Games 1/16/08: Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, Master of Illusion
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom
For: Xbox 360
From: Blueside/Microsoft
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, violence, suggestive themes)
Through three games, the “Kingdom Under Fire” series had attempted to mix real-time strategy and slice-and-dice combat into a single, ambitious blend of brain and brawn. It never quite nailed the formula, but it inched closer with each chapter and consistently showed promise.
The key word there is “showed.”
With “Circle of Doom,” developer Blueside has completely stripped away the series’ strategy component, leaving behind a mindless and soulless action game that rarely grows more complex than pressing the X or A button over and over (and over and over). Some entry-level role-playing features and a completely unintuitive spell system break up the monotony, but 99 percent of “Doom” consists of walking down a narrow corridor, killing dozens of exactly the same brainless enemy, entering another corridor, and repeating ad nauseam.
That’s lamentable in principle alone, but “Doom” truly aggravates once you realize it can’t even lobotomize a game properly. Such repetitive action might be tolerable if it zipped by at a spirited pace, but your character moves like a baby with a full diaper and often attacks just as slowly, occasionally leaving you susceptible to inescapable strings of enemy attacks that inevitably kill you. Also perilous: the worst close-quarters camera on the Xbox 360. If you get cornered into a tight space, prepare to go dizzy while the camera completely spazzes out and more enemies blindside you.
Sadly, “Doom” never really redeems itself in any area. The story, if you can even call it that, is completely inane. The enemy A.I. is non-existent, and a rather ridiculous glitch allows all enemies to magically turn invincible whenever they’re in retreat mode. The level design ranges from bland to atrociously convoluted — a labyrinth of indistinguishable corridors that merely lead to more indistinguishable corridors. The boss fights are similarly mundane, often requiring you to do little more than jam the attack buttons literally hundreds of times until you win.
If none of this deters you, you’ll be happy to know that “Doom” features four-player online co-op and many hours of gameplay for completists who wish to unlock every last achievement and special item. Just know that all those hours of gameplay, whether with friends or not, consist of those same two seconds of gameplay, repeated endlessly, until the final credits roll. If that sounds like $60 of fun to you, then by all means, step right up.
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Master of Illusion
For: Nintendo DS
From: Nintendo
ESRB Rating: Everyone (mild suggestive themes)
Unless you’re hopelessly jaded and regardless of your feelings about magic and magic-themed video games, “Master of Illusion” is capable of amazing you in ways you never suspected a Nintendo DS could.
Take, for instance, the Vanishing Card trick. Your DS scatters a handful of face-down cards on the screen and asks you to select five with the stylus. All at once, the cards are revealed, and the game asks you to pick one and focus on it before turning the cards back over. No buttons are pressed nor screens touched during this step; you merely look at a card and commit it to memory.
Whether you stare a hole into a card or merely sneak a glace, “Illusion” somehow manages to pick your card. It’s not initially clear how it does this every single time, but it sure is awesome. Show this and “Illusion’s” other tricks to unwitting friends, and it’s almost certain to drop a few jaws.
The discovery of how this and other illusions work is what comprises the meat of “Illusion,” which functions more as an interactive teaching tool and social showpiece than a full-fledged video game. (“Illusion” includes a suite of Solitaire-style mini-games ostensibly designed to hone technique, but they likely exist as much to justify the “video game” tag as they do anything else. That’s fine; they’re moderately fun at best and inconspicuous at worst.)
Like Nintendo’s other training games, it encourages daily play and offers incentives to continue learning through scoring and a steady stream of unlockable tricks. It doesn’t inspire long play sessions, but it does offer plenty of reasons to pick it back up after you’ve put it down.
“Illusion” divides its trick library into two categories. The first, Solo Magic, drops you into the audience’s shoes while the game plays the part of illusionist. You contribute via audience participation, but the real fun comes with figuring out how the game executes these seemingly impossible feats. Some are clearly attributable to formula, but others aren’t so transparent.
Still, the game’s real showpiece is the Magic Show mode, which allows you to perform tricks for friends using the DS (and, where applicable, the pack of playing cards Nintendo bundles with the game). The game details your role in the deception, and if you follow the directions properly, you’ll learn how to pull off some legitimately dazzling feats of prestidigitation.