We were allowed to start up our Xbox360 debug once again, this time to make a test ride through Kingdom under Fire: Circle of Doom. The series is probably less well-known with the larger audience but it does have a large amount of fans.

Developer Blue Side is still working hard on this episode which contrary to its predecessors will be focused mainly on action instead of strategy, but with some through through RPG aspects. A classic game in the series, with action and strategy is also in development but is currently still under wraps.

Those that know Dynasty Warriors will quickly feel on familiar ground. You’ll constantly go to work to attach and defeat large groups of enemies, but this time on your own without a big army to support you. Luckily you can build your character by fighting well and not only by means of parameters but mostly by improving your gear.

The starting screen gives the possibility between six characters of which three are immediately accessible. Of course we opt for Celine, the female warrior that’s specialised in light blades and distance weapons. After a magical cut-scene in which we get some info about an alternative dreamworld in which you can go in and out, we get a ton of hostiles on our plate.

The more you kill, the stronger you get, the higher your hit points, luck and some sort of mana you get but it’s clear that the variation has to come from your weapons. There are some magic powers that can be used and built up but there was too little of that present yet to give a good idea of how it works. The inventory will no doubt be extremely important, with the option to assign a weapon on your X and A-button while putting skills or potions on the B-button and right trigger. The menus already look quite well-done and did their job fast.

Very accessible up to now but also not deep enough. The amount of weapons was hopeful and the possibility to link items to each other for some gold does suspect some good. There’s for instance a health-feature that can be added to a sword or a fire element that can be attached to a shield, exactly how you want and determine it!

When you’re done with buying or selling items and making new ones than you can go on a trip to the aforementioned dreamworld. Doze off and you visit a couple characters that not only will give you some more info on the storyline but also new missions and quests. On top of that you can learn new skills and abilities if you manage to succeed certain missions in the real world.

The concept of the dreamworld, the RPG properties and mostly the extensive inventory promise a lot of good. Especially the creation system and alternative way of getting quests and abilities might work very well. The makers, however, should pay a lot of attention to interesting weapons and skills as the combat itself looked quite repetitive and the way long range weapons (like bows) are controlled certainly needs to be changed. Graphically the game will mainly have to amaze with inventive environments and enemies as technically this title will probably not rise above average.

To conclude we can say that we saw some very promising gameplay aspects but it’s clear that the makers have quite some work to do still to make this game more than a hack&slash fest with some RPG elements.