Legendary: The Box - Hands-On Preview

by Emily Balistrieri on November 15, 2007 at 8:15 pm

Charles Deckard opened the original can of worms when he stole Pandora’s Box. The Box even knows he’s the won who did the deed, and the brand it leaves on his hand connects him to the “animus” magic inside. Of course, all hell literally breaks loose and whether it’s the Council, the Black Order, or Deckard himself, it’s going to be a hard time trying to coop it all back up.

You’ve probably seen the immediate aftermath already in our EiEiO preview: huge gryphons swooping down on the city, biting people’s heads off, grabbing cars in their talons and hurling them down the street. It’s complete and utter chaos as the museum evacuates during those first few minutes after the box is unsealed. Recently, though, we got the chance to go hands-on with some bits from later on in the game.

First off, there are werewolves, but not exactly your typical breed. Developer Spark describes their angle on mythology as “a game of telephone” where what we’ve heard down through the ages isn’t necessarily what happened. Even then, what people were getting superstitious about wasn’t unshakably proven, but rather an idea.

There’s wiggle room in there– for example, the wiggle room to make a golem out of slabs of busted avenues and bits of concrete buildings. The main idea stays the same, but the interpretation can vary.

The wolf dudes keep their distance at first. Spark thinks about their creatures in terms of the effect they have on the environment and, “chucking stuff at you definitely makes them feel real.” So chuck they do. As you continue to assault them, however, they’ll move in for melee and bare their fangs pretty quickly. All the creatures have phases like this, which along with variable AI behavior, makes fights much more dynamic and interesting.

Whether an enemy runs along the wall or chooses to vault over a piece of debris doesn’t seem like it would make a huge difference, but it does. When creatures start attacking Black Order soldiers instead of focusing their attention on you, that behavior also makes a big difference. Then you can start choosing who to focus your attention on: the soldiers for their ammo, or the creatures for their health recovery?

We also got to check out the first minotaur fight. The minotaur is just another baddie, albeit in the fresh “telephone game” style (I did end up asking to make sure that’s what I was fighting). To show off his behaviors and let you really experience what an encounter will feel like, the introductory showdown takes place in a graveyard arena-like setting.

It’s not the easiest fight, considering his rage culminates in a series of charges that you’ll have to step pretty lightly to avoid. Taking him down only brings you one step closer to a nasty tentacle monster sprouting arms out of graves, ready to grab hold and never…let…go…

Which is where our demo ended! With all the high-tech engines people are coding on these days, frantic energy with stuff flying all over the screen is completely possible, and it’s got me really excited. This first taste of Legendary: The Box has me eager to experience more of Spark’s particular flavor of chaos, so we’ll see what the coming months bring before the June release.

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