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Sony Online Entertainment brings a solid hack-and-slash to the PSP’s launch. Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade is a hack-and-slash in the vein of its Champions PS2 series. Untold Legends, however, doesn’t take place in the EverQuest universe. While not quite as polished as its big cousins, Untold Legends is solid and lengthy and will keep you busy until the next batch of games.
As with other games in the series, Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade has you creating a character from four classes, though these basically break down into a fighter or magic user. The different types bring the typical choices: i.e. a magic user will depend on magic and long-ranged attacks while a fighter will get in for the attack. You’ll take this character through countless levels as you try to save the city of Aven. Untold Legends tries to tell you a story at times, but it is so mediocre that you really probably won’t care. It is obvious that Sony Online is trying to create a new franchise, but they should stick to the established EverQuest universe in the future.
Overall though, the genre’s style of play reaches the PSP relatively unharmed. This is a smaller version of the Champions games, but you’ll still experience the genre’s staples. As expected for the genre, your character will get incrementally more powerful as the game goes on; you’ll gain new abilities and gear as you progress. You’ll also meet a number of enemies, over a hundred, actually. The games’ control system is generally solid, although the lack of four trigger buttons is a bit cumbersome at first. It takes some getting used to but you’ll find yourself at ease after a few minutes.
Untold Legends sports a fully functional cooperative mode through the PSP’s local wireless multiplayer. Up to three other players can join you to go through the game’s many dungeons, and the like. The other players can jump into your single-player game (perhaps to help you out in a difficult area) or you can start a new game. Unfortunately, despite Sony Online’s background, the game doesn’t support Internet play.
Besides the wireless multiplayer, though, Untold Legends' best feature is the lengthy adventure. The game includes around 20 hours of gameplay. Also, since the dungeons are randomly generated, taking a second spin is actually something you would want to do.
Visually, the game isn’t quite as detailed as the Champions series is on the PlayStation 2. It is clear that the game’s art direction wasn’t Sony Online’s main concern. The environments don’t have much detail, and could have come from a number of games as there is nothing distinct about them. Similarly, the characters are about as generic. On a purely technical level, though, the game does sport decent polygon counts and rather lengthy dungeons. It looks pretty decent on the PSP’s screen and the effects are great. Unfortunately, some launch-game bugs like a shaky frame-rate and near minute-long load times hamper things a bit.
Aurally, the game is serviceable although nothing spectacular. The soundtrack fits the game pretty well, that is to say, it is a pretty generic fantasy score. The sounds of battle are pretty satisfying, although again, nothing out of the ordinary.
Sony Online Entertainment’s first PSP entry is a solid game. It meets all the requirements for a hack-and-slash game. You’ll find a number of enemies, character progression, and a decent presentation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have its own charm, which subtracts from the game substantially. Nonetheless, it is a worthwhile purchase to hack-and-slash fans, and even RPG fans will like it since it is the closest thing currently available on the PSP, and you're certainly getting a lot of game for your money. -- Michael Taylor, PGNx Media
---- Mar 28, 2005
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