Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom

When Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade debuted on the PSP, I couldn't figure out why Sony didn't just make it a Champions of Norrath game. Now I'm even more confused. Why port over a PSP spin off of a best selling PC/PS2 franchise (Everquest) to the PS3? Even more strange, this one's hardly even related to the other Untold Legends games. What we have is a fairly generic action RPG with decent (but not next gen) graphics and a mediocre story. It's a confused game with no major flaws, but no standout points. Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom is an action RPG made by one of the best companies in the biz, Sony Online Entertainment. The company that brought us Champions of Norrath games and the PSP Untold Legends games. One would expect that the first action RPG on the PS3 would be their crowning achievement, yet the game feels as confused as its lineage.

Originally slated as a PS2 game, Dark Kingdom has the look and feel of a game missing direction. The graphics are confused, with stunning character models, yet the textures frequently lack detail. The level design is the same, with confined areas that do not take advantage of the PS3's power in terms of draw distance or characters on screen. The score and battle cries are excellent, yet inconsistent. While the controls are solid and efficient, the game design reduces the gameplay down to button matching.

While the online play allows for up to four players to take over from any save point in the game, I'm not sure how compelling it will be. During the single player campaign, it can be difficult to avoid getting caught on objects, I can't image it with four.

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom ends up being a technically competent game that simply lacked polish in design. Games frequently get adapted to new systems prior to release, this one could have been stronger with a bit more time spent on taking advantage of the PS3's power. Unfortunately it ends up looking, and playing, like a PlayStation 2.5 game.

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