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Considering most of the characters function more as quest-points than interesting NPCs to interact with, it isn’t much of a problem to just ignore the character names entirely and just think of every NPC as a generic character type.
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As if the designers didn’t know how to convey life in the character models without having them in constant undulating motion.ĭistracting visuals aside, from the player character to the various NPCs and villains, every character in Kingdom Under Fire 2 is bland and void of almost all attempts at personality. From individual finger movements to constant shoulder rolling to bizarre “breathing” animations that move the character’s entire body from hips to shoulders, the animations are beyond the uncanny valley and just end up feeling archaic. NPCs and player characters alike will standstill, with every single limb twitching and writhing in a completely unnatural way.
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The character designs are sexualized to the point of absolute ridiculousness right from the start, and the static character movements are so overblown you have to wonder if the animators have ever seen a real human being before in their lives. Meanwhile, the visuals, which will be a draw for some, aim for being high-end, sleek productions, but they often end up as a blurry, glitchy mess that the game engine can’t handle. Considering the fact that the bulk of the quests involve running around and talking with various NPCs, the quest text, static message system, and UI could stand to be a lot more impressive or, at the very least, a bit more immersive. While this isn’t exactly unheard of for RPGs, the fact that the static dialogue and quest chat are often completely at odds with one another creates for a strange, disconnected questing experience. Every time the player interacts with an NPC, they are subjected to the NPC’s static dialogue, before moving into the quest-based chat through dialogue prompts. The player advances through the story by doing a bunch of small, pointless errands that plod along through phoned-in cutscenes and boring text chat that is quite possibly the most frustrating form of MMO questing to date. However, outside of these strategy combat instances, Kingdom Under Fire 2 completely falls apart. Which can save you from having to put up with a slow, clunky party matching system.
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There is also good news for solo players in that many of the story-based multiplayer instances can easily be handled by a single skilled player. Helps that switching between both modes is nearly seamless, so you can toggleīetween the hero-controlled active combat and the more traditional RTS The constant running between NPCs to exchange approximately one to three lines of dialogue per interaction with occasional breaks to murder a few monsters out in the open world is punctuated periodically by the RTS “dungeons.” These 1-4 player missions are often castle siege or defence scenarios where the player can switch between an aerial RTS mode and hero-based active combat depending on their playstyle and situation.īenefits to both playstyles which makes the gameplay at least fun. The combination of game genres and formats leaves KUF 2 as a boring, grindy mess of fetch quests and extermination missions that feels interminable. The hybrid nature of Kingdom Under Fire 2 is as fascinating as it is limited.
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