Legendary

UK, March 7, 2008 - It's one of the
most gleeful moments we've seen in gaming so far this year: a
helicopter circles a nondescript city shrouded in smoke, its resident
soldiers packing assault rifles clearly in a heightened state of
alertness. It could be lifted from any number of identikit modern-day
warfare shooters. Then comes the money shot, as a hoarse cry of
"Incoming Gryphons" breaks the silence, and one of the creatures of
legend tears through the mist and takes a swipe at the chopper. Ask the
question of how to improve upon the current first-person formula that's
bogging down consoles, and anyone who answers "Gryphons" can go
straight to the top of the class.


The glorious Durham Cathedral gets the Gryphon treatment.


Spark Unlimited, the developer behind Legendary,
has already established a reputation for high concept settings. Its
last effort, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, piqued interest with an
alternate timeline telling of a Second World War that went the way of
the Nazis. The developer has pulled the trick again, though this time
the off-the-wall setting looks to have a host of positive repercussions
for the gameplay.

You may ask the question of how these creatures of Legend got to be
terrorising the people of New York, and Spark has the answer in a plot
that looks to be a smash and grab of popular and ancient culture. Our
hero, Charles Deckard, is a lowly thief, tasked with taking the
precious centrepiece of a New York museum - Pandora's Box. Naturally,
Deckard takes to his task with gay abandon but, being the inquisitive
guy that he is, he cannot help himself but take a peek inside. As the
Box opens very bad things start to happen and hordes of mythical beasts
flow forth onto the streets of New York. Deckard himself is marked with
The Signet, which ensures he is the only man who can restore order to
the chaos, and what follows is a globe-trotting lark as our hero
navigates a world that is tearing itself apart.


It's a three-way monster mash-up.


Spark's CEO Craig Allen is upfront about which way Legendary butters
its bread: "We're not an open world game. We want to have a very
structured game experience. The kind of games we make are rollercoaster
experiences and we want to be able direct the player so they can have
the most exciting experience possible." Indeed, Legendary will whisk
players through a embattled New York before taking in London and
climaxing in the unlikely locale of North England's Durham.

Battling factions frame the action, with the noble Council of 98 and
the not-so-noble Black Order fighting amidst the chaos to form what
Spark promises will be a triangle of conflict, with Deckard smack bang
in the middle of the squabbling isosceles. Weaponry will be drawn from
a conventional arsenal and though Deckard is marked with The Signet, it
is limited to enabling him to draw health from felled creatures and
performing an 'Animus Push', which repels nearby foes when fully
charged. As such, ammo is picked up from the corpses of soldiers, while
health is acquired from beasts, furnishing battles with an easy to
grasp symmetry.

As the stars of Legendary,
much effort has been afforded to the mythical creatures to imbibe life
into how they react to their surroundings and to ensure they're not
just re-skinned soldiers. for example, werewolves come in two flavours,
with the more powerful alpha beasts saved for the latter stages of the
game. Leaping from wall to wall, they certainly look to be formidable
foes and were the most readily spotted creatures we saw in our brief
experience of the game. Firing a few rounds into the beasts tears off
their skin to reveal the flesh underneath, but over time the skin
regenerates meaning only a meaty head shot is enough to stop them in
their tracks.

Minotaurs are a brutish presence too, tearing through the destructible
scenery to get their prey. One scene we saw in a Durham courtyard
displayed the solid physics in place as walls crumbled and the
half-man, half-bull tossed soldiers of the Black Order skywards.

Gryphons, meanwhile, are a more scarce find in Legendary and in the
demonstration we saw their presence was limited to a brief cameo as one
of their breed swooped down upon Times Square to take a nibble of a
taxi cab. We're assured that they'll make more appearances throughout
the game and they are clearly from the higher order of beasts.

Final mention goes to the Golem, a huge colossus of a beast formed, as
legend dictates, from inanimate objects. In the surrounds of New York
city the Golem comprises of urban debris, with buses for arms and a car
perched atop its body serves as its head and peepers. It's easily the
most impressive of the creatures, although we couldn't ascertain
whether it would be a constant feature of the game or be restricted to
the early New York levels.

Multiplayer elements were briefly touched upon, and they look to
harbour a few distinct touches. The vanilla four-against-four
deathmatch will be given a little spice as players take charge of
either the Black Order or the Council of 98, while the creatures stalk
in the background. There'll be a hunting mode too, in which players
attempt to take down as much game as possible against a time limit.

Our hands-on was brief, taking us to the mean streets of Durham in a
shootout from the later stages of the game. Although Spark claimed the
build we were playing was 85% complete, it felt like it needed a fair
bit more work to get it running smoothly, and a chief concern was the
hyperactive control system that proved a little tough to tame. However,
the core mechanics were solid and the triangle of combat plays out
well. Having fought our way through a narrow street, we took a high
vantage point and spotted an alpha werewolf caged up by those dastardly
chaps of the Black Order. Squinting down the sights of our rifle, we
shot off the lock to unleash the beast, which then proceeded to tear
through the surrounding soldiers before turning on us. The creature AI
seemed genuinely canny, as the werewolf bounded around the scenery and
hunted us down. A shame, then, that it was such a pain trying to train
our reticule on the beast.

Like Turning Point before it, Legendary is a game with an endearing
high concept that sets it apart from its peers. But again, like Turning
Point, it's a game that's going to need a fair amount of polish to make
good on its promise. Here's hoping that Spark has bought itself enough
time to do justice to its eccentric premise come autumn.

For more information about Legendary be sure to have a peek at our one-to-one chat
with Spark's CEO Craig Allen here.