Legendary

Define irony: A game named nothing less than "Legendary", revolving around an interesting idea which is twisted and eventually lost due to an underdeveloped, silly story, with a second-hand gameplay that gradually sinks into near-irrelevance. It's sad to witness how an otherwise exciting concept is shred to pieces by this title and downright frightening to acknowledge, that the way the story ends, and all the other hints point into a single direction: a sequel.

The narration is fairly simple, as a professional thief named Deckard is hired by a mysterious person known only as LeFey to steal the infamous Pandora's Box, now held in a museum in New York. You are playing the role of Deckard whose attempt to acquire the box ends in disaster, with monsters swarming the streets and your hand being marked with some strange symbols. As you try to figure a way out and save the world meanwhile, Deckard finds out that he can drain the Animus (life essence) of fallen creatures. Vivian is the other central character, another member of LeFey's organization, who turned rogue after he attempts to kill her and she'll be you guide when all hell breaks loose.

For most of us Pandora's Box is merely a figure of speech for representing the source of evil, but in "Legendary" this is a real item containing legions of blood thirsty monsters waiting to invade the Earth and to kill everyone. Furthermore, the developers were no shy to mix up a couple of beasts coming from different mythologies and the result is of course disappointing. Instead of weaving up a cohesive story spinning around a convincing theory, all these monsters that swarm the city look more like a freak colony, and your role reduces to nothing more than delivering some indiscriminate justice.

As you progress with your "legendary" adventure, more and more monsters appear, with constant updates about their origin but the highly scripted game decides when and where you are allowed to engage them. I was impressed by the overwhelming sensation of chaos created in the opening act, with griffins, golems, werewolves and firedrakes roaming free in New York and couldn't resist the temptation of firing a few rounds at the majestic birds. That's until I've discovered that they are just background features that won't react in any way to my hostile acts; that goes for the Echidna creature whom I've encountered a couple of times in the sewers, but since it was not programmed to attack me, it took comfort in killing my entire squad.

One monster that doesn't look downright hilarious is the werewolf, whose appearance and animation is by far the best in the game, and this particular creature is the most challenging one as well. The only way to defeat a werewolf is to decapitate him after knocking him down with a couple of bullets, and my advice is to stick to the machine gun when you decide to finish him off. Of course the more obvious choice would have been the axe, but sometimes you'll circle around the unconscious monster hitting him from all angles with no effect. Although in most cases you'll decapitate the werewolf before he is able to launch another attack, hitting the neck of the fallen beast is tougher than the actual fight.

Speaking of obvious solutions for unexpected problems, most gamers would expect that a person should be able to climb over an object that is hardly as tall as a three years old boy, but even this becomes a "legendary" challenge. Jumping becomes an issue only when you try to do it vertically, and these obstacles no taller than your knee become insurmountable, while jumping across huge gaps is possible if sprinting. Instead you are forced to follow the predetermined route, circling around a lot prior to reaching the objective you were aiming at when the insignificant object blocked the way.

All these drawbacks have a deterring effect on anyone who was expecting nothing but the best from a game with such a glamorous name and those who have the will power to play further, hoping that things will get better are up for a big, unpleasant surprise. The story becomes increasingly hard to believe and the enthusiasm is disappearing faster than the animus you collect from dead foes, because all you have to do is killing more and more monsters in different settings that look almost the same. There are some iconic sights from both London and New York, but most of the time you'll claw your way through the same dark sewers, grey houses and streets filled with debris.

Boss fights should be the highlight of any game where you are supposed to annihilate legions of monsters and considering the fact that the daily beast slaying is as boring as it gets, one would expect these fights to spice things up. Wrong again. The Minotaur and the Griffon hit hard and random, and after dying a couple of times without any hint of how are you supposed to slay them, shooting being out of discussion because at this point it's pretty clear that this is not the answer. These are supposed to be challenging events but due to the unresponsive controls, aiming problems and movement issues the boss fights are certain to lift frustration to a whole new level.

Never knowing if you failed because you were doing the wrong thing or due to technical issues is bad enough, and the messages you receive after killing monsters you've encountered for the first time are equally annoying. Basically you receive an update for that foe, recommending the way it should be approached, in an overwhelming cases this being exactly what you did in the first place to slay it. Of course the rocket fight couldn't miss from this incredibly unimaginative game, so at least the fans of the rocket launcher have a reason to play a bit longer to witness the way the final acts unfold.

Although you may think that you are winning, after exterminating dozens of monsters and getting a step closer to the objective, in fact you're fighting a losing battle against your spare time. The absurd mix of creatures artificially integrated in a story that leaves a lot of loose ends and goes absolutely nowhere, is almost bearable if wasn't for the terrible game mechanics that cripple the entire gaming experience.

"Legendary" could have been much more than what the final product stands for, but I truly doubt that it could get much worse than it is, with flaws and shortcomings in virtually every aspect. It doesn't bring anything new at all and as a shooter it is a failure of epic proportions, with movement and logistic issues, weaponry and aiming problems that erase any trace of satisfaction.

Except for the werewolves who appear pretty much the way you'd expect such a vile creature to look like, the rest of the monsters are blend and unimpressive. Human characters received yet less attention and even Vivien who is supposed to be a foxy lady, is nothing more than a walking advertise for misery. The surroundings are common and insipid, while some portions seem to be copy-pasted from the previous level, so you'll frequently get the feeling that you've been there before.

The sounds are probably the brightest spot in "Legendary", engaging enough to help you enter a certain state of mind, but the problem is that music always becomes more dynamic before an important challenge or boss fight, somehow preparing you for the test. Out of all senses the sense of humor is by far the most easily exhaustible for the simple reason a joke is only funny for the first ten times...and Deckard doesn't know when to stop with his sarcastic lines. As a result, voice acting is terrible but since you can't skip these cut-scenes there's no use to think about it any further.

In theory the multiplayer should confront two teams, with the third party being the werewolves, but those who played the campaign set are most likely to dismiss it at once, and more sympathetic I could not be.

If the frame rate doesn't make your skin crawl, than it's on too tight; there really is no excuse for a game that runs so bad considering what it has to offer.