Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade

I am a sucker for dungeon crawlers. The Dark Alliance and Champions of Norath games rank highly on my 'favorite games'? list so I have kept a keen eye on Untold Legends. I could not think of a better genre to help push me over the edge and pick up a PSP at launch. Now that the PSP is on retail shelves and the game is in my hands, I have to say I am satisfied with the purchase. However, while the game ultimately delivers on a number of levels, it does fall short in other areas that keep it from receiving a full recommendation.

As I mentioned, I am a sucker for this type of game so my tolerance for minor annoyances is much higher than others might be. I am able to look beyond the weak story, limited character classes, occasional graphical glitches and long load times. Why? Because the game is just damn fun to play. My wife has already instituted a 'no PSP in bed'? policy because of this game. I just cannot put it down and when a game has that type of effect on me, I feel it is worth the price of admission.

The thing that keeps me coming back for more is a well designed character advancement system. As your character advances in level, a skill tree expands allowing customization within the various classes. Some of the skills had minimal impact while others really made a difference. In addition, loot hounds will rejoice in the constant weapon and armor upgrades generated by the loot system. An easy augmentation system allows enhancements to be added to weapons and armor on the fly allowing you to add special abilities to that uber sword you just found,

Graphically, the game is fairly impressive. The zoomed out top-down view takes away from some of the finer details of the beasts however close examination reveals nicely detail monsters and environments. Sure, you will find the occasional seams in the environments but they didn't detract from the experience. Keeping in mind this is a launch title, I can't wait to see where things go from here.

At the end of the day, Untold Legends is a fun game that fills the action RPG genre adequately. I look forward to the next wave of titles in genre where developers may have more time to incorporate voice acting, more robust cities and more varied quests. Until then however, I'm content with the content Untold Legends has delivered for the PSP launch. Internet multiplayer would have been a blast, but instead we are limited to 4 player proximity games. One more item to add to the wish list for Untold Legends 2.