Xbox 360 Review: Legendary

Legendary should have been an all-out monster fest. Running through cities, destroying werewolves, minotaurs, and other mythological nasties should be a blast. Unfortunately, Legendary takes that concept and manages to somehow ruin it.

The opening five minutes offer some positives. After opening Pandora’s Box, the city of New York (it’s always New York) is slowly dismantled by supernatural forces and creatures. Watching griffon’s swoop down and snatch innocent victims is intense, and the level of destruction is impressive. The giant behemoth, an electrical beast that sucks in cars and other objects begins beating down buildings, and that becomes your first goal. Take him down.

Something is amiss though. Amidst all of the destruction, the rubble always falls in the right spot to leave a clear path towards your goal. Even when cars litter the streets, there’s only one path to take. You can’t even work around them. The same goes for every level, only later, it becomes frustration. The goal is hidden in some corner or through a hole that’s hard to see. It’s not always clear despite the linear paths the game offers.

Specific puzzles do little to break up the flow. Platforming sections can be infuriating thanks to a terrible jump mechanic, and why do so many doors have the same exact security lock? It’s monotonous to constantly break into one since it takes a few seconds and kills the flow.

Gunplay is clunky and loose. Shooting enemies never feels satisfying, and for much of the early game, you’ll be better off with an axe. The guns are basically useless. Even later during fights with enemies like werewolves, the axe is almost required. You can’t kill them without cutting off the head. That’s a cool concept, ruined by shoddy collision and ragdoll physics. It’s hard to cut off the head when the body became a crumpled mess when it hit the ground, obscuring the head.

There’s a lack of creature foes to fight, and as such, the story introduces human enemies. At the very least, the monsters have the guts to charge and give their all to take out the player. The humans sit behind cover only briefly popping their heads out. They repeat this process until dead. They serve as little more than fodder and ammo creators.

Weapons are generic, including the usual assault rifle and shotgun staples. The variant is your mystical hand. By defeating foes, you can suck in energy. This can be used to heal the player, push away enemies or objects, and, well, that’s it. It’s a wasted gimmick, and the rather stupidly laid out controls (double tap Y to push despite other unused buttons) hardly make it fun to use.

Multi-player offers one unique mode. Here, players need to kill werewolves and their enemies for energy. Energy powers a machine which sends the hordes of monsters down on their foes. The eight player battles are unique, assuming you can find eight players. Servers are empty.

Legendary is all about potential. Unfortunately, it’s all unfounded. The sequel teased at the end may still bring some life to this one, but if game quality will be any indicator of a sequel, then this story may never have an end.

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This post was written by:

Matt Paprocki - who has written 1050 posts on www.Multiplayergames.com – Multiplayer Games.


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PjxzdHJvbmc+d29vX3NpbmdsZV9pbWFnZV93aWR0aDwvc3Ryb25nPiAtIDEwMDwvbGk+PGxpPjxzdHJvbmc+d29vX3RhYnM8L3N0cm9uZz4gLSBmYWxzZTwvbGk+PGxpPjxzdHJvbmc+d29vX3RoZW1lbmFtZTwvc3Ryb25nPiAtIEZyZXNoIE5ld3M8L2xpPjxsaT48c3Ryb25nPndvb190aHVtYl9pbWFnZV9oZWlnaHQ8L3N0cm9uZz4gLSA3NTwvbGk+PGxpPjxzdHJvbmc+d29vX3RodW1iX2ltYWdlX3dpZHRoPC9zdHJvbmc+IC0gNzU8L2xpPjxsaT48c3Ryb25nPndvb192aWRlb19jYXRlZ29yeTwvc3Ryb25nPiAtIFNlbGVjdCBhIGNhdGVnb3J5OjwvbGk+PC91bD4=