So I downloaded the demo for KUF: Circle of Doom months ago and really enjoyed it. But it took me a trip to the bargain bin before I really picked it up. For $19.99 flat you can get in on the fun of a very straight forward and simple dungeon crawler in the same vein as Gauntlet Legends and somewhat similar to Ultimate Alliance with a bit of a D&D feel.

The game is best played online with friends so convincing your buddies to pick up the game with you is key, but as a testament to the games fun factor there are plenty of players online. Reviewers blasted the game for its badly put together story, and I won’t lie to you, the story is barely there for first time players, the sensation is like coming in the middle of an epic tale with no ability to rewind. You slowly start to piece things together and the story is different apparently depending on the character you use.

 The character design is awesome and your player looks phenomenal. I’ve been using Kendal, a giant knight that runs around with a giant war hammer dispatching enemies left and right. The game is built for four player co-op, the difficulty raises as players join the game so don’t go in expecting to just walk through the game.

Leveling your character is interesting and easier than any game like it. You simply have three areas to contend with when leveling: health, stamina, and luck. Health is obvious, stamina is a bit trickier and luck is fairly self explanatory as well. Stamina is depleted every time you commit an act, such as swinging your weapon or equipping an item. Your SP (stamina) gauge decreases whenever you swing your weapon, the longer the gauge the more swings before you need to wait for the bar to replenish. The key is getting the bar long enough to where it doesn’t matter and you can just swing away, but early on this is no easy task.

Luck controls what kinds of items are dropped by felled opponents, and it also aids in a method called synthesis. Synthesis allows you to make bigger and better weapons and armor. I haven’t quite mastered the process yet, but I can already see where the business of making better stuff can come in handy.The game isn’t perfect by any stretch, the camera is unfortunately not always your friend and there isn’t a way to pause the action even in the solo campaign which is frustrating, in exchange for the ability to pause there are locations where players can find idols. The idols are safe zones where a lot of important things happen. For starters you can buy and sell items, synthesize items, and sleep. Sleeping is a very important aspect of the game.

When players sleep they enter a dream world where two things are accomplished, the story is progressed and you can learn new  abilities. The two are further intertwined as questing is also how you learn new abilities. In the dreamscape you are given a list of monsters to defeat in order to learn that particular ability. There are no cut scenes in the actual game which leads to less down time in the middle of the action; instead all of the story elements are handled in the dreamscape which is cool.   

While I can’t say that the solo game is all that enticing, there are hours of fun to be had with your friends in the co-op mode. One thing that the critics may have overlooked is how easy it is to find games to play with friends, I strongly urge you to give this game a spin. The game is available for the Xbox 360 console.