Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders brought the KuF series back to life from the ruins of the PC strategy series it's based on, offering a more action-oriented experience that fans of all stripes could enjoy. For the most part, the game was good, though not necessarily a popular purchase last year (meaning great game that people didn't catch wind of). The latest game from Phantagram and Microsoft Game Studios on Xbox is just as good if not better than its predecessor, despite the fact that it doesn't go out of its way to do too much differently.

Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes tells a similar tale from The Crusaders - Humans, Elves, Orcs and Vampires are once again at each others throats and violent conflicts are breaking out everywhere. With the fall of last year's antagonists - the Dark Legion - Humans have filled the void of power. But the darker races of Bersia (Dark Elves, Half-Vampires) have aligned to form a brand new Dark Legion in the hopes of wiping out the Human race altogether. Hijinx ensue. The backstory to the game, combined with the overall presentation is mediocre at best, with weak voice acting and a general bad translation of the dialogue proving to have a serious impact all around. But surprisingly it doesn't matter with Heroes - the gameplay itself is compelling enough to miss the games shortcomings.

Heroes retains that same magical feel that players were given in The Crusaders, mixing real-time strategy and furious action. This time out there's also some new features, characters and units to fool around with. Players start the game by choosing which army to control, which campaign to play (some are locked at the start of the game) and which "Hero" character to take command. Each campaign has a unique storyline, but are all intertwined so that events take place simultaneously. For seasoned veterans of this series, the game is pretty much the same, but for new players starting out can be a bit overwhelming. Luckily being patient is its on reward - once you get into the game and understand how commands work you'll be hooked.

The way the game works is nonetheless straightforward - players control their hero character who gives out various commands for movement, spell casting, special skills or attacking. When players engage the enemy, they take direct control over their larger than life hero and cut through hundreds of enemies - or die trying. Your hero has a number of nice attacks and special skills he or she can employ to cut down common troops or knock out enemy leaders (which in turn wipe out units under their command). Playe4rs can use quick or strong strikes and can even chain them together to create powerful combos - perfect for slicing through an enemy crowd (or you can simply use a special attack skill to rain down a myriad of powerful damaging effects). Heroes maintains that magic balance that made The Crusaders a great game on the Xbox - so fans of the series will certainly not be disappointed with what it offers.

When not slugging it out on various dark and gritty maps, players can also customize their heroes and troops in a number of interesting ways. Players use gold and experience points to level up their Hero, which in turn allows them to level up troops under their command (if they meet certain level requirements). The results of this vary from race to race, but overall it allows them to become stronger or gain new job classes. The system is fairy well balanced regardless of what race you're tinkering with, so players should take the time to experiment whenever the need arises...

Finally a word about multiplayer - Heroes is vastly improved in this area over its predecessor, delivering six-player online play via Xbox Live with a myriad of variations including deathmatch and team play. Players also earn online-only experience that can be used to level up your favorite online army for further and more robust online battles. The multiplayer campaigns are almost identical to the previous game, so seasoned players will have no problems jumping right in and slugging it out with people all over North America.

From a presentation stand-point, Heroes is okay, but certainly not any flashier than Crusaders. Some of the campaigns are still dark and hard to navigate at times and some types of units are sometimes hard to distinguish. Luckily effects detail, animation and movement are pretty decent and the action looks pretty cool despite the lack of enhancements.

Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is a solid action strategy endeavor offering the trademark frenetic and fun action the series is known for. If you liked the first one and love playing via Xbox Live then this release is certainly meatier than past releases. But if you're not sure at least give Heroes a rental - you'll get hooked if you do.