Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes ('Heroes' from now on) is the prequel to Phantagram's brilliant but often overlooked Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders ('Crusaders' from now on). Heroes takes place in the fanciful continent of Bersia, five years prior to the Encabolossa War of the last game. A group of Half Vampires, led by Valdemar, have united the Dark Elves and established the kingdom of Vellond. In order to prevent dissidence from the oppressed Dark Elves, Vellond invaded the Elves of the autonomous state of Arein and simultaneously tried to annex the land of Hextor by supporting the most ambitious of its 30 tribes of Orcs and Ogres in a vicious civil war. Naturally, the ensuing military action attracted the attention of the Humans in neighbouring Hironeiden and Ecclesia and this is where the player enters with seven campaigns from various sides and perspectives of this escalating conflict.

The story of Heroes links very closely to that of Crusaders and fills in the back story of many of the first games events. You even get to participate in the cowardly act of slaughter that ultimately foiled Vellond's plans triggering the Encabolossa War in the first place. Heroes, by anyone's standards is an absolutely huge game. The single player campaigns alone will easily take between 30 ' 50 hours to complete, depending on your skill level and patience. Three of the seven campaigns are available upon first starting the game and the others become unlocked once the first are beaten. This in itself exacerbates the games biggest downfall'It's hard, damn hard.

There is no way to vary the difficulty in any of the game's campaigns and when their difficulty is described as 'Very Hard', 'Nightmare' and 'Hell' you don't have to use your imagination to know what you are in for. Additionally, the tutorial-style first campaign of the original has been dropped making the going for gamers new to the series even tougher. Heroes is one of the hardest and most punishing games on the market (imagine having to repeat a hour-long mission over and over again because you keep dying in the last five minutes) but your persistence and patience will pay off and pay off big.

Heroes, like its predecessor, is a brilliant game. It is a seamless blend of action, real-time strategy and role-playing, set in a vivid and wonderfully realised fantasy world. As the name suggests, this prequel is all about the Heroes. In fact, as is the case in the original, the player only has direct control over the particular hero of each campaign. That is not to say that you don't have any control over the rest of the hundreds of infantry, archers, cavalry and more on the field of battle (up to 200 characters on screen at any one time) instead you have a surprising amount of control. Heroes may look like a third-person hack & slash style game from screenshots and a large part of it is, but an equally large part is a revolutionary real-time strategy.

Players can find themselves in command of upwards of five troops of various classes and two support units of giant land based behemoths or flying beasts and machines. Orders are issued by switching to a troop with a quick pull of the Left or Right Trigger then using the Thumbsticks to position the context sensitive cursor over the desired location or unit. Alternatively, it can at times be easier to pull and hold the Right Trigger and issue orders (including way points) on the very useful mini-map.

Available orders are simply move, attack and use power / ability but their implementation is far from simplistic. Heroes uses a complex system of attack and defence modifiers similar to a paper-rock-scissors arrangement. For example, Cavalry are devastating against infantry but weak against spearman, likewise infantry can defeat spearmen easily. Additionally, terrain and direction of attack also modify the effect of a defensive or offensive strategy. If you attack with archers with the sun at their back their target's defence against the arrows is dramatically reduced, likewise if you attack with the archers from high ground, the strength of their attack is increased. Ground units receive a defensive bonus when sheltering from arrows in heavily forested areas, but that same protection can become lethal if the archers' switch to flaming arrows. Other factors also affect the outcome of the battle such as attacking up or down a slope and attacking from the front or flank.

Controlling your troops and considering the factors mentioned above, all in real-time, can seem quite a daunting task at first. It is initially difficult to get the hang of, but once you master the intricacies of the control system you will be surprised by the coordinated manoeuvres you can achieve. Unfortunately, the camera and control system is not without its flaws. The camera often finds itself facing in strange angles, which look great in screenshots but aren't the best for issuing orders. Camera panning speed is also frightfully slow and has an annoying habit of jumping to undesirable directions. Also, it is possible to issue movement and attack commands to all troops with the press of the Y Button but in order to cancel this command you have to cancel each troop individually which is a painful oversight for gamers with sometimes fatal consequences for gameplay. Sadly, all of these issues were present in Crusaders and it is a real shame that they were not resolved in Heroes.

The 'hack & slash' gameplay of Heroes takes place when the player assumes control of the Hero's main troop in close combat. Each Hero is a superbly detailed and animated character, with vastly different unique strengths and weaknesses that dictate the tactics to be employed. Control is simple with the Thumbsticks controlling movement and camera angle. When in combat, the Hero can not leave his/her troop and must stay and fight or issue a retreat command to break contact. The face buttons are used to issue troop movement and attack commands, perform actions and to deliver attack combos. Attack combos in Heroes are much simpler than in your classic fighter, but more complex than basic weak and strong attacks. Trial and error and on-screen tips will lead the player to discover the true strengths of each Hero and when mastered will result in breathtaking displays of blood-soaked carnage.

The main characters of Heroes have some truly innovative attacks, with my favourite being one of the Half-Vampire Morenes'. Morene can fire anchored bone knives from her wrists and through the chests of hapless enemies. Then by using the Left Thumbstick, players can swing this poor victim around in the air, cutting great swaths through enemies like a makeshift wrecking ball'Extremely useful and endlessly entertaining. Attacks such as these do not come for free however and use up the player's Skill Points (SP). SP are earned through combat and can be used by any of the players officers and Hero to perform special abilities. These abilities can range from sending out a scout or creating an elemental healing tree to even wrenching flaming meteorites out of orbit and colliding them into enemies as part of a massively powerful magic attack. Unfortunately, as in Crusaders, you cannot perform special abilities such as healing your soldiers when engaged in combat, limiting their usefulness.

The Hero's main troop, unlike all others, can accommodate two additional supporting officers. These officers are initially supporting characters in the Hero's story but can be swapped with any officers in the Hero's company. Pressing the Black and White buttons will cause the respective supporting officer to rush to the aid of the Hero and perform a special move of their own. This is very useful for finishing a battle quickly or relieving an overwhelmed Hero. Almost all of the Heroes in this game were themselves supporting officers in Crusaders.

The third gameplay element of Heroes plays like an RPG and revolves around managing the Hero's troops and officers. The depth and complexity of Heroes really comes into its own when you begin to level-up your officers and Hero, change troop classes, hire mercenaries and buy, sell and equip each with weapons, armour, shields and magical or utility items. This is all done when resting in settlements or forward bases between missions. The player's performance in battles acquires them Gold to spend on items and Experience Points (EXP) for leaning new skills and abilities or levelling-up the existing ones. Decisions here can have far reaching consequences in later battles so choose your equipment and skills wisely.

A welcome addition to Heroes are the many ancillary missions with simple 'destroy all enemies' objectives. These missions do not need to be attempted to complete the campaign but offer the player a much needed chance to build up their Gold and EXP. Having the appropriated type and strength troops, skills and equipment can make all the difference in certain missions. Mission objectives vary significantly throughout campaigns and can consist of huge all-out battles, stealthy infiltrations, escort missions and more. Frequently, missions are broken up with cut scenes using the in-game graphics engine that either add to the story or illustrate an important event. For some reason, after any in-game cut scene, the location of your troops is reset to where the game designers believe you should be instead of where they actually were prior to the cut scene beginning. This can be more than a little annoying if for instance you are holding a particular unit in reserve for some reason.

The visual and gameplay style of Heroes is not the only striking aspect of the game. The music in Heroes can come as quite a shock for players expecting Lord of the Rings style arrangements. Menu and campaign map music is what you would expect but when the action focuses on the battle scenes, the music switches to screaming heavy-metal guitar. It is something that you either accept and enjoy or resist and turn down depending on your taste. Personally, I think it suits the gameplay but it definitely isn't for everyone.

Sound effects are equally suitable and sound extremely impressive through a decent sound system. Flying arrows, thundering cavalry and screaming warriors bleed from your speakers with a conviction that sets your heart racing. The voice acting on the other hand is dubious at best, which in itself has a certain amount of charm, but like the music will annoy some players. Not all of the original voice cast have returned for the prequel so veterans of Crusaders should expect to hear a few strange voices and also expect the same repetitive few lines from officers during combat.

A new feature of Heroes, is the inclusion of a Custom Battle mode. This mode allows players to create a battle by dictating what Heroes to use, numbers and make-up of troops (including new units such as giant Earth Golems that are a lot harder to obtain in Campaigns) and finally what map to fight on. Thankfully, there is an option to alter the difficulty of these custom missions, unlike during the campaigns. Unfortunately, this feature is a little limited as there is no way to modify maps, select weapons and armour or even place enemy units in particular places within each map. It is however, a great chance to practice your skills with any Hero and troop combinations, either prior to the Campaign or before playing over Xbox Live.

The Xbox Live features of Heroes have received a considerable improvement over that of Crusaders in which many features were reported as dropped at the last minute, such as more than two-player battles. Veterans of the series will look upon the Live features of Heroes and will not be able to stop themselves thinking "Now this is how Crusaders should have been!" Live play is now split into three main modes. Troop Battle, allows up to six players to either team up or go head-to-head with their troops of choice on various maps. The new Hero Mode, strips away the supporting troops and enables up to six players to forget about the tactics an just concentrate on combos and hero-to-hero combat. The final mode is called Invasion and is a co-op mode for up to three players as they defend against wave after wave of attacking AI controlled enemies. Additionally, there is a new Spectator Mode that allows players to watch others play on Live and chat about the action on screen with other spectators, great for newcomers. Each of these modes offers something different and are infinitely better than the limited two-player battles of Crusaders.