Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade (PSP)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.9 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Ryan Davis
• Reviewed on: 03/23/2005
• Updated on: 03/24/2005
• Released on: 03/22/2005
• Originally published on GameSpot: Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade (PSP) Review

It seems somewhat curious that Sony Online Entertainment, the company that popularized the term "massively multiplayer" with EverQuest, would not capitalize on the fairly rich universe that's grown from its seminal online role-playing game for its first game for the PSP, a hack-and-slash RPG called Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade. Unlike the EverQuest-derived Champions of Norrath games, which serve as the template for Untold Legends, this game features a whole new high-fantasy universe, albeit one recycled almost entirely out of rather generic Dungeons & Dragons parts. It has the right idea, which is basically the same idea that made the analogous Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath so enjoyable, but there's not much enthusiasm in Untold Legends. This leaves a game that, while hitting most of the necessary bullet points, is just going through the motions.

The promise of a satisfying hack-and-slash adventure is undercut by lackluster execution.

The lineage that birthed Untold Legends is pretty clear. From Diablo to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance to Champions of Norrath, this is a hack-and-slash RPG that follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessors. You'll choose your character from a small pool of magic users and fighters, and your choice here will determine what types of equipment you'll be able to use, whether you'll focus on ranged attacks or up-close melee attacks, and whether you'll depend on "power" (more traditionally referred to as mana). All the combat happens in real time, which works well enough for the most part, though certain choices made in compacting the established control template onto the PSP--specifically, demanding that you hold both the right trigger and the circle button to block attacks--are a little clumsy.

There's some kind of plot at work here, which starts typically enough with a simple spider infestation and slowly spirals into more global concerns. The story doesn't carry much punch, mostly because the whole thing is awfully generic. Most RPGs make the story the focal point of their energies, but it's just hard to care about the characters or their motivations in Untold Legends. The lack of voice acting and the otherwise flat writing are probably also partially to blame. And then you're off on a long series of quests, the lion's share of which require you to both hack and slash your way through randomly generated dungeons filled with monsters, the undead, and just plain unfriendly human folk before reaching some kind of boss character or collecting a valuable item for another character or some such thing. The quests do actually become a bit more involved over time, but that's the gist of it. Of course, along the way, your character will become more powerful, and you'll find, earn, and purchase new gear, as well as enhance your gear with small trinkets. You'll also gain new special abilities.

The dungeons in Untold Legends are randomly generated, with the thinking being that you can play through the game several times without seeing the same dungeon layout twice. The folly in this train of thought is twofold. Because the dungeons are randomly generated, they look like they're randomly generated. There's no rhyme or reason to the floor plans, which means there's no purposefully strategic designs to add a little tactical variety to the action. Secondly, monster placement is also random, and it often seems like you'll for long stretches without anyone bothering you, only to be overwhelmed by a clot of poorly placed monsters.

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