Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
Boxman is real. Witness the first details of the Untold Legends franchise's hop to PS3.
Published: March 15, 2006
The biggest thing the PS3 has been hurting for so far (beyond a lack of complete retardation when it comes to the smallest rumor getting turned into an online frenzy) is games. Software. The Goods. Money. Druthers. Well, now you've got it, in the form of a game that will appear just seven months and change from now. Behold: Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom.
If that name sounds familiar, don't throw yourself off a building for fear that you'll never learn the origins; it's a PSP game. Particularly, a PSP franchise that's getting a new entry very, very soon. So yes, that means Sony Online is quite intent at bringing this franchise to the PS3, and Dark Kingdom, with it's utter lack of real concrete details is it.
But then that's where we come in. After picking through the goods at SOE's event here in San Francisco last week, we were treated to a video presentation of the action. At it we saw... well, video. Early video, we might add, of the game that will be readied for launch time. The development team was eager to point out some of the game's biggest technical offerings, namely "up to" 1080p support and 7.1 sound, which of course means you need to save about 10 grand up by November to properly appreciate the game.
The game itself centers around a story written by Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons scribe Keith Baker in which a king, a man slowly being turned by darkness, sends the main character -- either a magic-wielding mage, a lither scout, or the meathead brute (seen in all the screens you've no doubt already clicked on) -- out into the wilderness to take on a barbarian uprising.
Once quelled, though, returning home reveals an entirely different diffirent picture: the king you once served faithfully has indeed fallen to madness, torturing and slaughtering innocents throughout the kingdom. Clearly, this will not do, and it is your cause to misbehave. You'll do this through a branching melee tree that is, well, one more button complex than the stuff you could do on the PSP versions. The inclusion of two (four if you cound the L3/R3) buttons means there's more freedom to map things to the shoulders and analog sticks, and this means you can mix up heavy and fast melee attacks for more variety in how you cave in the face of that guy what clearly dissed yo momma. Or grunted.
The physics, in a wise turn, are all Havok-based, for those that know what it means. If you don't, fear not; it means things crumple and bounce and fly around real good when you crush, slam and punch them into the great beyond. This is a good thing, of course, since it means physics-based puzzles (none of which we saw) and environmental interaction that extends beyond barrels that shatter to objects and -- more importantly -- enemies, that you can pick up and hurl at things (we're hoping for a nearby wall, but that isn't especially strategic) to puzzles that require hurling. Yes, we're excited.
Considering SOE's now-obvious involvement in the PlayStation 3's online infrastructure, it would be stupid not to launch with an online component, and Dark Kingdom happily sports online co-op, and, if we had to bet money, we'd guess some form of multiplayer as well. After all, what good is online play if you can't use it to beat and insult people you don't know. That latter part certainly isn't official... yet.
To be perfectly honest, Dark Kingdom looked early. Real damn early, and everyone afterwards that chatted about the game gave the same basic response: "well, it's pretty new, maybe it'll get better." The physics, water deformation and overall graphical polish of the game just weren't there. It may have been a little too soon to show the game, but it does show promise. If KOEI can pump out a good eight or nine hack-and-slashers for the PS2, and Snowblind Studios can make a living off the genre, Sony Online Entertainment certainly has the resources to make good on the premise.
We'll have more on Dark Kingdom come E3 time.
If that name sounds familiar, don't throw yourself off a building for fear that you'll never learn the origins; it's a PSP game. Particularly, a PSP franchise that's getting a new entry very, very soon. So yes, that means Sony Online is quite intent at bringing this franchise to the PS3, and Dark Kingdom, with it's utter lack of real concrete details is it.
But then that's where we come in. After picking through the goods at SOE's event here in San Francisco last week, we were treated to a video presentation of the action. At it we saw... well, video. Early video, we might add, of the game that will be readied for launch time. The development team was eager to point out some of the game's biggest technical offerings, namely "up to" 1080p support and 7.1 sound, which of course means you need to save about 10 grand up by November to properly appreciate the game.
The game itself centers around a story written by Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons scribe Keith Baker in which a king, a man slowly being turned by darkness, sends the main character -- either a magic-wielding mage, a lither scout, or the meathead brute (seen in all the screens you've no doubt already clicked on) -- out into the wilderness to take on a barbarian uprising.
Once quelled, though, returning home reveals an entirely different diffirent picture: the king you once served faithfully has indeed fallen to madness, torturing and slaughtering innocents throughout the kingdom. Clearly, this will not do, and it is your cause to misbehave. You'll do this through a branching melee tree that is, well, one more button complex than the stuff you could do on the PSP versions. The inclusion of two (four if you cound the L3/R3) buttons means there's more freedom to map things to the shoulders and analog sticks, and this means you can mix up heavy and fast melee attacks for more variety in how you cave in the face of that guy what clearly dissed yo momma. Or grunted.
The physics, in a wise turn, are all Havok-based, for those that know what it means. If you don't, fear not; it means things crumple and bounce and fly around real good when you crush, slam and punch them into the great beyond. This is a good thing, of course, since it means physics-based puzzles (none of which we saw) and environmental interaction that extends beyond barrels that shatter to objects and -- more importantly -- enemies, that you can pick up and hurl at things (we're hoping for a nearby wall, but that isn't especially strategic) to puzzles that require hurling. Yes, we're excited.
Considering SOE's now-obvious involvement in the PlayStation 3's online infrastructure, it would be stupid not to launch with an online component, and Dark Kingdom happily sports online co-op, and, if we had to bet money, we'd guess some form of multiplayer as well. After all, what good is online play if you can't use it to beat and insult people you don't know. That latter part certainly isn't official... yet.
To be perfectly honest, Dark Kingdom looked early. Real damn early, and everyone afterwards that chatted about the game gave the same basic response: "well, it's pretty new, maybe it'll get better." The physics, water deformation and overall graphical polish of the game just weren't there. It may have been a little too soon to show the game, but it does show promise. If KOEI can pump out a good eight or nine hack-and-slashers for the PS2, and Snowblind Studios can make a living off the genre, Sony Online Entertainment certainly has the resources to make good on the premise.
We'll have more on Dark Kingdom come E3 time.