Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Chaos Legion

Written by Tony Kennetz on September 11, 2003

Full Review: This game had a chance, but falls just short.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Capcom once held fan support in spades when it came to gothic gaming experiences, back when Devil May Cry was only known as the action game to start what should have been an excellent series, not for spawning a mediocre cash-in sequel in the form of DMC2. Chaos Legion is follows the same vein in terms of style and presentation, and really, it feels like a DMC pretty well all the way through. In a lot of ways, it feels more like Devil May Cry 2, where style was placed on a much higher rung than the substance. You would think Capcom would learn their lesson, but it certainly appears that they didn't.

Huge sword in hand, our hero Seig Warheit must single handedly (well, sort of single handedly) fight of masses of destructive entities and prevent a massive amount of evil from being unleashed upon the world. Working against a former friend who had once been a leader among men, Seig must put all he knows on the line to prevent a catastrophe from occurring. He's far from being alone, as Seig also has the ability to summon Legions, creatures that fight, protect, and generally make life a little easier for him.

Its these legions that give Chaos Legion its biggest point of separation when compared to action-cousin DMC. Each Legion has its own strength, from pulverizing fleshy beasts to destroying mechanical baddies, picking the group that's best for the job is how to get passed each level the quickest. As you progress, more and more Legions become available, including the ultimate shredder - Thanatos (whom you start the game with, only to loose at the end of the first mission). Add to that the ability to upgrade any of your current legions and you have a little more depth than most action fans are probably used to. The problem? Most of that depth goes to waste, despite each Legion's strengths and weaknesses, picking one or the other strategically before a level will never give you that big a leg up. Its great if you decide to use it, but in the end, picking a couple Legions at random will probably get you through just as well as carefully analyzing every possible aspect. In short: for a game that already had so much in common with its Capcom brethren, this is not a good sign.

At its core, Chaos serves as nothing more than another button mashing action title. Slide through section to section, beat enemies to a pulp, rinse and repeat, and once the gimmick of the Legions wears off, this one quickly finds ways to grow old. For instance, in the third level, you must take out a grouping of flying enemies. Now, at this point you only have two legions, but one is supposed to have a clear advantage over the other. I went through, taking on the same set of enemies twice to find almost no difference in effectiveness. A little speed was sacrificed when taking a swordsmen to the metallic enemies, but that portion of the level was still completed relatively quickly. Once you've summoned your legion, you can sit back and watch or jump into the action and slam hard on the attack button. Over and over again. Over and over again. Over and over again. Over and over again. Starting to get the picture? Combos and juggles are present, but in the grand scheme of things aren't really needed either. You can try to force yourself to use them, but when it becomes apparent the easiest method is to just let loose a couple lost souls on your enemies as you attack a select few, you're going to give up on trying to get technical and just wail on the square button. If only I could count the times games like this have bored me, and in the end the legions just don't help fight off the problem. That said, Chaos Legion still manages to grab if you get into the gameplay style. Its overly simple so many will get bored within the first couple hours, but if you stick around the story starts to make sense, giving a little reward for those who stick it out and engage themselves (willingly or not).

Each stage in CL is made up of several chambers, where the player must fight of hordes of enemies. So original, no? At first I was rather impressed, I found myself having some fun with this even though the tried and true method seemed just like something that was put in to save time and resources. What was there had appeared to be done well enough to compensate for the blatant thievery that had occurred, but the more I played the more I realized that what I thought really wasn't the case. Eventually, just moving from room to room, beating more bad guys, then repeating the process just got tiresome and yawn enduing. There are some minor hidden items and the like along the way (namely, the broken pieces of the Thanatos crest, used to summon the beastly legion), but otherwise this is straight up beat-Сem-up at its heart. In the age of fully 3D worlds, I fail to see why some higher quality puzzle bits couldn't be thrown in, maybe forcing gamers to exercise those brains. To be fair, later it is possible to jump back into earlier levels and observe new areas, but they're hardly something you feel compelled to write home about.

I have a theory as to what the development team was thinking about when they started designing enemies, that they figured it would be alright if they designed just a few, and used them just about everywhere in the game. Everywhere, rarely do you see a new and exciting foe to face off with. Even mini-bosses and bosses are re-used in later levels. For basic enemies, that is okay, but this is just ridiculous. Visually and strategically, these characters are just bland, and I fail to see why some more work couldn't have been put in to provide a little variety. As it stands, what is present is pretty darn good the first few times you encounter them, but one can't help but get bored with something they see every few minutes.

Fighting off large masses of attacking foes may seem like it would be a difficult task, supernatural enemies with superpowers, but that part of the game never seems to get difficult. In fact, a lot of the game tends to be simpleminded, and once you get yourself in that frame of mind, the game gets a lot easier. Trying to be the thinking man's man (or woman) is not the way to go into a round of Chaos Legion, which is unfortunate because it really does have some solid undertones for that type of gameplay style.

In the visual department, Chaos Legion does a lot of things right, to be quite honest. As mentioned earlier, the enemy design tends to be a little redundant, but what was put in the game are all solid creations that are worthy of Capcom's gothic realm. All the main characters look their parts, selling their parts is simply not a problem. The problem does still lie in the fact that, what isn't there, isn't there. Stimulating images seem to die out after awhile because you're exposed to the same thing every two seconds, and that's disappointing. These days, you have to be able to present plenty of characters, and lots of variation between them, but Chaos Legion only attempted to do one. Take it to the technical side, and its not hard to tell that the PS2's hardware abilities are being pushed to the absolute limit by this game. Everything runs at a smooth sixty frames per second and the animations are fantastic. The colors are a bit under whelming, but when you think about it, colors aren't what carries a game that is based around a dark and dreary premise. More games should be able to do what CL has done technically while keeping the artistic elements are a very high level.

Ah, the soundtrack. The final big piece of any technical review. What do I have to say about the audio? Well, not much considering just how mediocre it is. I'll be honest and say it has some rather cool crushing guitar riffs and acoustic pieces, but as a whole it feels uninspired. Not to say that the themes that the music does provide are irrelevant, some set the mood nicely, but they're still not up to snuff with some of the highest of the high class (Resident Evil has always done a good job of setting the right feel to an event, and although CL is a completely different type of game, the same standards apply. Capcom can do this sort of thing if they try).

Reasons to give Chaos Legion more time of day than a simple one time run through are scarce unless you desperately need more of a chance to absorb the convoluted storyline. Going back through the game a second time lends the chance to blow enemies out of the water with Thanatos and collect extras, but in the end this game is still a relatively short experience. Hardcore Devil May Cry fans will find more to keep them playing than the casual gamer, but either group could get by with a Friday night rental.