E3 2006
Hands On Preview
There are
some elements reminiscent of other hack ‘n slash role-playing games. Take a dash
of Untold Legends on the PSP, toss in a cupful of Champions of Norrath, and add
a pinch of God of War and you have an inkling of the game style of Untold
Legends: Dark Kingdom, a game tapped as a launch title for the PlayStation 3
console system.
In Dark
Kingdom, players take on the role of a character loyal to the king, though the
latter is coming under the influence of dark forces. Sent away to quell an
uprising, when your hero returns, he (or she) finds the world changed, the
kingdom under an oppressive and malevolent cloud in which civilians are tortured
and killed. Ok, that means you have to fight through dark minions, evil monsters
and generally other bad things to find out what happened and put an end to it.
There are
three classes of players to choose from – warrior, mage and scout. Each can
equip a variety of weapons and skill up wading through the monsters. Several RPG
conventions are in full force here, and player’s will learn new moves as their
characters level.
A section of
a level was playable, and it seemed right from the start that there will be an
order to the battle as to which mobs you take down. There was a summoner that
was calling up more melee mobs, so right off the bat the warrior hammered his
way through and took out the summoner. Using dodges, it was easy to avoid taking
too much damage and the controls were easy to become accustomed to using. There
was a nice responsiveness to the game as well, though – at this stage of the
development – the ‘six degrees of freedom’ elements of the PS3 controller were
not being utilized.
The game
uses the Havoc physics engine for solid animations, and the game is,
graphically, a wonderful treat. There are minor puzzles (gate is locked, boulder
on a hill – smack the boulder, send it down and into the gates, and it is not
locked any more), and a nice array of mobs to fight, including bosses that will
require figuring out how to attack and when.
The game
will feature two player co-op and head-to-head player-versus-player combat
elements as well. There are 18 levels and approximately 15-20 hours of gameplay.
Dark Kingdom
does not appear to be treading any new ground in terms of gameplay, but the
title will give the PS3 an influx of RPG gaming right out of the gate.
