From in-game content like mounts, quest logs and indicators, fast travel points, and map exploration, to the HUD and interface, to even the hotkey layouts, there’s nothing special KUF2 provides that other MMOs in the market don’t all already do. However, while it wasn’t entirely disappointing, the MMO aspect of the game was really just that - an almost cookie-cutter MMORPG game. Much of the beginning of the game plays like an MMORPG, perhaps easing players into the more complex levels later on. This said, not the entire experience was as captivating as we had hoped.
Noting that we were provided with a pre-launch version and just a little over an hour to test the game, the hands-on preview did leave us wanting more. When it comes to actual gameplay, KUF2‘s unique take on a hybrid genre does live up to expectations. Finally, we’ve got the Elementalist, a full-on mage with spell-casting abilities allowing her to engage from a distance. The Ranger comes in fourth, and resembles your classic DPS class, with daggers and a bow, dishing out heavy damage to single units. With a heavy combo-stacking play style, he’s able to tackle both individual and group enemies. The third is the Gunslinger, a “versatile human combatant” who wields both swords and guns. While her health pool is relatively shallow, she’s able to heal herself with the countless spells she can cast through a myriad of rune combinations. Clad with heavy armor and fueled with rage, the developers call him “the ultimate frontline warrior.” Next up is the Spellsword, a hybrid class that combines both swordplay and magic casting. First up is the Beserker, your classic warrior class. At launch, the game will have available five separate classes to choose from depending on your preferred style of play. Understandably, many of its fans have given up on the franchise, thinking it was dead in the water, so it was to much surprise that in 2019, the developers revealed that KUF2 was finally slated for an official commercial launch in the Western hemisphere.ĭespite these 10 years of tests and development, however, Blueside has stayed confident and kept the core - or the essence - of the game true to its original design. All three “tests” ultimately concluded with Blueside shutting down servers.
What made things worse for the title were successive failed beta phases: a closed-beta test first emerged in South Korea in 2011, followed by an announcement of an open beta in the Asian region in 2014, and finally a soft launch in Russia in 2017. These delays, along with financial issues encountered by the company leaving many employees unpaid, led KUF2 to seemingly disappear from the public eye. However, working with Xbox Live proved more difficult than imagined, and later the Korean developers were forced to change platforms over to the PS4, which at the time was still a relatively fresh console, as well as PC. Hoping to ride the wave of Circle of Doom‘s success, Blueside announced its plans to release KUF2 in 2008, the first real RTS experience in the franchise since 2005. Over the course of the next six years, the KUF franchise bounced back and forth between RTS and RPG elements through its sequels The Crusaders, Heroes, and ultimate the critically acclaimed Circle of Doom, all of which were developed exclusively for Xbox.
The new title builds upon a sturdy yet seemingly indecisive foundation which began with the launch of Kingdom Under Fire: A War of Heroes back in 2001, an RTS game designed for PC. The more hardcore MMO players out there will know that the road to launching KUF2 has been a long and rocky one, to say the least.