Overview
Lets get down to the good parts and that is well-designed enemies, Interesting, and you can play up to four people in Co-op. Now some bad parts, action is repetitive the same over and over. The camera view constantly gets in the way and the story is enigmatic and completely removed from the action proper. Like much of Circle of Doom, the story guns for sophistication but ends up being relatively inconsequential, simply because there's no strong narrative thread to tie the action together.
 GamePlay
You'll start the game controlling one of five characters that fall into the usual hack-and-slash archetypes (a sixth can also be unlocked), and each experiences a slightly different story, though the manner of storytelling is the same for all of them. Within dungeons, you will find idols (which also function as vendors and, occasionally, quest givers) that provide a safe place for sleeping and dreaming. Once asleep, you enter a dreamworld where you can talk with characters that provide quests and serve up bits of cryptic dialogue that may lead fans of previous Kingdom Under Fire games to nod their heads with understanding, but will confuse most anyone else.
It is a game of disconnection between the game and what you are fighting for, your never quite sure why; exactly you are fighting legions of skeletons and lava monsters. Then as you get further in the game as you hack and slash your way through big groups of far more bigger and enticing enemies then those regular RPG standards. This game has no shortage of monsters as they throw dozens of them at you at one time. The monsters in this game are remarkably imaginative with grunting and crawling zombies which are also called Flesh men that swarm around you. Invisible lizardmen that attack without warning and with also giant statues and sculptors that block passageways that waits for your sword and bow to wreak havoc.
When your fully into the game, slicing your enemies is as compelling as you would expect this type of genre, not because this game is so special or anything like that its based on a proven formula that works.
When you level up, you can spend attribute points in one of three areas:
Hit points: are the only straightforward aspect of the three, and spending points in this area increases the size of your health bar.
Skill points: contribute to your stamina bar, which is possibly the game's most interesting feature. In Circle of Doom, just the act of swinging or firing your weapon diminishes your stamina bar, and each weapon diminishes it in various degrees. It's fairly quick to fill up, but a weapon that uses a lot of stamina will deplete the bar relatively quickly, which means you need to either wait for enough stamina to swing again, or use a white potion to completely replenish your meter.
Luck points: is the third attribute on which you can spend points, though it is the vaguest of the three. According to the game manual, spending points in luck increases the frequency and quality of item drops, and we can certainly attest to finding better loot after spending attribute points in that area. Luck also increases your chances of success at synthesis. You can enhance weapons, armor, and accessories by visiting an idol and using an item and/or special ability to increase their effectiveness.
MultiPlayer
Circle of Doom can be played offline, or you can join up to three other others cooperatively; and like many similar games, the gameplay benefits from the addition of others. This is most apparent with some of the wearisome, often torturous boss characters, which aren't all that challenging but are certainly time consuming if you're on your own. Because some of them are obviously tailored toward certain characters over others (the first boss, which requires a ranged weapon, is an obvious example), a well-rounded party of four can increase the entertainment value significantly. Sadly, co-op play isn't available offline, so you'll need to play online via Xbox Live to use this feature.
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Guests: 718 | 
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scarface
- Jan 08, 2008
- Dec 13, 2007
- Dec 13, 2007
7.1
