Great Setting, Mediocre Gameplay
posted by karrek (LAWRENCE, KS) Nov 14, 2008
Member since Apr 2005
15
out of
20
gamers (75%) found this review helpful
Legendary is essentially a mediocre shooter dropped into an awesome setting. Worth one play-through, but that's about it.
The concept and art are superb. Level design is well thought-out, with only one instance of a situation appearing unnatural or contrived. Checkpoints are often too spread out or come at awkward times.
The enemies are amazing, and the AI is well-done. The bigger enemies, however, are far too durable compared to the weapons you have at your disposal.
The health system also has some issues: your health doesn't recharge automatically over time, you must kill monsters to recharge it. This is fine except when the game has you fighting only human enemies for extended periods of time.
The human enemy AI is flawed as well. For some reason enemy soldiers think it's more important to shoot the player than the giant griffon that's killing them all.
Overall the gameplay is simply sub-par. Aiming and movement seem awkward, especially due to the lack of an autoaim option, a must for any control-stick shooter. Human enemies go down too easily, while the monsters are too hard to kill. Grenades are useless; in order to throw them more than three feet you must hold down the button to charge your throw, which can get you killed.
The setting is superb early in the game, but declines as the player progresses. The early scenes leave you feeling like you truly are in the modern world, except that it has been attacked by monsters. The later areas just feel too desolate and claustrophobic, and don't hold any association to the real world.
Legendary is a game with great design and an amazing setting, but it's flawed gameplay drag it down into the single-play-through category.
6/10
Was this review helpful?
Report
Abuse