In a war-torn medieval land 4 heroes emerge to fight for their countrymen and to crush the ever-growing menace of evil (or good) that threatens their very existence. Humankind occupies two regions and must ally under the banner of God against the evil alliance of Orcs, Dark Elves and Half-Vampires. All seek out the 'Ancient Heart' for the usual reasons such as lust for power or for protection against same.

The heroes come together in 4 separate and lengthy single player campaigns to lead their armies to death or glory. These same heroes can be controlled via Xbox Live in incredibly addictive and strategic wars, no two of which are ever exactly the same. Will Kingdom Under Fire The Crusaders be able to cut a swathe through the competition or will it be crushed under the barrage of ever increasing quality Xbox titles? With the Patriarchs blessing, Xbox World Australia has endeavoured to find out!

When you first start the game it's a good idea to start off with Gerald's Campaign which is set to the easiest difficulty. The game is unlikely to be pickup and play for many but at least with this campaign you get some on the job training so to speak, learning the main attack and manoeuvring abilities of human forces against relatively friendlier opposition. At first the whole idea of moving more than one unit and using the mini-map may seem a little daunting but if ever there was a game that persistence pays off, well this is it. I thought the controls were a lot less than great at first but after putting in many hours my opinion has changed dramatically. The controls really are excellent and the harder the battle, the more you come to appreciate them.

The campaigns centre around 4 heroes who are the only characters you can use directly in melee battle. These heroes are however joined by 2 support officers that have unique and interesting special moves to unleash on the enemy. Each campaign is at least 10 battles long, getting progressively more difficult.

There are 5 possible Dark Elf units to create, about a dozen Orcs (remember these first 2 are allies) and 16 or 17 different human units. The selection of troops and the way you use them makes this game far more a strategy title than a hack n slash. Think of advanced rock/paper/scissors. You having to position your troops in the right place at the right time to defeat the troops they have the advantage over whilst avoiding those having the advantage over them. For example a cavalry unit will crush an archer unit. That same archer unit however can bring down an aerial support unit that it is invincible against the aforementioned cavalry.

Skill Points (SP) is a factor that has to be considered also, both how to gain it quick and how to use it effectively. Some units are good at building it up while others use it in the form of special moves. Your hero and supporting officers use SP in melee whilst other units can use it to cast lightning, vine (earth), blizzard, holy (heals allies, damages dark forces) and even meteors upon the enemy outside of melee. Certain troops are good at healing, others use defence as the best form of attack, others still are great for range attacks whilst others again are better suited slugging it out in melee. On top of this there are support units available at your disposal, most of which pound ground troops from the sky or from a distance. SP affect or is affected by all of these battle techniques and needs to be collected by any means available.

In between campaign battles you will usually be given an opportunity to raise the levels of your units with Experience (EXP) earned in battle. Raising levels can be done in various ways and areas and upgrading your heroes' levels carries across to his or her squad members equally. You will also earn gold between levels and this is used to purchase better weapons and armour, some of which have special effects such as +10% EXP earned in future battles or resistance to fire damge. Another tactically important thing to do between battles is the hiring of mercenaries which can bring new abilities to your army. Mercenaries can even be substituted with one of your supporting officers, and it all adds yet another layer of decision-making depth to the game.

The learning curve in Kingdom Under Fire is not too steep, indeed, the first campaign is really one designed to cut your tactical teeth on and help you come to grips with things. Once you get the hang of the controls you will be directing units left, right and centre and switching between them quickly to use special abilities, make calculated placements and to earn more SP. After finishing Gerald's campaign you seem to get the right jump in difficulty to Lucretia's campaign. After this the final 2 campaigns are set to hard, and you will find yourself enjoying the extra freedom of upgradeability and troop selection in the harder campaigns, and wishing you had more of this available back when you were playing as Gerald.

Visually, Kingdom Under Fire is excellent, and in particular once you have played for a while, you will notice the attention to detail in the animations. An example of this is in viewing a melee battles: soldiers from both sides are seen attacking, defending, pursuing and dying in different ways which look very realistic. It's a picture of mayhem with the dead littering the battlefield and upwards of 20 versus 20 engaged in incredible battles to the death. Giant dragons, mechanical flying machines and the like sometimes circle above and rain fire down upon enemies below. It's all helped by some great lighting and effects, some of which- like the position of the sun- have an actual bearing on the outcome of the battle too. That said the battlefields themselves are not overly detailed- although they are well above passable- perhaps to allow for more mayhem.

In game sound is excellent and the voice acting is great too. The sounds of battle are all good. Arrows are heard whizzing through the air and thumping into flesh; swords and axes clatter and clang with each other and shields; soldiers yell in rage and scream in pain; ballistas and catapults can be faintly heard loading and firing miles away; thundering cavalry are heard charging from a distance and getting louder and louder as they approach. All in all it makes for a pretty intense auditory experience that borders on overwhelming- just like battle should be. The dialogue between the main characters during the campaigns unfolds the story from the perspective of each of the 4 heroes. Conversations between Lucretia and Morene are nothing short of hilarious. Background battle music is often hard guitar and it seems to suit the mood of proceedings, though some may find the modern-day rock incongruous with medieval battle.

The single player game has a lot of replayability, particularly the harder campaigns. . There are a multitude of different ways to win battles through troop, officer and equipment selections, and despite some fairly inflexible objectives, how you actually achieve them is often left up to you.

The real replayability it has to be said is on Xbox Live. Each player is limited to 4 regular units and a support unit. Support Officers of the hero unit are no longer available nor is weapon and/or armour upgradeability in between battles. Don't be put off by this though as there are almost no limits to the way you can fight and there can be nothing more satisfying than beating a human opponent. Levelling up of units remains as does selection of troop type and special abilities. You will start off very weak and your level 10 units may get destroyed quickly by seasoned onliners with level 99 (maxed) enemies. Still if you outwit, outplay and outlast (where have I heard that before?) your opponent you can beat players at double your levels. Even if you are massively out levelled you can gain a tremendous EXP boost by beating just 1 of their units or even just killing some enemies. You can be well rewarded for your efforts and in no time commanding an army to be feared by all.