Is this game worth the 600?
The Next Generation of Lazy
So you are a hapless barbarian, a half-naked rogue, or a weak wizard sent out by the king to break up the barbarian invasion. I’ll call this “Project Tutorial”. Right before you deliver the killing blow to the chief enemy combatant, a group of heroes appears from out of nowhere to explain that it’s your employer who is terrorizing the kingdom by turning peasants into hideous monsters. As the only hope for this kingdom (what about that group of heroes?), you must destroy all the sources of king’s power before confronting the big guy himself. As it happens, the king gets his power from overly-used areas of the Untold Legends series – dark forests, dark sewers, and other dark areas that look remarkably like the last level you just played.
Dark Kingdom rarely ventures outside the realm of the previous titles. Every character possesses a heavy and light attack that can be mixed in three button combinations with various results. Clicking on one of the triggers lets you unleash one of four potential spells in your arsenal. As you slug your way through the same five enemies, your character levels up, allowing you to increase his stats as well as open up new spells and combos. After learning the new combos, your character’s learning curve flat lines which only leaves mashing the same button configuration to get through every enemy. Spells only slightly ameliorate the tedium by unlocking gradually through the game. Most likely, you’ll find the one or two spells that you really like and keep them rather than explore your options. It’s hard to keep going through the same onslaught again and again when the game feels like it’s already given up.
Seriously, do we need another sewer level? Untold Legends may have had a couple of years to develop, but many of the levels look like they were quickly put together the night before from pieces of previous levels. This isn’t a step forward, but a look back at all the clichés that have impaired the genre from growing beyond its moss-covered walls. Quests appear throughout the game only to explain to players how to open the next area or to remind them simply to keep moving forward. Add in a camera that gets caught behind objects, and you have yourself a list of items you wished were fixed on the PSP – not something to greet on the PS3.
Rage Against the Dark
To say that Dark Kingdom is falling back on its roots is an over-simplification of the problem. The newest title of the Untold Legends series misses the mark on several points by simplifying the process. Next-gen may give you nicer graphics, but you don’t have any pockets. No health potions. No extra weapons. The buying system comes in the form of essence which you get from fighting and trading at save points for armor, gems, or health. Your outfit changes little as you slug through the dark and dank. Once you have the best outfit, there’s little reason to change out until the next level or two. Gems take replace new weapons by accessorizing the only one the game gives you. Like most of the game play, you’ll rarely change once you find the right set.
The warrior, the mage, and the really fast one – are there any more generic characters than these in a dungeon crawler? Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing bad about these characters. Except if you take into account that the wizard’s fireballs only target the closest enemy and not the one you’re facing. That’s just annoying. As with just about everything else in this game, there’s a surprising lack of creativity or anything interesting to discern this game from that of a fifth grader’s report on Lord of the Rings. Remember, even Gauntlet had four playable characters.
Hit Buttons and Things Happen
I didn’t forget about the online multiplayer mode; I just think it’s not even worth mentioning. Untold Legends on the PSP tried – not always successfully, but tried – to include multiple modes of game play such as capture the flag or death match. Dark Kingdom – a game made for a console that can handle the bandwidth needed for large parties – only allows up to four people to play co-op. That’s right. You and three of your friends can all suffer through the same levels together. The real question is, “Where do you get a fourth person from when you don’t even have a fourth character?”
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom is a generic dungeon crawler. Period. With a real chance to reshape the genre or at least demonstrate some of the power behind that oversized gaming grill, Sony instead put out a game that’s barely playable at best. Mind-numbing button mashing with unremarkable stages can only be used to help you forget about the six hundred dollars that you blew on a system to play a game no better than its PSP cousin.