Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is an awe-inspiring game. And not just because it manages to so cleverly blend solid arcade action with genius real-time strategy while chucking around 200-plus massively detailed fantasy characters around on screen simultaneously either (although those things do help). No - what really awes us about Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is the sheer scale of the game. It's massive. Huge. And yet at the same time fantastically personal.

Picture it: you're surveying a battlefield from on high, controlling an army of thousands, positioning your troops as they fight for their lives against a horde of nightmarish orcs and ogres and dark elves. Yet seconds later, you can be right down there in the thick of it, scrapping sword-to-pincer against the giant scorpion army of justice in person.

These are the jaw-dropping, fantasy battles of JRR Tolkien's wildest dreams, laid out on screen fire, brimstone, blood and all - with you sat slap bang in the middle, controlling everything you survey. For anybody with even an inkling of passion for all things orc- and hobbit-related, Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is a gateway to your most fevered imaginings. If Star Wars: Battlefront was the game Lucas fanatics always prayed for, KUF: Heroes is set to send Lord Of The Rings worshippers into equally orgasmic fits of ecstasy. Because, to be honest, it really is that special.

In case you've just landed on planet Xbox, Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is a semi-sequel to last year's Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, a game that took the button-hammering combat of the Dynasty Warrior games, spruced things up with some much-needed real-time strategy elements, and plonked the whole lot in the middle of a fantasy world filled with monsters, magic and mayhem.

And we enjoyed it. The Crusaders was a great game. It was different and entertaining. Problem was, it wasn't quite the game its creators envisaged. Quite apart from the trouble some people had getting to grips with it, its Live component had to be cut down in development to a basic two-player deathmatch game, and that simply wasn't good enough for the people behind Kingdom Under Fire. So they remade it, bigger, faster and slicker, and now we have Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes - and guess what? We really like this one as well.

It's more of an expansion pack than a full-blown sequel, a prequel with new characters, weapons and units. But not a great deal has changed. Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes boasts a slicker, more approachable combat system, and the number of enemies on screen has gone through the roof. But the gameplay itself remains identical: travel around a giant map screen, moving from one town to the next, then get ready for ten levels of hell to break loose as you enter the mother of all fantasy battles.

This, of course, is when it gets good. Most of the time you'll be in control of your own unit of troops, following orders and generally progressing across the field. Come across an enemy unit, however, and you'll be thrown into action: hacking, slashing, dismembering and - once you've built up enough power - unleashing all kinds of magical grief both personally and through your lieutenants.

And that's great - Dynasty Warriors Plus if you like. But as you progress you'll take on more and more auxiliary units (archers, catapults, cavalry and so on), and it's here things get really tactical, because it's only by ordering these additional units to lend strategic support that you'll ever hope to turn the tide of battle. Just like real war (we imagine), it all becomes a task of juggling the needs of your own troops with the needs of those around you. And just to make it a bit more interesting, Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes boasts 40 unique unit types, each with their own specific powers, strengths and weaknesses. Phew!

But what really impressed us most about Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is its incredible attention to detail in battle, and not just from a graphical point of view either - although it's astounding how good every unit looks, from the individual links of chain in the human army's armour, to the rough animal-fur collars of the marauding orc hordes, this is authentic as anything Peter Jackson conjured up in his Lord Of The Rings battle scenes. No, we're talking about genuine, authentic battle tactics here, and it's this more than anything that elevates Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes from colourful Dynasty Warriors homage to must-have title for anybody with even the slightest horn for strategy games.

It's not enough to just plough into the enemy, attack buttons set to auto-hammer - this is a proper field of battle and there are rules and procedures you'll need to follow if you ever hope to make it out alive. Sending out scouts, for instance. Not only will you get a good eye for the layout of the land, but you can also spot enemy units without the risk of setting off full-scale skirmishes.

Elevation is another important factor. Grabbing the high ground gives you a huge tactical advantage over those you're fighting below, especially for archers, who can rain arrows down on enemy troops far more effectively from hilltops. Likewise, the position of the sun has a big impact on proceedings. Fight with the sun to your back and you're laughing, but try shooting into the glare and you'll find yourself hitting fewer targets than a blind darts player with Parkinson's.

And on it goes. KUF: Heroes is an interactive textbook of historical battle tactics, bellowing strategies at you like Peter Snow with the world's loudest megaphone in his fist. Frustrated because your archers can't hit the enemy hidden deep within the forest? Then switch to burning arrows and smoke them out instead. Enemy continually charging you down with mounted troops? Try hiding behind a phalanx of spearmen and laugh with glee as the enemy mounts impale themselves on the protective shield of pikes. If nothing else, Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is the most robust, technically accurate strategy game ever to grace Xbox.

And yet somehow, controlling it all via the joypad is a breeze. Mini-maps can be pulled up on screen with the stab of a button; units can be switched between with the triggers, targets can be selected using the analogue sticks, and magic spells and skills can all be accessed with a flick of the directional pad. It's fast and instinctive and a masterclass in intelligent control design. If we have one complaint, it's that the camera can get confused amid the action. Admittedly, it does have to cope with zooming from close-up combat to eye-in-the-sky to back down on the ground again, all while cleverly avoiding the densely packed forest, but when it gets stuck on something as benign as a shallow hill you have to wonder.

But what's one little camera fault when you're busy marshalling five different units at once? Screw camera issues. This is a game that pushes your tactical brain to the limits. Do you personally lead your cavalry into battle, or do you go for something more discreet instead? Decisions, decisions.

Because, just when you think you've plumbed the very last of the endless layers of depth on offer, Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes manages to get even more complex, throwing a massively detailed RPG element in on top. It's not enough just to guide your armies to victory on the field of conflict - you have to nurture and develop them off the field as well, spending cash and experience earned in battle on new skills, abilities and equipment. Which, of course, throws up even more important tactical decisions, as each unit under your control transforms from simple infantryman into rock-hard paladin, butch catapult engineer or even spell-chucking dragon rider.

One of the best features of Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes is the way it eases you in with a gentle learning curve and helpful tutorial missions. Most of the early missions are designed to introduce you to the controls and the basics of general battle strategy, but at the same time Heroes encourages you to kick ass. Whereas The Crusaders went to great pains to explain everything in minute detail, Heroes tends to take the more Ramboesque approach and simply chucks you straight into the action.

There are good points and bad points to this. From a bad perspective, anybody who missed The Crusaders could find Heroes too much to absorb at once. But on the good side, you'll find yourself fighting giant insects and storming enemy fortresses well before you have to worry yourself with the intricacies of laying traps or setting waypoints. Better than The Crusaders, which simply ran out of tutorial missions and dragged you from gentle training scraps to full-scale, oh-my-God, what's-happening-here war.

Talking purely content for a moment, Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes offers single players a hugely meaty game with over 50 missions spread across seven separate campaigns, as well as the ability to set up quick custom matches against any combination of computer-controlled armies you wish. But the real improvement over The Crusaders is Heroes' Live mode, which finally resembles something worthy of the Xbox online crowd. A ceiling of four players may sound paltry for the main deathmatch mode, but when you consider each could be controlling six or seven units apiece that's plenty. Any problems then?

Three we can immediately think of. One: who did the translation work? We understand the game was made in South Korea, so English wouldn't have been the first language for much of the creative staff, but that's no excuse for the drivel that most of the characters spout. Two: the story is way too confusing, with too many characters, endless politics and far too much back story from the first game, and, in all likelihood, enough to put some people off the scrumptious gameplay underneath. And three: we're no longer convinced about all that constant thrash-metal during the fighting. It might have seemed like a good idea in The Crusaders, but now it's just irritating. Next time make it orchestral and make it good or don't even bother.

But worst of all - and bear in mind missions can drag on for an hour in some cases - there's no in-game save. At all. Which is ludicrous, especially given the sheer amount of information you continually need to take in at times. This is a massively tough game on occasion, and to be punished for one wrong decision in the heat of action by having to start all over on a mission seems a trifle harsh.

That said, you can't help be impressed with what Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes has to offer. We're a little disappointed to see that there have been few fundamental changes to the gameplay since The Crusaders (although many gamers will be coming to Heroes afresh), and it's fair to say that even with the improved combat system and slight shift in focus to combat over multiple-unit-juggling, this is still a game that could prove too complex for the casual gamer. But for those of you brave enough to take the plunge, this is one fantasy experience you won't forget in a hurry.

1. So much action going on at once! It's absolute carnage! Probably the most epic fantasy game you're likely to see on Xbox.
2. The blend of strategy and action has been perfectly tweaked so that fans of either genre will find something to really get their teeth into.
3. A massively improved Live element means frantic online action for up to six players, while the single-player game is amazingly hefty.
4. A remarkably deep game. Tactics, strategy, fighting combos, experience points and character development: there's a lot here.

1. The poor translation, wonky camera, lack of in-game save and huge amount of on-screen information can bring it down at times.

Not really a sequel, Heroes is still an improvement over The Crusaders. Could prove too complex for some though.