Dark Kindom is the first Action-Rpg title for the new PS3 console and if we are to say it brings some “firsts” with its release, that will be another story (it got my PS3 stuck in dead man tale for the first time, requiring a restart). To speak of innovations or next gen action-rpg about this title, like developers stated, it is a bit to much. After my roughly thirteen hours experience with what i was left besides the free Dark Kingdom t-shirt (which i have to say looks nice) were: a numb right thumb (from those never ending square-ecs buttons combinations), some spit marks on my HD-tv due to some very annoying moments throughout the game and with a feel that i was back in time playing a combination between Diablo and Champions of Norrtah released on PS2.

As for the roots of this game, the PSP's Untold Legends surely makes it obvious. The PS3's Dark Kingdom offers the same controls and gameplay, new storyline but with much similarities in level design ( stuff to kill, textures to watch), a pretty good online service for multiplayer and of course, more detailed environments to feast the eye with.

The new storyline goes like this: the king of land Dureth sends his elite Dragon Shade warriors to quell down the barbarian uprisings in the northern borderlines. However on the path to restore peace to the land, the sent out warriors discover that the king has taken dark forces at his side and that he was the oppressor and the cause of all restless. New quests are set to be followed and completed, all of them leading to a final objective, which is to restore peace to the lands of Dureth and make the king pay for his deeds.

Three characters are offered to the player to start the game with ( to few in my opinion). This, and the fact that available characters are old in conception (mage, rogue, barbarian) makes this title obsolete right from the start. So much power is supposed to be capable of delivering the PS3 (can t believe that software developing tools haven't evolve at a rate at least to match hardware progression), that the current build up character feature and the variations, items diversity is much the same like it was ten years ago. So why does SOE call it next gen action-rpg, we currently have no idea.

All three characters have a specialized weapon and spells associated with their aptitudes, which will be used by the player into battles. The barbarian (Golan Kor) bashes enemies with an over sized war-hammer and uses magical abilities (rippling shockwaves, earthshaking attacks, controlled blasts of force) to complete his arsenal of combat skills. Zala, the scout, uses two blade weapons to slash her way through enemy hordes in close-quarter combats. Shadow magic, poisonous attacks, deadly strikes, mine attacks can be performed by the scout, when “spell-mode” is on. Malakesh, the mage, is what sorcery is all about in this game. He uses his heavy staff in body to body combats but with not so much effectiveness like the other two characters proceed (the warrior way) in battle. He compensates this deficit by using his commanding powers over the elements of fire and ice with impressive results.

From the available characters, the scout is the most balanced one; as for the developing tree scheme, it is the same for each of them. The player uses experience points to level up and improve certain aspects of his character (mana, life, attack power, melee defense, spell defense, magic power). Besides this, level up points gained from accumulated experience are also used to increase the power of available spells and unlock new ones too; while the graduation of those spells is offering five steps for improving their power and duration.

Another way to improve your skills, stats or attack powers is through the enhancements your weapon can be subjected to. This can be done by putting special runes, orbs, jaspers on it. Useful feature, but incomplete (or over simplified) conception of using only one weapon per character throughout the game.

It is the “essence” that powers you in Dark Kingdom. Through this trade item you will be able to replenish depleted mana and life, buy new armor parts for (head, shoulders, chest, legs, feet), or weapon enhancements. All this can be done just at the checkpoints, which are scattered throughout the map. This essence can be drawn if you break objects or in some cases after a killing. Those cases of killing can also give you mana, life potions or weaponry items.

Like any action-rpg this game title uses combo style attacks as a prime combat method. The learnable combos you will master as the game progresses goes along with this type of fighting. You'll have the complete arsenal of moves (blocking, jumping, dodging, spell casting, attacking in various ways) needed in battles to emerge victorious. The lack of support for Sixaxis controller's gyroscopic features is certainly odd as it could have helped and spice up the gameplay a bit.

Players have the option of starting the game in online cooperative mode ( up to four players per host through friends list and Xfire account) or offline in singleplayer mode. It's a nice feature that you can start a multiplayer game and still use that 'save' to continue offline in single player mode. You can even join a room and begin the game at a latter stage, which is certainly nice but also pretty hard due to unbalanced strengths. Even more, you can use a singleplayer 'save' to start a multiplayer adventure.

The number of levels available for gamers to be played is thirty, with each level consisting of a few quests (one primary, while the others secondaries) that must be completed before pursuing to the next level. The action is not resuming to just hacking and slashing; it's alternated with puzzles (for example: to open a gate, you'll have to step in pair of two some rune-shaped stones) and boss battles that requires some brain power too (one of the bosses can be killed just from distance with throwable boxes or distance spells, another one has to self destroy his energy source pillars and only then you are able to get fancy with him). Along your missions Npc's aid is given to the player;wolves, peasants, Dragon's Shade members should make combats easier.

Dark Kingdom makes use of Havok physics engine for the puzzles (boxes picked up and thrown out at some chain latches) and for the effects a battle has on both combatants. In spite of this, the environments are not that interactive as we would have been expecting, after a roll of the eyes on the flamboyant advertising of the game.

{pagebreak}

Gameplay:60%

There are a bunch of annoying things besides the repetitive gameplay, especially the camera/character freezing issue which is really bothering. When fighting with large numbers of enemies, the action will slowdown quite a bit complicating things even more. Add to this unexpected zooming in and out of the camera view, some unappropriate perspective changes and smashing thoughts are on the way.

Another negative aspect is the surprisingly large loading time needed when new levels are played for the first time.

Regarding replayability things stand quite ok, four levels of difficulty and a cooperative online mode will surely make this title stick around your PS3 for a while. Not only this, but Sony has also promised additional downloadable content that in principle should improve the current version of the game.

Graphics: 72%

Nice particle effects, impressive spell inacting, characters models and animations are looking much better since last screenshots were released to the media; although the changes in the appearance of the characters when putting new wearable items on isn't done on item to item basis. As for the environments, some levels look more taken care of, while others seem like ported from another game/platform, feeling not so next-gen as it supposed to.

Multiplayer:74%

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom offers support for up to four players in online multiplayer rooms (surprisingly large in number). Xfire friends or Ps3 list buddies, it is your choice with whom you ally and cooperate in your quest to defeat the king of land Durath. If you decide to host a online game, you will have the right to set up any level you want, the difficulty of it and impose restrictions on the four available player slots.

Sound: 75%

Besides voice acting which isn't that well done, the title has the sound needed to indulge players in whatever state developers wanted them to transit in. The orchestral is pretty good, as is the case for Sfx.