Title: Legendary
Release Date: November 6, 2008
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Rating: M for Mature
Platform: XBox 360
Publisher: Gamecock Media Group
Developer: Spark Unlimited
I have to admit, I was stoked when I saw the box art for Legendary. Ever since I picked up the pen and paper role-playing game Shadowrun, the very idea of mythological creatures in the modern world has filled me with excitement, and other than that RPG, I don’t think I’d ever come across any other product in any medium that portrays this concept. However, while the concept behind Legendary is a good one, the game itself is, sadly, only average.
Legendary’s protagonist is Charles Deckard, a thief-for-hire. He’s been hired by a shadowy group called the Black Order to steal Pandora’s Box (yes, THE Pandora’s Box) from a
The game’s interface is standard FPS fare. You get a selection of weapons to play with, which for the most part are just like the ones that you find in other FPS games (with the exceptions of the assault rifle and flamethrower, which have some minute differences). You also get two kinds of explosives, Molotov cocktails and grenades, the latter of which you can remote detonate. That sigil in Deckard’s hand can also be used to heal Deckard or unleash an “animus pulse” that has cosmetically different effects on different enemies, but which usually boils down to making the enemies more vulnerable to attack. There are also several devices throughout the game that can be powered up with animus energy, which is gained by siphoning the energy from dead enemies and a few other sources.
While the gameplay of Legendary is standard fare, other aspects of the game are not, which helps make an otherwise average game somewhat exciting. To start with, the story is very nicely done. The plot about the shadow war between the Council of 98 and the Black Order is quite captivating, and it leaves you wondering by the end if the Council of 98 is really the good guys, or just the lesser of two evils.
Secondly, the game’s atmosphere is truly phenomenal. The level designs, which mostly revolve around ruined cities like New York and London, are awesome depictions of the chaos brought about by the opening of Pandora’s Box, and scenes like a giant golem rampaging through downtown NYC and the Kraken snapping Big Ben in half with a giant tentacle really serve to drive home the horror of powerful supernatural creatures set loose in the modern world.
Speaking of the creatures, there are some very nice enemy designs in Legendary. Some of the monsters, like the minotaurs, aren’t too different from how they’re depicted in mythology, but the designs of some of the others are truly inspired. The firedrakes, for example, rather than being dragons, are four-legged, waist-high, lizard-like creatures that look like they’re made of volcanic rock, which spawn from the fires resulting from the damage wrought by the creatures. The golems, which were animated constructs of clay in mythology, are portrayed as gigantic beings composed of wrecked cars and other debris held together by a magnetic field. These are some very clever modern takes on ancient legends, and the designers deserve high praise for thinking these up.
Sadly, the rest of the game doesn’t quite measure up to the best of the first-person shooters out there. While the action in this game is somewhat exciting at times, there’s rarely ever a real sense of urgency to the combat like you get in other games.
There’s also just not enough new stuff to be found in Legendary. Like I said before, most of the weapons in the game function just like the weapons in other shooters, and the animus pulse, while useful, just doesn’t quite cut it in the “cool powers” department.
The other big complaint I have is that there’s too little of the cool stuff in this game. There are fewer different types of enemies than might be expected, which is a real shame – given the coolness of the enemy designs I cited above, I would have liked to see more variation in the creatures thrown at you. This flaw is compounded by the fact that the game is far too short.
I really wanted to like Legendary more than I did, but the sad fact is, there just isn’t enough there to make a great game. As it is, Legendary is alright, but it’s not the…ahem…legendary game that it had the potential to be.
Overall Rating: *** (out of 5)
