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PS3 | RPG | Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom

Boxart for Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom 34 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.25
  • SOUND: 3.00
  • CONTROL: 3.75
  • FUN FACTOR 3.00
  • AVG USER SCORE 3.3
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.1

Hands-On: Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom

Hands-On by Chris Morell | 06/08/2006 | 11:30:08 AM PST

The dark gets darker Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom for the PS3

Best-Case Scenario: With striking visuals, non-stop action, online co-op, and the advantage of hitting the PS3 as at launch, Dark Kingdom could be the action-RPG to have on the PS3 for a long while.

Worst-Case Scenario: Hitting near a hardware launch can be bad, too, and Dark Kingdom could get lumped into the first-pass launch titles that are yet to take full advantage of the new hardware.

This week we spent some quality time with Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom for the PS3, running fresh off a PS3 dev kit. And we are happy to report that this action-RPG is miles ahead of where it was the last time we saw it.

Dark Kingdom uses a proprietary engine on the PS3 that also integrates Havoc physics, and together, they are looking very good. I was instantly taken by the lush presentation and detail in Dark Kingdom, even compared to some of the PS3 games on display at E3. Where previous UL games were not exactly known for graphical dominance, Dark Legends is a huge step up for the SOE franchise.

Like UL2, there will again be three playable characters -- Warrior, Scout, and Mage -- though we'll only be talking about one today: the Warrior.

As you'd expect, the Warrior is of the giant hammer-wielding type. His strength is his biggest asset as he can swing the biggest and most damaging weapons. Of course, with strength comes limitation; he'll be a bit slow on his feet, but nailing down attack combos will help in eliminating enemies at a quicker pace. The Warrior has the ability to build up combo attacks; he'll need to level up and acquire specific attacks that are extremely powerful and worthwhile. For example, we were shown one special ability where the Warrior slams his hammer into the ground, creating a protruding trail of fire. Hot stuff.

In regard to the physics, Havoc enables the game to go deeper with its environmental puzzles than the previous two UL games. There are more objects (barrels, crates, and boulders) to interact with and many more puzzles to complete. In the demo, the Warrior had to roll a giant boulder down a hill to break through a locked gate. These are just tip of the obstacles you can expect in Dark Kingdom.


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