Legend: Hand of God – PC – Review

As any fan of the genre will tell
you, there has been no shortage of RPG’s to hit the market in recent years, and
with standout titles like “Mass Effect” and the “Neverwinter Nights” series in
one’s collection, newer entries have some tough acts to follow in order to
impress gamers. “Legend: Hand of God,” (L:HoG) Master Creating’s most recent
offering, is not impressive, but it does offer a quasi-decent romp through the
mainstays of the genre, albeit one marred by occasional bugs and generally
lamentable voice acting.

The story couldn’t be more generic
for an RPG: a portal keeping demons at bay has been opened, and it’s your job as
Targon, the last member of a secretive society called the Order of the Keepers
of the Holy Flame, to reseal the portal by finding a legendary amulet called the
“Hand of God” in time to prevent the demonic hordes from sweeping into your
world and tearing it asunder. Sound familiar? Though Targon will interact with a
fair number of people during his journey, he works alone (with the exception of
the fairy who accompanies him); this not a party-based RPG, so gamers looking
for that experience will have to look elsewhere for satisfaction (if you haven’t
already, give “Mass Effect” a spin).

There aren’t any surprises for fans
of the genre in terms of gameplay. All the usual suspects are here: melee combat
(press and hold the attack button to continuously attack), spellcasting (press a
previously assigned hotkey), as well as health and mana pools that are
regenerated by potions. As Targon gains experience, you level up. As you level,
you can distribute points to one of four attributes: strength, dexterity,
constitution, and intellect. Which attributes you decide to increase are
determined by which “paths” (read “classes”) you choose.

L:HoG offers five paths: warrior,
villain (rogue), magic (mage), wilderness (ranger), and faith (healer). You will
be asked to choose two of the paths at the beginning of the game. This means
that as you level up, you will have to decide which skill trees to invest in
within each path.
In addition to being a clever way to get more mileage out of a relatively small
class pool, this hybrid class system adds much needed variety to the title.
Without it, gamers would likely feel much more restricted in their ability to
customize their character, and it would be far less appealing to play. I decided
to try out a mage/healer and had some fun toasting enemies with fireballs and
being able to heal myself while in or out of battle. Early on, I decided to
devote most of the skill points to the magic path, increasing the power of my
offensive fire and ice spells. Only later did I start seriously improving and
adding to my skills in the Path of Faith. Having the power to choose exactly how
your character develops helps to make the title feel like it has some depth, but
it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

With all this talk of how closely
this title follows the conventions of the genre, there is one way in which it
stands out from other fantasy RPGs: there aren’t any torches in the game. If you
enter a dark cave and need additional light, you simply use your cursor as a
modest light source, which happens to be a luminescent fairy, who has decided to
accompany you on your journey. The fairy acts as your cursor and as a source of
real-time light. Ultimately, though, this is a gimmick, but it’s one that works
well, especially in darker areas where the fairy’s light casts some eerie
real-time shadows.

How well do all of these gameplay
elements work together as a whole? The game is by no means revolutionary or even
evolutionary in terms of the genre, but it retreads familiar territory
competently. The occasional bug does rear its ugly head, however, like clicking
on one of the earlier vendors in an attempt to look at his wares and hearing
Targon blurt out: “I need a key to the cemetery!” At the time this happened, I
had no idea what cemetery he was talking about, as it wasn’t mentioned in any of
the quests I had accepted, nor in any of the conversations in which I took part.
And it’s not as if the vendor had keys for sale…Not sure where that one came
from.

On a more positive note, the game’s
control scheme is quite flexible and user friendly. It allows you to configure
the left, middle, and right mouse buttons to your liking, as well as use the
number keys as customizable hotkeys. For instance, you can set the right mouse
button as the melee attack button, the middle as a healing spell, and the left
for point-and-click walking. This can be done on the fly by mousing over the
button you wish to reassign, clicking it, selecting a spell or action icon from
an icon-based pop-up menu, and clicking on the icon of your choice. This is a
nice feature both in theory and practice, especially if you want to quickly
assign one of the buttons to a new spell you just earned after leveling up.

One of the more annoying problems
with L:HoG, however, is the inconsistent quality of its voice acting. This
problem plagues just about every character with spoken lines, even the
protagonist. In particular, he seems to deliver many of his lines as if he is
trying too hard to be convincing. This often the problem with spoken lines in
the game; the actors are trying to sound convincing, but their delivery often
falls quite flat. This is even more unfortunate when there are glimmers of
creativity and wit evident in the lines being delivered, but then that
creativity and wit are all but destroyed by sub-par delivery.

While the voice acting is hit and
miss, the title’s score deserves some praise. The tracks are rich and well-
suited for the game. I was generally quite impressed with the overall quality of
the soundtrack. The visuals, on the other hand, aren’t as impressive, but they
almost hold their own with other recent titles in the genre. Real-time shadows,
sharp textures, and solid lighting make for a visually pleasing experience.
There are a few nice touches here and there as well, like field grass swaying as
you move through it. Just be wary of cranking up the visuals, as this puppy can
demand a lot from your system at higher levels. One related gripe I have here is
that you can only adjust the visual settings outside of the game, which is
rather inconvenient when you’re trying to figure out what settings work best for
your system.

On a final note, I have to mention
the problematic camera. I have played many RPGs, but I have never experienced
the feeling of being lost in a gameworld. However, I found myself feeling lost
any number of times while playing this title because it offers a number of
intricate maps, which would actually be commendable if it weren’t for the fact
that you can’t level the camera out to see the horizon, which would allow you to
get a better sense of where you are in relation to the rest of the world. L:HoG
is presented in third-person, and you have the ability to rotate the camera and
zoom in and out on your character within a limited range. There is also a
mini-map of the surrounding area, but somehow I never really felt as if I had a
good “lay of the land,” because I wanted to level the camera out to look ahead
and scan the horizon but was unable to do so. I would have even settled for
being able to zoom out a bit further to see more of my surroundings, but no
dice. Quite frustrating. One way to address this would be to allow the player go
into first-person mode while looking around or allowing the camera to level out
and show line of sight from a shallower angle to the ground while in
third-person.

Gameplay: 6.0
Been there and done that numerous times. Want more? The gameplay is competent
for the genre, but ultimately uninspiring.
 
Graphics: 7.0
Nothing spectacular, but there are some nice lighting effects and textures are
generally well done. Some character animations can be a bit stiff, though.
 
Sound: 7.0
A solid score and generally well-wrought sound effects are marred by
inconsistent voice acting.
 
Difficulty: Easy to Medium
The learning curve is minimal and the AI doesn’t seem to have any sense of
self-preservation.
 
Concept: 6.0
This is generally uninspired title, both in terms of its narrative and gameplay.

 
Overall: 6.0
L:HoG has promise, but there’s nothing new to see or do here. This is a hard
title to recommend to veterans of the genre, unless you don’t mind retreading
the same gaming territory, dealing with occasional bugs and a camera that’s a
bit too restrictive, as well as spotty voice acting. This is one dragon you
don’t need to slay.