Legion, Capcom’s [first?] Devil May Cry spin-off. Following the Shinji Mikami
rulebook, Chaos Legion has all the ingredients of a Capcom game: exciting
combat, unique weapons and a point-earning system that upgrades your
character’s stats. What’s missing is the plethora of puzzles that have been
featured in Capcom games since the original Resident Evil was released.
Replacing those puzzles is more of what you love: battles.
Chaos Legion’s gameplay is a
monster-heavy version of Devil May Cry. The controls are very similar, only
differing when required by a unique gameplay mechanic. One difference is the
camera, which is free-roaming and can be controlled with the right analog
stick, a first for this kind of game. The reasoning behind this is because of
the level design, which is very open, and your enemies, which surround you at
every turn. As you will quickly realize, Chaos Legion is the Serious Sam of
the action/thriller genre.
To defend yourself
against the unrelenting threat, you have the aid of the Legions. Legions are
interactive summon monsters. You only get one weapon (a sword that resembles
the one Dante used in Devil May Cry) and have a limited number of attacks, so
you have to rely on the help of Malice, Hatred, Arrogance and other Legions to
get you through the game’s toughest battles.
If you’ve ever wondered
what Final Fantasy would be like if it were an action/RPG, Chaos Legion will
show you. Final Fantasy’s summon monsters act only on command: you summon
them, they attack. In Chaos Legion, the summon monsters act by command or
they can attack independently. Each Legion has more than one monster for you
to control and that number will grow as you level up. With Malice, you start
out with only two arrow-shooters, but when maxed out, six will be available,
creating a powerful offensive and defensive army for you to use.
Legions add extra
abilities to your character’s ability list. They don’t just magically appear
though, you have to earn them by collecting points (EXP). As with any game,
EXP is gained by killing monsters – lots of monsters. And with an endless
amount to slay in Chaos Legion, it won’t take you long to rack up the millions
of points necessary to unleash a Legion’s full potential.
The grimly-named summon
monsters fall in line with the dark storyline. Sieg, the tall, red-headed
hero of the game, begins the story in trauma. He’s mourning the loss of a
girl named Siela. The indication is that he killed her, though the story
details are sketchy and reveal very little to build tension and intrigue.
Delacroix, Chaos Legion’s answer to Sephiroth, blames Sieg for Siela’s death.
Long story short, he’s determined to collect three glyphs and use their power
to destroy Sieg and reunite with his precious Siela. Your mission is to guide
Sieg through the treacherous lands, help him atone for his supposed sins and
defeat the psychotic Delacroix before he has a chance to complete his mission.
The story is presented in
an RPG fashion, only on a much smaller scale. You don’t chat with the locals
(there are only monsters to converse with in each level!), but there are text
updates and/or movie sequences shown after each mission has been completed.
The movie sequences are CG, not real-time, and have voice acting that is
comparable to other Capcom games. This is cool and all, but grows a little
tired when very few details are revealed during each sequence. It’ll be the
end before you know what’s really going on in this game.
With so much going for
it, the only thing Chaos Legion is guilty of is being repetitive. The first
half of the game is fast and exciting. None of the stages are long enough to
become repetitive, unless you procrastinate and fight unnecessary battles.
The latter half is different. The battles are tougher, longer, and some of
the "Target" monsters (monsters that must be killed to open locked gates) are,
in some cases, more challenging than the boss battles. There’s something
really wrong with that. It’s not fun pressing the square button two hundred
times to defeat a monster, only to have to do it again when another one
appears. Don’t think I’m exaggerating – some of the monsters can take several
hundred hits to kill, and one hit is equal to one button press. The Legions
are great, but they can’t battle the toughest monsters and keep Sieg from
being attacked by the dozens of regular monsters at the same time.
It’s disappointing to
know that the Chaos Legion’s fate comes down to repetition. I loved the game
to death, but you can only experience the same thing so many times before it
becomes a nightmare. This is a fun game that Devil May Cry fans will surely
dig, but it’s not a must-buy by any means. Rent it and enjoy it till you get
sick of it.
Gameplay: 6.9
Chaos Legion is a
little too chaotic for its own good. The battles are great for a while. The
first seven levels are so good, you’ll definitely want to play through them at
least twice. After that the game becomes too repetitive to hold your interest
long after its finished. You hack and slash and not much else. There are no
puzzles to solve, and the only things there are to collect are health recovery
items and character upgrades. One thing that bothered me at the end was that
you can’t run while a Legion has been summoned. What sense does that make?
Does it somehow make the game more challenging? No, it only makes it more
frustrating. I can still jump away and evade attacks, but I can’t move fast
and rid the world of its monsters before the game becomes boring.
Graphics: 6
I’m not sure what
happened here. If you look at Capcom’s other PS2, Xbox and GC games, you’ll
see some of the highest quality visuals around. Chaos Legion’s graphics are
pretty generic, resembling that of a first-generation PlayStation 2 game.
However, saying that would be an insult to Onimusha, since it was considered a
first-generation game and looked much better than Chaos Legion. With game
technology at the level it is today, bland textures and boring backgrounds are
no longer acceptable.
Sound: 6
Decent voice
acting, typical soundtrack. The music isn’t bad, but where’s the depth and
emotion? This is a little bit of an RPG, after all. RPGs are supposed to
engross you with a deep story and a soundtrack that could break your heart.
Chaos Legion has neither.
Difficulty: Medium
Chaos Legion is
easy early on, but becomes quite difficult near the end. The boss battles are
almost always easier than the toughest regular monster, which is kind of odd,
but gives the player something to hack and slash to death (if you like that
sort of thing).
Concept: 7
Capcom was on the
right track with Chaos Legion. It had all the markings of a good game: proven
gameplay mechanics, thousands of monsters to kill, and the addition of a new
and unique Legion (summon monster) system. The game didn’t turn out as good
as I had hoped, but its issues could be addressed in a sequel.
Overall: 6.5
If Capcom’s goal
for Chaos Legion was to create a Devil May Cry RPG, then they came pretty
close to accomplishing their goal. Some magic spells would have been nice,
and a more involved storyline couldn’t have hurt. An improved soundtrack
would have only made the experience that much more enjoyable. However, when
it came time to deciding on this game’s overall score, those factors had very
little to do with my decision. It all came down to the gameplay, which failed
to deliver a consistently fresh experience. It’s a fun game, no doubt about
that, but the fun doesn’t last. Chaos Legion is like a train on a circular
track: it goes round and round, never veering from the path. I’ll leave it up
to you to decide whether or not that’s a good thing.
