Customer Reviews

Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you're a fan of Baldur's Gate, be sure to try Untold Legends a try. This little RPG even lets you play multiplayer with your PSP-owning friends!

You start out getting to choose your character - for females there are alchemists and berzerkers, for men there are paladins and druid. For each character you can customize skin tone and hair style. Then a few attribute settings and you're off!

You start with the traditional spider-bashing, moving from room to room, chatting with the various NPCs you meet. Soon you're picking up loot, killing larger monsters, and heading off on quests. Yes, these are the things RPGs are made of, but of course what makes this brilliant is that you can carry it along with you, play it whenever you want, and get the great PSP graphics.

Even better, if you have friends with PSPs, you can all adventure together wirelessly, in study hall or on the train or bus! You can truly pass hours at a time without any effort, customizing your character and building up levels.

It's fun to zoom in, but really, you play most of this game zoomed out so you get as much of the map on the screen as possible. The variety of weapons and spells keep things interesting. You could say that a downside is that the game is pretty straightforward and simple - but you really don't want a super-complex game for a handheld. That's what the big consoles are for. This hack and slash is sort of the 'gauntlet' for the PSP - run around alone or with friends, gain some levels, find some nifty cool weapons, and then hit SAVE when your bus gets to where it is going.

Highly recommended!

For the most part, Untold Legends has gotten a bad rap from game review sites like Gamespot. Much of their beef has to do with the game's lack of depth...which is a valid criticism. So far I've played Untold Legends for a total of 12 hours and I can barely remember the names of important NPCs, locations or the types of quests I've been on.

But, really, I can say the same for games like Diablo 2 or Fate. . Untold Legends pretends to be one thing and one thing only - an unadulterated dungeon slog. You pick up some weapons and armor, a few power-ups, and go kill stuff. The plot is secondary, maybe even tertiary, to the fighting. And as far as the killing goes, there's plenty of it to do and Sony Online Entertainment makes sure its fun.

Yeah, Diablo 2 had some great cutscenes. I remember playing Diablo 2 just to GET to the next cutscene. You won't find that level of story depth here. The purpose of your quests are simply to get you to the next dungeon so you can kill stuff.

The game is structured much like Diablo. Town is where you go to buy, sell, get quests and receive rewards for a job well done. Most of your non-magical items like weapons and armour are "socketed", and you can enhance these weapons with runes, jewels or skulls to pump up your stats or get special abilities/attacks. Inventory is handled much like Diablo, but with much improvement. You needn't move stuff around just to get more space in your pack. The game handles that for you. Unlike Diablo, you don't have a stash. So saving multiple items that you can't use yet gets to be a pain.

Some pointers - (a) Save and save often. If you die, you go back to the beginning of the dungeon or quest, and lose all your loot and XP in the process. (b) Some bugs here and there. The one that really had me swearing was the "Return to Aven" bug, where the mini-disc just keeps spinning after choosing to return to town. Another reason to save like there's no tomorrow. (c) Any experienced gamer will tell you to NEVER ever barge into a room. Certainly true here. Its easy to get overwhelmed by multiple creatures, especially at the beginning of the game. (d) Don't get frustrated during the first few levels. The difficulty ramps up slowly. Provided some careful distribution of stat points and judicious attention paid to your armour/weapons, you'll be an effective bringer-of-death within short order.

This game really opened my eyes to the potential of the PSP. Lumines and Ridge Racer were wonderful games, but lately they've been boring me. Untold Legends brought new life to my PSP.

Untold Legends is an RPG brought to us by Sony Online Entertainment, the same people that gave us Everquest, EQ2, and Star Wars Galaxies. While this game is not anywhere near as in depth as those games, it is a fun, light, roleplaying game, and the only one available at the launch of the PSP. It's really not even in the same vein as the afore-mentioned titles, and really owes a debt to Blizzard's Diablo line of games, as it plays nearly identical. Choose between 4 character classes, various modifications to appearance and skills, and off you go. The game offers quests and spells and dungeons to explore and equipment to loot and buy and sell, as well as providing fairly impressive graphics for a handheld game.

Untold Legends is a perfect RPG for people like me, with a little time to kill on the train ride home, or late at night in bed when you can't fall asleep.

At first, I couldnt put this game down. at about level 21, (13 hours or so of gameplay) I am now getting a little bored with the storyline. Go find this, go kill this etc. I still enjoy it on lunch breaks from work or car rides etc. It's similar to Diablo or Baldars Gate. It's nothing new, but it is a great RPG for timekill etc. Fun for at least the first 13 hours or so. The game is also somewhat easy.

If you like Action RPGs, chances are you will enjoy this game. Brotherhood of the Blade gives you a Diablo-like perspective and game-play with out overwhelming options. You get the standard level points to distribute, and spell points to allocate between different spells and attributes (similar to the spell tree in Diablo II). Once you get used to the controls, the gameplay is pretty easy (although I have yet to master assigning different spells on the fly. You assign two spells at a time, but if you want to use a third spell...well, it takes a little manuvering, and when you're in a pinch, it's a little difficult). Overall, it's a fun game. And like all games of this type, it's even more fun to link up with other players for multiplayer action. Personally, I think this was probably the best launch title, or at least tied for first with Burnout Legends. Who knew launch titles could actually be good. Imagine what will come next.

Granted I have only owned this game and the PSP for a little over 24 hours now but I can say that this is a decent RPG to sink your teeth into with your brand new PSP system. I like the controls; the joystick action is smooth and has an easy learning curve. The eye candy is nice and the game "feels" like it will last quite awhile. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is for the fact that I really dislike the dialogue screens when you are talking to NCP's. Your mileage may vary but I really hate this about handheld RPG's. Also I imagine I would give it 3 stars as other RPG's come out for this system but right now it's the only game in town and not too shabby. Oh yeah, I hate how the disks don't have a little protective door like 3.5 floppies have ergo the 3 stars for durability.

I've rented this game twice and have dedicated a fair bit of time to it. From what I can tell on the Map I'm about half way complete.

This game has been very satisfying to play as an RPG. I was a little skeptical at first because the opening Prologue is reminiscent of the 1985 Nintendo era with still sketches, poor music, and mediocre scrolling text. After you get through a laughable Prologue the game play is quite good. Even though I've found games like Diablo II quite enjoyable, I usually stop 25% through because the job of finishing the game seems daunting due to missions being overly challenging, repetitive, or just too long.

Untold Legend focuses on things I like to do best; fight, improve my character, discover some unique items, complete missions in a reasonable amount of time, and I don't get lost or confused (too often). Unlike Diablo II, if you die in Untold Legends, you don't lose everything. You simply restart the level minus the experience, gold, and possessions you picked up between begining the level and being killed. You play from an overhead view (like Diablo II) and can zoom in on your character (although I rarely do).

I've been playing as a Knight, and am having so much fun that once I finish the game, I think I'll restart as a Berserker or alternate character class. I don't know if the story changes any dependant on character class but I believe your possessions change.

I also recommend playing with headphones on because the sound is quite decent and the PSP's internal speakers don't do it justice. Specifically, the sound of the "thwaps" as you run your blade through some nasties adds to the enjoyment and there's some good L/R panning depending on where characters are approaching from.

Untold Legends doesn't have the most stellar story, but the missions still satisfy and I'm committed to seeing it all the way through.

As a PSP title this game really shines due to the PSP's portability. I find I carry it with me, and if I'm waiting for something or someone, I'll flick it on and play a bit. Untold Legends let's you save wherever you are in the game, and because the PSP will power down into standby mode, the game goes "instant on" right where you last were once you turn it on again.

My one wish would have been to see some nice cut-scenes when you complete certain missions (Final Fantasy Style) but I guess there's only so much you can stick on those little UMD disks. I haven't tried Multiplayer Mode so I'm afraid I can't comment on playing as a team. My other beef is that sometimes when I restart the level, the Map orientation changes, and I'm left wondering which way is up. A compass that you could toggle on/off would be helpful in getting reoriented.

Very happy with the game. My recommendation is buy it!

Kevin

I really enjoyed this game. I am playing this game for a second time. Takes me months to beat, a real surprise since it was made for a portable system. I am not really into RPG's with the exception of the Star War's Knights or the Old Republic 1&2 and this game but I really enjoy this game. A great buy for anyone who owns a PSP. I even heard that they are making a second one for the PSP.

...and I think I am close to being done. If Sony allowed "infrastructure" connections, this would be a much better game. I don't ride a schoolbus with a bunch of kids who all play this game (I have not ridden a bus for over 30 years) so the wi-fi feature is useless to me.

So far, every maze in the game can be negotiated with a "follow the right wall" feature. The controls are fairly simple - the only one that is impossible to use is "block" which requires a two finger chord (right and circle). I would argue that it should be swapped with weapons change (right and X) at least as an option.

The good news is that as a druid, I've never had to block, even once, to win a fight - there are few places I have not been able to get through by pumping heal potions - and those simply have to be approached slowly.

Druids get pets (I have no idea if the other classes get pets). At low levels, they get a tumbleweed that will simply annoy and occupy the mob, while at high levels they get a tempest that will actually fight and will take out annoyance mobs automatically. There are some deathtraps - you can get swarmed by so many hard hitting mobs that you won't survive - there is a place where the "rhinos" swarm you, in particular - once you get five of them on you, you might as well not waste your potions - you can try a spell, but you'd have to be stupidly lucky to get an "instant death" on two of them. It is always a matter of tactics - many of those situations can be approached with arrows.

I was worried that this would be a game where shooting skill would men life or death - but if you spend some time leveling, you can pretty much take any boss with the right tactics - for some it is shooting at a distance and for others it is engagement. But arrows aim semiautomatically (better if you have higher dex, I think). It is not a game where you set your actions by turns, but it is a game where your shooting skill probably won't matter.

I'm having fun playing this game - while it is a bit repetitive, I'm having fun watching the story unfold and I'm wondering how it will turn out.

When I first picked up this game, I was a bit worried since some users rated it as average or poor. Then after getting started with it on my PSP I feared for the worst. The prologue and sketches made me think the game was indeed a dud. To my surprise I couldn't have been more off target! Once I built my character (knight) and started gaining weapons, strength and powers - the game has done a full 360 degree turn. I absolutely love the gameplay. It is a perfect challenge without excess frustration. The "hack and slash" aspect is a total blast! There are some beautiful graphic elements when using magic spells, potions, etc. I would say that the very title of the game is a great analogy. The game offers some "legendary" fun, but will be "untold" by those who are too hasty to discover the strategy behind it. If you just got this one, give it some time to figure out the upgrading of charaters, work with weapons/magic and challenges. You'll find yourself lost in fantastic gameplay, always looking forward to play more!