Legendary Preview

Oops! Should have learned from the Jim Croce song that there are some things you just don’t do. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask of an old Lone Ranger and you DON’T try to steal Pandora’s box!

But nope, Charles Deckard is an art thief who takes the wrong job that sets about bringing down the destruction of the world as he, and we, know it.

Legendary, from Gamecock Media Group and developer Spark Unlimited, is the story of how Deckard was duped into trying to steal Pandora’s Box, opens it and releases mythological monsters into the world, thereby bringing the impending downfall of humanity. It is a first-person shooter that has some interesting concepts at its core.

GameZone.com received a PS3 preview version of the title, and gave it a whirl. Multiplayer was not available on this build. Though the option was there, trying to connect to a game proved fruitless.

The game begins with Charles using a key to open part of Pandora’s Box and through a cut scene he is branded with the Signet, which is the ability to absorb Animus from creatures in the world when in range. Animus is used to heal injuries sustained in the course of the game.

It is a simple little function, hold the triangle to absorb and then hold the triangle button to release it and heal.

A key bit of in-game help is the PDA which Deckard carries with him. It shows mission objectives, map target areas and the like. This is an element that has become a standard in a lot of FPS titles, though sometimes they go by names other than a PDA. The game also has other key bits of help available, such as glowing objects that indicate what you can interact with.

It all starts off much like a point-and-click adventure, with a much more serious undertone, but then quickly evolves into a horror shooter that will have you collecting weapons and undertaking missions to kill werewolves and gryphons as well as try to either evade, avoid to kill other fantastical creations.

It quickly becomes apparent that there were others that wanted the box opened and these secret societies come into play as the story progresses.

The game is very directed as it opens. You have a set path that, if not immediately apparent, will reveal itself quickly. You collect information, pick up weapons and watch as the world spins into a dark nightmarish abyss. The PDA rings initially with the voice of Vivian, the assistant of the man who hired you for the job, and the vocal work does a nice job in bringing a sense of urgency to the whole setting.

The controls are very serviceable, and the dev team did a nice job of packing a lot of commands into the controller that prove to be an easy learn, but also are very intuitive.

Which brings us to the game’s graphics … These could have come straight from an Adventure Company point-and-click PC title. They are solid, though not overly threatening. The gryphons are the first creatures you encounter and while they are big and very carnivorous, they do not present a horrific sense that seeing a huge winged carnivore might. Still, the game ramps up the sense of dread nicely, and the werewolves are a bit more threatening. The mangled bodies are not disturbing - at least in the build received - so it almost seems as though the dev team sidestepped what could have been a gore-fest and instead focused on pulling gamers into the missions and urgency of the game.

Legendary has that same feel that one might have experienced in seeing the movie Reign of Fire. There is foreboding, but for the protagonist in this game, you know you unleashed this – even though you also know you were used by a secret society to do so – and so you are not only fighting through the hordes of monsters you unleashed, but you are also trying to sort to the truth of what happened as well as how to fix it.

That’s a lot on the plate of an art thief, but it is an adventure that gamers may find interesting. Legendary is releasing to retailers on Oct. 21.