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Microsoft is continually trying to spice up their first-party line-up. With Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, they may have added another stellar RPG to their deck of cards.

Microsoft is ready to try and make Kingdom Under Fire a franchise open to everyone's liking. I believe that Kingdom Under Fire is one of the most under-rated series in the past five years. Before the Xbox iterations of the series, it was a pure strategy game on the PC. On the Xbox, it was a mixture of strategy and action. Now, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom is looking to be the turn in the series. For the first time, you’ll be able to confront hordes of foes with three other people over Xbox Live.

As of right now, there will be a selection of six characters to choose from, each with his or her path to follow. Two of the characters return from the Xbox franchise in the presence of Kendal and Regnier. Joining the ragtag bunch of heroes are two females – one being an elf named Celine and the other a drifting warrior named Curian. As of right now little is known about the roles each character plays in the storyline, but make no mistake, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom will provide a rounded out cast to everyone’s liking.

Circle of Doom will be introducing countless RPG features, yet it still will have the same old hack-n-slash elements that made the Xbox games entertaining. There will be more than 50 skills and spells to use against your enemies. With all these skills, Blueside, the developer of Circle of Doom, is hoping to diversify the game to the max. There will be an in-depth customization system to craft your character to your liking. Outside of molding your character, Blueside is allowing players to tinker with their weapons and customize them.

New to the series will be the implementation of a ranged weapon for all the heroes. If you have ever played a game when there were ranged units attacking you, you’ll know how annoying it was to try and run towards them as they continued to bombard you with attacks from a distance. This advantage is also going to be helpful in thinning out huge crowds of enemies.

Despite the major changes to the game that we have already seen, there are a few minor ones. The soundtrack is being changed drastically – no longer will you be slaying to the sound of rock music. In the past two games, you entered battle to the sounds of some awesome rock music that added to the chaotic battles. Now you’ll be inflicting your damage to the tune of classical music. Another change is that Circle of Doom will be establishing a new co-op multiplayer mode over Xbox Live. In the earlier games, two people could battle army against army; now you can work together with three other people to partake in missions.

The addition of cooperative multiplayer is definitely a huge step in a new direction for Kingdom Under Fire. Microsoft is hoping that this will give them what Kingdom Under Fire seriously lacked on the original Xbox - a short learning curve! The scheduled release date is set for the middle of the summer, so expect it around the end of June to the start of August.

Will it turn off the old PC fans? Can it finally make that leap from cult series to a major title? Could the addition of random dungeons possibly turn off hardcore gamers? Be prepared to have all our questions answered this summer when Kingdom Under Fire finally reaches store shelves.