Usually when a system drowns out its life support, you see one of two things. You either see these elegant pieces of work that show the tried and true development of some teams and makes the system a must-own throughout its retired years, or you see some kind of drivel that's been toiled with for years and released merely to put it out of its misery and try to rake in a few careless bucks. Now here we are, already at the near end of Microsoft's support for the original Xbox console as they move into 360 territory, and we come upon one of their final first-party products for the machine, Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes. So where does it fall? Well, you might think that it's a careless sequel that will probably get passed over by the quality third-party releases arriving on the machine, but it could've been worse. Far worse.

Like Crusaders before it, which was released last year, Kingdom Under FIre has an interesting hybrid within its play mechanics. It mixes real-time strategies involving a number of squadrons that must be strategically placed in each battle with the kind of hack-and-slash gameplay you'd find in Koei's Dynasty Warriors series, where you take a lone soldier and merely rip through armies like a chainsaw would tear through potential Christmas trees. There's a number of missions that must be completed in single player mode, a campaign where you progress with seven different characters to choose from, a few taken from Crusaders and a couple of extra faces thrown in for good measure.

Let's face it, if you've played Crusaders, you've probably played Heroes. The game doesn't feel like a full-blown sequel but rather an add-on, as even the missions feel almost the same as they did in the original. That's not to say there isn't enjoyment to be found, as Phantagram made good use of the existing engine and gives the players more of what they want. There's strategics to discover in each mission, and the way that you can boost up your squadrons is a nice touch. With each battle, you earn experience points and snag gold, allowing you to customize each team with ease and build upon them with all sorts of freaky unit types, like dragons and ghosts. There's also elemental units that come into play, mixing up the unpredictability. Ever try to take a field with an earth golem and a flame wraith? Let's just say the results aren't pretty for any enemy that faces me. Muhaha.

The gameplay can get a bit stale at times, but any hack and slash game is likely to run that gamut. Fortunately, the gameplay remains pretty solid, and you can learn new strategies that can come into play against other players (more on this in a minute). The presentation remains similar to Heroes, with some dazzling backdrops and some impressive on-screen character counts, only fuzzied up by the occasional lack in detail and frame rate. There's also the problematic camera issue, which forces you to act quickly on your surrounding enemies, and that can be a pain if you can't really see all of them. The sound also has its nagging issues, as it mixes a splendid, offbeat hard rock soundtrack with some crappy English voicework (trust me, take the Korean voice option- it's way better) and decent sound effects. You can only take so much of a lead character's commands before monotony sets in.

If Heroes benefits from anything, it's the fact you can have some massive war campaigns with friends online via Xbox Live. Up to six players can engage in some kick-ass battles, and it's here that your strategies will be put to the test, along with your finest warrior of choice. Along with the free-for-all battle mode, you can also go co-op with a buddy and test a dual campaign against the armadas that have gathered through the service, just waiting to eat you alive. Just make sure to keep an eye on your troop arrangements, as they have a tendency to set back to their original positions during a battle. This bothered me a little- no wonder I was getting slaughtered. And with flame wraiths, no less. Is that even possible?

If you didn't get into Kingdom Under Fire before, you probably won't now. And something should be said about the game's progressive difficulty level, which won't be everyone's speed either. However, fans of the original and those looking for a little diversity in the "beat them all up" game category should give Heroes a hearty welcome, looking past its presentation shortcomings and embracing its multiplayer efforts and gameplay comeuppances. It may not be the epic send-off many people hoped for on the Xbox, but, hey, at least it didn't slip under someone's door like a slice of stinky cheese either.