Gameplay

Single-player

For most of the levels KUF plays like a standard RTS game. You collect resources, build structures, train troops, and make weapons. The game is divided into two sides, the Human Alliance and the Dark Legion. Each side has a series of 13 missions to complete, and both sides must be played through to reveal the entire story. The cool thing is that the Light and Dark missions take place at the same time - you get to play both sides of each mission by the time you've finished the game.

You'll have at least one "Hero" character in the single player game. As you play through the game, your Heroes increase in level and in power and gain new abilities. This adds a bit of an RPG angle to the game. The Heroes are also the focus of the story and are the characters that you use in RPG mode, which I'll get to in a minute.

I hate when the boss watches me work.

Walk this way...

Tell Me a Story

Each level is prefaced with a brief introduction that fills you in on what has happened since the last level. You get to see a map of Bersiah and a run-down of where your army is heading. From then on the story unfolds in-level, similar to the StarCraft style. When a story segment starts, you temporarily lose control of the game and the characters will interact to reveal new story elements. Most levels start out with a story segment and a couple of more pop up as you play through the level.

If you want something done right...

Lovin' the lightning.

I liked this method of story telling. It keeps you in the game and gets to the point quickly. It's also a great way to throw a wrench in your plans, as the game will often surprise you by having extra enemy troops suddenly show up, or some other unforeseen disaster. Missions tend to be of the "protect this" or "destroy that" variety. You'll find yourself trying to overthrow an enemy castle, defending a village from Orcs, or trying to destroy an Altar of Destruction. The missions are nicely varied and the landscapes are complex, with lots of twists and chokepoints.

Death to Likuku!

Orcs on the move.

Difficult?

The single-player missions are quite difficult to get through and can take a couple of hours to complete, especially the final few missions. Now I'm all for long, challenging gameplay but this brings me to the biggest problem with KUF - you can't save in the middle of a mission. It is just plain to cruel to make gamers re-play entire hour-long-plus missions over and over. There is no way I could ever recommend this game to anyone (anyone I liked, at least) because of this one huge issue. Hopefully the game will eventually be patched to allow in-level saves, but until then the single-player game will remain an exercise in frustration.

My money is on the orcs.

Lily, dressed to kill.

In three missions for each side, the game departs from the usual RTS format and goes into RPG mode. Instead of controlling troops on the battlefield, you get to move your hero through a Diablo-like dungeon crawl. You explore dungeons, collect new weapons and armour, and get to fight some nasty creatures face to face. It's a pretty cool idea, but unfortunately it just isn't any fun. It might look like Diablo II, but that's where the similarity ends. The levels are small, slow, and deadly boring. In Diablo it's fun to point and click-click-click-click until the bad guys dead - here you point and click and wait-wait-wait-wait until the battle is resolved - it's just not the same.