This time, on consoles as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_NRCbvL1JQ
How was the single player experience in the first game?
so it’s a bad MMORPG experience but offline?
Errr. Not so much. While the one he linked to was the last KUF game, it was a diablo-esque departure for the series. And no, it wasn’t well received, even by fans of the genre (like me).
Before that game were two games that came out only on the Xbox: KUF:The Crusaders, and KUF:Heroes- both of which were badass. They were essentially kill-hordes-of-enemies third person action games (like Dynasty Warriors), but with a tactical layer over the top of the battle where you were in command of various squads that you could give orders to like a RTS (set waypoints, order attacks and retreats against specific objectives, etc). In between battles you could recruit and upgrade new troops in a big tech tree, buy them new equipment, etc. The battles were huge affairs, with literally thousands of soldiers on each side, shit exploding, spells going off, wyverns strafing the ground, etc. They really stretched the tech at the time.
This new KUF game is a return to that playstyle, and I for one can’t wait.
Now that sounds like an interesting KUF game for this generation!
The original KUF was a largely forgettable poor-man’s Warcraft clone. CoD was a subpar action-RPG with decent graphics. But the Xbox KUFs were cool action-RTS hybrids, sorta like Dynasty Warriors meets Kessen or Koei’s Bladestorm.
Wait, what? Was this originally announced for only the PC? I thought it was coming to consoles anyway since all of the previous ones were for Xbox. Unless you were referring to the PC RTS? Is that one even related to the Xbox ones?
Same people, same brand name, no gameplay resemblance to speak of.
white dude with cornrows who kicks ass? Yes please. bring back the mostly naked dark elves!
Good enough?
Goddamn I cannot wait for this. I looked it up earlier, and 2nd half, 2010. :(
So this released a week ago. 2010, 2019, who’s counting? Is it any good? The 23 hours I’ve played over the last three days says yes.
I’ll add the caveat that I’ve only played through level 17 of 30, and thus haven’t gotten to the endgame yet, so things could change, but it is very much as Don_Quixote described above. It’s a mix of MMO/RPG, where you play a character chosen from five classes in traditional RPG questing, and RTS where you are playing the same character, but can switch between direct control of the chracter, and control of multiple groups of troops that you have made into your personal mercenary band.
The MMO/RPG part isn’t great, with long cutscenes with many heaving korean bosums, machismo, and collecting of the bear asses, with mostly terrible translation and voice acting - Think Luke Skywalker in All your Base are Belong to Us. Luckily, you can hit escape and just pretend that they don’t exist. The quests are very fast to run, and they bring the quest turnin folks along with you, so that an average quest from start to finish may take a minute - three if you take the time to watch the cutscenes and read the lore.
The character combat is fast and fun, which is good because you do a lot of it. You choose from one of 5 classes that play very differently from each other and have skill branches that allow customization. Each class has their own set of basic fighting skills that trigger via hotkeys, and then you link combos using right and left mouse clicks during the animations. This leads to a large number of combos that can be useful in different situations. You also earn runes while fighting and using combos, and those runes can be used to trigger extra powerful effects, both for attacking and defense, including things like self heals. Keeping track of what is needed during a fight - maybe big single target damage, maybe PBAOE, maybe a long range straight line AE, maybe a wedge shaped AE, etc - and the rune count , with an eye toward healing, knockdowns, buffs, etc, keeps the action engaging.
So that’s most of the first ten levels, which is a huge tutorial and takes you 4-5 hours. Then the game changes completely, with the addition of missions where you control troops. You start with a basic infantry and archer, but over the course of the game can add from a list of about 70 different troops that you can mix and match to make an army of 8. They gain levels, have quality levels, and have equipment and skills, both of which have levels as well. Sound grindy? It definitely has that potential, but so far it’s been a lot more fun than grindy for me.
The missions are a lot like Total War: Warhammer 2 battles in the way that you control individual units during real time. There’s a lot of rock, paper, scissors style interactions between the units - you don’t want your cavalry to charge spearmen, and you will need archers to fight eagles or baloons, for example. They play out in 5-15 minutes, give rewards that you use to level troops as well as exp and items to your character, and most can be repeated. A few are gated per day and give extra good rewards.
This part of the game is a blast for me, as you can control your troops and still use your character - imagine Warhammer 2 tactical battles with Hyrule Warriors feeling to the hero combat, all of which you can improve with items, levels, and gear. If an archer or artillery unit is causing trouble, take your hero and go kill it solo - you can do that, but be careful that they don’t immobilize you with spearmen, or crit you with their enormous scorpion, or send air troops that you can’t fight back against. While you are controlling your hero, your troops are acting based on the orders you have given them - offensive, defensive, or supporting your hero. It’s a lot to keep track of, but that’s a big part of the fun and engagement. Really, really fun and different from any MMO I’ve seen.
There are missions that require multiple players to bring multiple armies, typically 2 or 4 players, and the end game has 8 and 16 man missions which would mean 64 and 128 different troops with 15-20 individual figures per troop on the screen at one time. It gets big fast and feels the way I would imagine a chaotic war would feel.
There’s PvP in arenas, both 1v1 and 3v3, and there are suitable rewards for taking part. There are two factions that players can join, although you can always swap sides if you want. Guilds can only be one faction, however. One wants to fight off the big bad evil guys and preserve the existing power structure. The other faction wants to fight off the big bad evil guys and completely change the existing power structure. None of it actually seems to matter much as far as gameplay goes.
There’s crafting that can make items that are on par with the gear you get from current level missions and remains useful at endgame, so it’s worth pursuing.
I’m sure I’m missing some things, but that gives a decent overview of the game. I’m playing on NA (name is Aelis) for the faction who wants a new world order, if anyone is interested and looking for a friendly group. The game has been stable with no bugs so far.
Videos have been scarce, but this is the best I’ve found so far:
Man, I loved the OG Xbox versions (Crusaders and Heroes). No KUF 2 on consoles, though, it looks like. :sadface:.
To probably no one’s surprise, this is dead in October
I’ll say it again. I would love the original Xbox games to be updated to run on the Series consoles. They struggled on the OG Xbox hardware, and playing them again in 4k with auto-hdr and a stable framerate would be amazing.