Legendary

04.07.08

Perhaps not quite as bad, I probably never would have had to fear for my life. But Charles Deckard does. Had he just kept his hands off the legendary "Pandora's box" and grabbed some other jewellery. Although, that would have been a little boring. After all, griffins, werewolves and Minotaurs are a bit more exciting than fat policemen or even a S.W.A.T. team. We have all seen enough virtual specimens of that kind vanish off the screen.

The situation is as follows: Master thief steals "Pandora's box", master thief opens "Pandora's box", "Pandora's box" unleashes pure calamity (plagues, war, destruction), master thief must save the world. That the box, which is actually a jug, should better be left shut ought to be apparent. That should already have been clear to Pandora and her titanic husband Epimetheus, otherwise Zeus would not have explicitly bid her to keep the thing closed when he gave it to her as a present. Yes, curiosity... Apart from all evil, the box also contains hope, and that would surely come in handy for Charlie.

Hope never dies, as they say, unlike Charles Deckard. That is easily believed, once you see the crazed beasts the box spits out. With unbelievable agility and ingenious attacks, hoofed and winged creatures set upon the master thief. At least in the beginning of the game, because other, more twisted enemies and forces are going to make life more difficult for him in the following course of action. Werewolves look cute one moment when they lift their arm in front of their head for protection. Once they sit on you with bared teeth, their cuteness is gone very quickly. Furiously and determinedly, the creatures get down to business, and it is not enough to pull out their teeth or to trim their feathers. The AI response is impressive. The strongly climbing werewolves sweep obstacles out of the way with their claws, Minotaurs burst walls and the flying griffins dive down on you, always careful not to lower their guard too much. That is why you use the crumbling buildings to bury the tough monsters under rocks and rubble. So you are also allowed to participate a bit in the global destruction. For this you have such well known weapons as sub-machine gun, machine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher or a nice firemen's axe at your disposal. You can take the ammunition for all these weapons off the so-called "Black Order", an organisation that aims at, what a surprise, world supremacy. As if that alone was not a terrific and novel idea, they have also set their minds on finishing you off. For this purpose, they always have to weigh up who is more in the way of their noble goals: you, i.e. Charles Deckard, or these accursed critters. Correspondingly, the "Black Order" should cause the desired diversion in many situations and literally save your skin if they are busy with a pack of monsters. But be careful, once the pack is eliminated they give you their undivided, merciless attention. Luckily, Charlie even learns how to draw life energy from his enemies to regenerate himself, and according to the developers, that is by far not his only ability. Compliments of Bioshock!

Legendary is still in the middle of development, so it probably is too early to say more about the visuals or acoustics. They are pushing hard as far as the production goes, that is unmistakable. Humanity is about to be eradicated, and this is to be conveyed very impressively, New York and London really get their just deserts. What can be seen in moving and still pictures so far is quite impressive, but needs some fine tuning here and there. The sound could feel less like "Nippon rock" and do well with a touch of drama and orchestral sounds.