PlayStation 3 Review: Legendary

It seems as though all too often a great idea for a video game becomes a less than amusing game.  Ideas are, sadly, sometimes hard to translate from paper to bits and bytes.  As a case in point, take the recent PlayStation 3 release Legendary.

Legendary sounds like it could be a great game – it starts with the player opening Pandora's Box and unleashing hordes of evil beasties into the world.  You then has to battle through the beasties, trying to put together the pieces of exactly why you were hired to open the box in the first place (you're something of a thief and were on a job).  There are evil groups and nefarious plots at work, plus there's the matter of sending all the evil creatures, among them gryphons, werewolves, and firedrakes (oh my!) back from whence the came.

For a first person shooter, that's a pretty solid plot.  Unfortunately, Legendary never really delves into any of the questions, the player just goes through each level – all of which pretty much look the same – blasting enemies.  Yes this is a first person shooter, so some over-the-top blasting of enemies is required, but the lack of differentiation between levels and depth in the story makes one feel as though the genre hasn't progressed passed Wolfenstein 3D.

The graphics in Legendary are, at best, as uneven as the plot on which the game is built.  None of the levels look terribly great, but neither are they boring (at least the first time you see each of the various terrains).  The creatures on the other hand are far more variable.  The werewolves – seemingly the game's centerpiece creature – look quite good, but some of the others, like the firedrake, are just kind of there.

However, plot, mundane level design, and uneven graphics aside, the biggest problem with the game is that it's simply obnoxious.  From the first moment you get to actually play the game, it's clear that you know far better how to proceed than the game.  Picture this – you're in a museum, you've opened Pandora's Box, the museum is breaking apart.  Do you A) jump over the little thing blocking the stairs and get out, or B) wait for your partner who is not in the museum to rundown for you what exactly is taking place and for her to suggest you make your way out.  If you chose "B" you probably won't mind that on your way out of the museum you can't initially jump over objects because the game hasn't taught you how (and clearly you're too foolish to read that page of the manual) and that if you follow your partner's instructions you'll exit the museum too soon and have to wait for the monsters to clear you a path before you can proceed further.  However, if you're the kind of person that sees a building falling down around them and think "golly gee, I should exit this place" and then tries to do just that, almost everything that follows will annoy you. 

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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