Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom Review
These Legends are untold for a reason. Several reasons, actually.
Posted by Robert Workman on Tuesday, November 28, 2006
While the PlayStation 3 Is a must-have system, the lack of must have games comes as quite a shock. Resistance: Fall of Man and Ridge Racer 7 play very well, But there's a group the games that seem like pieces of messy coal instead of sparkling diamonds. This group includes Sony's disappointing Genji sequel, as well as the laughably bad Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire. Sadly, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom joins this disappointing group.
The game begins with the player choosing between three different characters -- a warrior, a scout and a mage. These three belong to a special task force assigned by the king of Dureth, a mystical land, to clear the place of unspeakable evil. These usually consist of creatures that don't fit within the peaceful realm, including demons, giant fish, devil creatures, and many more. The setup seems fine, but instead of feeling like a deep and engrossing adventure, Untold Legends feels like a novel missing pages.
That's because the the gameplay never has a chance to grow. The player moves about, knocking out enemies with simplistic weak and strong combo attacks as well as the occasional spell (each character has up to four spells). Items can be picked up along the way and equipped, but the core gameplay never changes. Whack, whack, oh look new shoes, whack, whack. There's very little variance in how items affect the player's performance, unless they're new spells that are picked up over the course of the adventure, but even they suck.
It also hurts that creativity was never injected into the presentation. The graphics look very plain, with slapped-together animations and character design. How simple is it? The female warrior resorts to wearing tight armor until she's able to change into, of all things, a sports bra. Levels fail to display the beauteous side of Dureth, as forests, fields, and stone buildings comprise the scenery. The camera system is also problematic, with the occasional off-screen enemy causing damage, forcing the player to rotate it for a counterattack. Some of the armor power-ups and lighting effects do look next-gen, but they don't justify the game's $59.99 price tag.
Thankfully, the music doesn't drag players into the doldrums, but it doesn't offer anything really astounding either. It's like a "Lord of the Rings Scoring For Dummies" book was utilized, page for page. The sound effects are decent, but repetitive. Death cries are commonplace here, along with clashing swords and minimal throwing effects.
The game does feature a somewhat interesting multiplayer set-up. Secondary players can hop in anytime to help out with combat off-line. Up to four friends can gather for monster bashing at any time online as well. However, Sony Online makes the mistake of not being able to link up single-player and multiplayer progress into the same game. This means that terrain will be covered twice by players who are getting into both campaigns, leading to some unnecessary repetition.
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom might offer something to fans of the PSP games, or to those looking for some adventure in the PS3 line-up, but the game comes up short on many levels. An uninspired presentation peppered with gameplay that manages to get stale even the multiplayer options. Adventure is something that's supposed to sweep us off our feet, not make us fall asleep in our easy chair. Let's see if Sony can crank out a sequel that feels more "epic" and less "empty" next time.
Final Score: 5/10
