Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade

Over the past few years, Sony Online Entertainment has dominated the action-RPG genre with its Champions of Norrath series. Though it’s not for certain if another addition to this franchise is in the works, Sony has opted to release another title along the same lines for the PSP, called Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade. While Brotherhood's story has nothing to do with the aforementioned franchise, the rest of the game is a near clone of it’s big brother, and should please anyone looking for some hack-n-slash action on their PSP.

Almost everything found in Champions of Norrath makes an appearance somewhere in Untold Legends, but you’ll have to realize that it’s on a slightly lower level. The character creation portion is a fine example of this. This time around, you will only have around a handful of options at your disposal, but it does still offer enough variety to keep you happy. Players will choose from Knight, Alchemist, Druid, and Berserker; all which sport various looks, weapons and armor, powerful spells, and class specific-fighting skills that play an essential part in the replay value of the game. A few different hairstyles and skin tones are to be found but are nowhere as plentiful as you might expect. You will have the option to customize your players statistics though, which helps give you some variety when creating the character that is best for you (magic user, brute, etc.) 

The gameplay in Untold Legends is pretty much your run-of-the-mill hack-n-slash, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Fans of the genre will feel right at home with this game, but unfortunately that means you won’t stumble across anything new or groundbreaking either. Hacking the thousands of minions that come your way is simple and only requires pressing a few buttons. The X, or R1 and X if a ranged weapon is equipped, will be responsible for your standard attacks, which you’ll use most of the time. You can learn new spells and special moves, some of which are class specific, that you can assign to the O and Triangle buttons, but other than that … not much to do. Blocking requires pressing R1 and O, which to be honest is a little cumbersome. However, one of the good things about the blocking system in Brotherhood is that it’s directional-specific; meaning whichever way you are facing while performing the block, leaves you open for attacks from the opposite direction. This isn’t the greatest innovation to come along in a while, but it does offer some nice strategy and breaks the monotony of gameplay.

Throughout your journey, you will find hundreds of items, weapons, and armor that can change the look of your warrior. This actually turned out to be my favorite part of the game, and seemed to be my ultimate reason for trudging along through the lackluster story. Once you equip that new and very nicely detailed piece of armor you found, you’re hooked. Players now also have the option to adjust the status and attribute effects of their weapons and armor. You can now add elemental attacks such as fire, ice, and thunder to your weapons by taking a certain piece of jewelry, or components as they are called, and combing it with your weapon. Place this same item on your armor however, and you’ll receive a bonus in defense resistance to that particular element. This may seem fairly straightforward and simple, but the truth is nothing could be farther from it. The biggest dilemma exists in whether or not to finally use that sacred artifact you’ve been hanging onto for the past four hours, because once you combine it with a piece of weaponry, it’s gone for good.

“The spell effects in Untold Legends are extremely nice”

Sony’s notorious “skill tree,” which worked perfectly in Champions of Norrath, is back in full force. All of your magic and special attacks are displayed in a tree-like grid that is accessible every time you gain a level or need to increase your stats. The grid allows players the freedom of purchasing or upgrading almost any spell or attack at their own personal leisure. This basically boils down to the fact that you’re allowed to skip over certain attacks and spells in the skill tree, or come back to them if needed, and this type of freedom allows for greater customization when it comes to outfitting your characters arsenal of moves. The many customization options like this keep the hack-n-slash action from growing stale and eventually keep players hooked until the end.

Your journey will take place on the vast World known as Unataca, which is filled to the brim with lush environments and is incredibly bigger than anything we’ve seen on a hand-held to date. The sheer size of this game doesn’t come without some problems though; often times there’re are so many places, caves, and dungeons to see, that you eventually get lost and forget what you initially were supposed to be doing. It seems like for every destination that exists, there are another four or five places available for you to explore, but at least this allows you to gain much needed experience and discover new pieces of armor and weaponry. It’s often hard to criticize a game for being too big, but if only the story would have had more direction, this wouldn’t be such a problem. Luckily, everywhere you do explore (minus some slight glitches from time to time) looks extremely polished, and almost sports the visceral beauty of some of the other games found in Sony’s library of action-RPGs.

 
“Some of the creatures and monsters you face become a little repetitive”

The ambience is Brotherhood is actually very well done. Almost every sound imaginable is captured appropriately, but I'll have to admit, the lack of voice-over is somewhat of a disappointment. I’m fully aware that this is a launch title, and I'm sure that many games in the future of the PSP will indeed have voice-over, but the rest of the game has been done so well that the lack of voice-over stands out more than anything. Once again, it’s hard to be this harsh on such a strong first-generation title, especially when the entire package is so very well done. If this is any indication as to the future of the PSP, then I must say we are in for quite a ride. Although it doesn’t stand up against Sony’s other hack-n-slash titles, Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade is a necessary purchase for any action-RPG fan.

Multiplayer is an absolute must do in Brotherhood of the Blade

Gameplay: 8.1
Much of the experience in Untold Legends seems very simple and repetitive. Luckily, great character customization options and a wonderful skill tree help provide the player with enough variety to continue playing, and even possibly, continue their journey with the other three character classes.

Graphics: 7.9
The visuals in this game are almost on par with games like Champions of Norrath and Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance for the PS2. Beautiful environments, awesome weapons and armor, and above-par character models help separate this game from some of the PSP’s other launch titles. Despite some minor slowdown when browsing the menus, and a camera angle that’s a little finicky, the graphical department ends up being one of the best parts about Untold Legends.

Sound: 7.8
The sound effects are blended in nicely with the action on screen, and the musical score fits in superbly with the image of the game. In the end, it’s the lack of voice-over that ends up blemishing the experience, and helps remind you that you are indeed still playing on a hand-held system. Nonetheless, it’s a nice start for the sound department, and as time goes on, I'm sure we will see some incredible things from Sony in the future.

Difficulty: Medium
Most people will have little trouble plowing through the thousands of minions they will encounter on their journey throughout Unataca. In fact, the hardest thing gamers will encounter will not be the enemies, but rather the awkwardness of pressing the R1 and O buttons simultaneously to perform a block. As long as players explore some of the side quests and areas, they should have little trouble gaining enough experience and items to ultimately finish this game.

Concept: 8.0
The concept of the action RPG is nothing new to gamers for sure, but the ability to have this type of experience on a hand-held system is truly something unbelievable. While some people will dismiss this as a rip-off off its big brother titles, Untold Legends manages to stand on it’s own two legs and offers gamers something new and truly engaging.

Multiplayer: 8.4
The multiplayer in Brotherhood is top notch. Allowing up to four players the ability to join other games in progress, despite the storyline, is purely genius. I only wish this game allowed for Internet play, instead of only co-op, because playing with other people who aren’t in the immediate room would have put this title over the top.

Overall: 7.9
At first glance it would appear that Untold Legends is purely a knock off of Sony’s other notorious action-RPGs, but believe it or not, this title manages to stand on it’s own with little need of help. Despite some minimal setbacks, Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade provides an excellent experience not yet offered on a hand-held..