The most impressive aspect of UL is the audio-visual presentation throughout the game, though the in-game graphics do fall behind in spots. I was honestly taken aback during my early play when I realized that directional sound and effects were pouring out around me through my surround sound system. When connected to an A/V receiver (more specifically, a 700 watt 5.1 DTS system w/ HDMI like mine), the game delivers believable directional effects, ambience, crashing swings of the sword and overall beefy sound through all the channels.
The visual presentation drags the game down a bit and can easily take you out of the experience every once in a while. Its hard to make your mind up on the graphics when you’re looking at the nice motion effects and the haze coming off of a launched magical attack, while at the next breath complaining about the in-game cutscenes. Also, sometimes the camera does drift upward and obscure your view, but the manual controls keep the eye in the sky in check for the most part. The overall graphics are worlds apart from most any PS2 game and the number of enemies onscreen at once is impressive. Expect a few hiccups from here and there, but definitely nothing enough to take you out of the game.
Toiling in war in the name of your far away kingdom, your character in Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom is part of the King’s elite circle of warriors specially trained to drain the “essence” from your fallen foes. During a campaign deep into barbarian territory, your character learns that things are not all well at home and the plot thickens quickly from there. The story is a good draw and pans out nicely in the duration.
Since your character is a barbarian smacking hot shot, the game offers a wide variety of combos, magical attacks and grapple-based enemy throws, but often you can get by with some of the elementary combos you learn. There are many moves you can unlock as you play and slay, including magical projectile strikes and more expert swings of your weapon. The fighting system does allow for a degree of personalization. You can assign improvements to your character’s magical attacks if you hope to have a wily mage, or beef up on strength and combos to create a hulking monster.
Of course, the three different character types selectable in the game will help you create the type of hero you’re best suited for. The Scout is more fleet of foot and able to get her attacks in more quickly, while the Warrior can dish out damage in large, slow chunks. The Mage does have stronger magic attacks, but he’s also available to move in for some close combat with his staff. It’s worth mentioning that you could go through the entire game with the Mage using no magic attacks (defeating the purpose for different character classes), but the difficulty required definitely isn’t worth the trouble.
On the combat front, veteran players should definitely move up to the three and four star difficulty levels, because the first two are meant for noobs. There are a lot of foes to mow through in this game and it’s very easy to get surrounded quickly as the game goes on. Puzzles throughout the game are nice little diversions from the large-scale massacres, but some will take several bouts of trial and error to pass. For those spelunking fans in the audience, there’s one particular level has you stealing crystals and running from a giant rolling stone that chases you through a tight corridor. If you think this sounds suspiciously like Indiana Jones, it does have that same fun feel,but it’s very hard. Be prepared to die in the caverns on high difficulty – a lot.
Overall, I would say give the game a shot. You could probably find it for a discounted price at this point, and the game’s story is interesting enough to keep you going. It won’t knock your socks off with technical mastery, the 17 hours it took to complete were mostly satisfying. Don’t miss this latest installment in the Dark Kingdom series if you’re deep into the action-RPG genre.
Overall: 6.5 – Average