360/PS3 Review: Legendary
Legendary is a first person shooter with a strong concept but a weak execution. The mystic Pandora’s Box at the center of the plot unleashes hellish versions of mythological creatures like werewolves and griffons– a cool idea, but there’s not a decent game to back it up. I feel that Legendary’s horrendous one-track level design deserves much of the blame.
Much of the game’s feeling of chaos is conveyed through scripted scenes that take place just as you happen to walk by. Your character, a professional thief named Deckard, seems to be the videogame version of William H. Macy’s The Cooler, as everyone he encounters is immediately struck by horrible luck. Don’t get too attached to any of the random, nameless police officers and soldiers that you’ll meet along the course of the game. You’ll never hear more than a few seconds of pointless banter before they’re dragged away screaming by some random monster.
These scripted sequences were amazing back in the days of Half Life 1, but the game ignores completely the wide-open locations, compelling characters, and feelings of immersion created by later Half Life games. Even the pacing is screwy—you start out Legendary in a scene of utter chaos, with people screaming continually for the next few hours. Later, a few slower moments in the underground segments (mostly sewers and subways) provide the give-and-take of quality FPS games, but instead of gradually building suspense, the early parts of the game come across with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
One of the few successful sequences, a scene that actually builds over time, starts with you trying to turn a crank to open a doorway in a sewer, only to watch as mischievous nymphs steal the crank and place it in a cramped compartment below. When you go back for the crank, the nymphs seal the doors around you and start up a giant fan that sucks you into it unless you shoot out some planks around it. This was one rare moment that captured my interest—the rest of the sewer crawl was forgettable.
A quality videogame, especially the best first person shooters, thrive on an increasing expectation of tension and payoff, but the rushed pace of Legendary leaves no room for suspense. An objective marker that pops up when you press the L3 button always points you to the next door or shootable environmental “puzzle”, which limits the frustration and aimless wandering but also cuts any feeling of exploration out of the game.
The lazy, straightforward design of this game is a shame, because the visuals are generally attractive, with some exceptions. The monsters are well animated, but the human characters act choppy. Also, all the CG cutscenes are of PS2/Xbox quality, which is well below what we’ve come to expect from the current generation.
While this game may sound like a relentless bore, there were brief moments when I enjoyed myself, so maybe Legendary is best designed for a slow weekend. This is not a game you’ll replay more than once, so it’s not worth adding to your collection, but shooting the heads off of werewolves and absorbing their energy to charge strange machines is a passable distraction.
You can even cut straight to this core gameplay in the multiplayer mode, but good luck trying to find anyone else to play against online. With so many far superior games coming out this season, Legendary doesn’t even come close to worth your money—unless you have your Blockbuster card handy and everything else has already been checked out.
