Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Legion: The Legend of Excalibur

Written by Chris Reiter on July 30, 2002

Full Review: The roundtable just got a whole lot broader.

Swords and sorcery.... Knights and knaves.... Fire-breathers and folklore.... These references pertain to those days of yore when entire kingdoms were owned by the wealthy that enslaved those covered in rags. Brave souls suited up in armor clad to defend their ruler against rival forces. In Midway's latest release, you can and will take a trip back in time and witness the surroundings of a long remembered past in a new look at the all too famous fable from King Arthur's court, and the sword that started his legacy: Excalibur.

Torn from and based upon the pages of the story of King Arthur, Legion: The Legend of Excalibur begins with a new villain and a new adventure. Morgan Le Fay, evil sorceress of the underworld, has just completed the task of getting what she wants: the death of her (and your) father Uther Pendragen, and the rule of his throne. But, Morgan's rise to power is about to come to an end. You are the noble squire Arthur. One day like any other, Morgan begins her reign of tyranny by introducing a vast army of her power to Camelot's doom. It's up to you with the blade of Excalibur to dethrone her, and bring peace to the world once more.

One thing's for certain, that Legion isn't exactly your typical video game. Made up of a variety of genres rolled into one, Legion borrows elements from strategy games, adventure games, and even role-playing ones. What it all boils down to, though, is that this is a straightforward action game -- one that's unique above the rest. In it, players guide the character on a quest facing an overhead/side view, carrying the weapon in one hand, and exploring 14 levels comprised of Camelot's world. Every level is made up of different guidelines for you to follow. Sometimes you may come across allies in need of your support to fight off a band of Morgan's army; sometimes you may have to collect soldiers to join in your path to victory; but whatever the mission is, you'll find yourself always fighting the good fight against the bad guys.

Different from similar PlayStation 2 releases like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, or even Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, the action involved lies on a deeper plane. Instead of the common hack, slash, and move onto the next enemy tactic, you actually need to learn how to fight and you need to learn how to fight well for your own safety and survival. Think of every enemy as a greater threat than normal, because the combat in Legion is not merely any simple task. Learning how to use the environments around you is one thing. Another is using yourself and what you're armed with. For instance, your sword is more than just a tool for your protection. Every time you swing it, it will flash. Every time it flashes, you'll need to swing it again. The more you get the hang of pressing the attack button when your weapon flashes, you'll be able to then create a larger string of attack combos to use later on in battle against any type of foe. Blocking with your shield will also come in handy, as without it, it's easy to go down fighting fast in a face off against three foes that earlier didn't seem like much of a threat.

Relying on your attack and defense skills isn't your only way through the game, however. A status screen appears on the lower left hand side of the screen that reflects back to you the amount of health you have left to live, and how much stamina you have left to use to your advantage. Pressing the square button lets you pull off a larger attack than the standard one, letting you execute a spin attack against bigger enemies or even a fuller scale of enemy groups increasing your inability to survive. Further along, you'll learn new magic skills that are provided by way of the stamina bar. This in effect becomes part of the whole strategy element in the game. Learning when to use your stamina meter (refilled by moving around), and when not to use it is always the case.

The game can be a real challenge, considering enemies like to stay in groups. Luckily, you can team up with your own comrades, including famous faces like Merlin and Gwenevere. Throughout the game, as Arthur, you'll be able to summon up to two other allies to your aid. Interestingly enough, not only can you customize the actions your comrades can focus on (i.e., taking down bigger foes or magic users first), but you can also switch to and become one of the other fictional faces. Simply pressing the L1 button opens a list of actions you can draw out for your supporting cast. Whichever person you're handling, the controls never differ, and are easy to figure out and maintain.

Throughout you and your team's journey, you'll discover that Camelot's forests, villages, and other medieval areas have items to collect. Sometimes you may come across a hidden item in the level, that when equipped, could boost your fighting, defense, or survival rate ability greatly. After slaying any enemy, they'll drop a bag of gold for you to gather. The gold can then be used at a special shop for you to buy the bare essentials, such as new and more powerful weaponry. And once a level is done and finished with, you'll also gain more experience points to boost your status for the continuance of the game. What bothers me about the game is that in every level the challenge of them is almost too much. So it's necessary to really train yourself to live and learn every possible neck of the woods before you can pass the goals of the level. Otherwise, you'll end up repeating them too many times over.

Plain and to the point, Legion isn't the greatest spectacle in the world of video games. Most of the time, you'll view the game from its overhead perspective through woodland and town areas that never seem to be anything more than basic and moderate enough for the cause they perform. From time to time you'll catch a glimpse of a flowing river or a burning of a dilapidated house, but nothing really over the top. It's noticeable that the sunlight spreading through each game area doesn't have any affect on your character. Not that it would matter much anyway, since you can't get much of a close up glimpse of anything.

Sometimes, though, the game can be a bit confusing in action since all of the enemies never really differentiate and blend together well with your comrades. I've found myself attempting to battle the good guys while the bad ones were elsewhere committed to my death. Despite the ill-fated manner of certain parts of the visuals, the character animations do wonders for the game. How archers can pierce and knights can slash your shield and light it up with sparks every time is a neat occurrence. The way townspeople and animals flock away as you charge into battle is also cool to check out. But what really brightens Legion up is its FMV cut scenes in between the story. Endeavoring a full course of perfectly scripted action events, and illustrious quality, I'd say that the cut scenes are very close to competing with those seen in Squaresoft's Final Fantasy series.

Essentially, you're just not going to get the most out of the game unless you're listening to the fight for what's right all around you. While I wouldn't say that Legion's sound is poor, it just doesn't live up to its potential like the evidence of its graphic flaws. You can hear the roar of fire as you pass it by, the clanking of swords and arrows bouncing off of your heavy shield, and even the cast of magic upon swarms of enemies. What you won't hear is your interaction with other simple objects, like walking across the land, or using your weapon against anything other than artificial intelligence. With an adventurous tone, the music fills the background up with a daring pitch that endlessly continues to set your mind on the game and forget about some of the neglecting of the in-game sounds.

What's more is that even though the dialogue of the game isn't too terrible with a cast of real English people to play the fitting parts (or so it sounds like), the spoken lines tend to become too overused and tedious. During the gameplay there's a lot of the same lines used before and through each fight. The same roars of men thrusting themselves into attack mode, the same warning shouts that a fight is about to occur, and the same commands given by Arthur are present an awful lot. But, not all is bad, since the repetition dies down during in-game cut scenes throughout every level to show an actual use of those voices put to work.