfair, but it is still P2W that should be mentioned. I’ve noticed that in the SEA version cash shop and I imagine that it is the same in the Chinese one as well, though I couldn’t confirm how different it is since the explanations were in Chinese.
Anyhow I’ve noticed that t
he cosmetics give you extra stats. I wouldn’t mind if it was a slight buff for PVE, more EXP for mobs or something like that. But I hate it when developers add stats to cosmetic items which give you HP, Attack, Defense, Evasion etc. and even make a set buff which gives you even more stats if you have the whole costume set.
Cosmetics should exist solely for aesthetic reasons only, end of story. This concludes my review for
KIngdom Under Fire II. My verdict for the game's current version and its overall mechanics and gameplay is a:
8/10
Overall, I am quite excited for the official game release. And in case the game goes into open Beta in Europe, I will definitely try it and recommend it to other people as well.
