Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Legendary is a game about the horrors of what is inside Pandora's Box. You play as a thief who works for the highest bidder when you realize you bit off more than you can chew after a theft of the fabled box goes wrong and unleashed mythic creatures in modern times. You are also imbued with a special signet that grants you special powers to stop legendary beasts and bring the world back in order.

What's Hot
The concept of the game is cool. You play a guy that doesn't like getting involved past his own paycheck until you do something so horrible that you need to get involved. The contrast of the modern setting with beasts from ancient myth and folklore brings an apocalyptic chaos to the world. You get a real sense that some bad stuff is going down all around you as people get carried away by Firedrakes or Griffons.

The most interesting beasts in the entire game are the werewolves. They will chance you down over all kinds of obstacles. They are formidable foes because they need to be decapitated. Otherwise, they'll keep hunting you until you mercilessly.

Some interesting things were tried in Legendary. You have supernatural powers that use "Animus Vitae" and you take the life-force from the creatures in Pandora's Box and you can regenerated your health or use it as a weapon to incapacitate beasts. There is a mode in multiplayer that deals specifically with that mechanic. There are also environment puzzles that require you to use your weapons to progress.

What's Not
Naming a game Legendary is a sure fire way to create large expectations. Unfortunately, the concept that was praised never got past just that, the concept. Everything else remains either unfinished or not fully fleshed out. The environment puzzles aren't consistent or add anything to the gameplay that enhances it. When some mechanic you find cool or interesting appears, expect that hook to be done to death. The Werewolves are a prime example. The two stages it takes to defeat them is cool for the first couple of time but you'll lament having to go through the motions of lopping off the beasts head every time.

The story is thinly applied and the characters evaporate between cut scenes. You'll either wonder what is going on or what you motivation is as you mindlessly slash through enemies. It seems the developers tried to make the chaos element of the game extend into everything the game does but that delicate balance is lost and makes the game feel sloppy and unpolished. The level design is evident of this. There is massive destruction around and you see chaos happening all the time but with all this mess and debris strewn around it doesn't feel "chaotic" it feels cluttered.

There are also all sorts of technical issues that deal another blow that makes Legendary anything but. If you are rocking the PS3 version, not only do you have to install the game but there are also lengthy load times. The engine based on the Unreal 3 middleware doesn't look all that hot apart from the Animus clouds and the AI for the Werewolves. I also was beating down a 'wolf when it got stuck in the wall making it impossible for me to deal the final coup de gras and so I was forced to "kill" the beast about three times before I could get at his head.


Final Word
If mindless action and a paper thin story don't bother you, it is possible to enjoy Legendary. It is just a sub par offering among a league of other fantastic FPS games this holiday season. The shame here is that, while the concept is exceptional, the execution fell way short.