Legendary first look

Every now and again a game is released that changes something or sets a new benchmark. Halo, Gears of War and Bioshock to name just three. It’s quite possible that Legendary could well end up on that list.

The game begins in Ney York City with Charles Deckard, a well-trained thief, finding and stealing a box. He has been hired by a scientist to steal certain objects. Here, “Pandora’s Box” is opened, and a whole host of mythical creatures are released. It’s now up to Charles, who has given society nothing, to resolve this crisis. The only person who can make a new box and seal the mythical creatures back up is the person who opened the box.

I won’t spoil things too much for you, but Legendary is set in New York City, London and Durham in the north of England, not Durham in America! Along your travels you’ll meet two secret factions. “The Council of 98”, the good guys, and “The Black Order”, the bad guys! Both have their own aims and motives.

But that’s enough about the story, now onto how it’s all coming together. Last week we attended a presentation by Atari giving us a first look at the game. Technology videos were the first order of the day before we saw the game proper. An early tech video showed a flaming barrel being rolled down a ramp into a few hay bales. One of the bales slowly catches fire, which then slowly spreads to the other bails, just how you’d expect fire to act. Impressive stuff and if it works well in the game, it’ll be even more impressive.

No place to hide

The following presentation, featuring videos and discussion then laid out the game itself in more detail. Take for example the werewolves, they use the surroundings intelligently and to their advantage, bouncing off and between objects, using the shadows and creating the ability to strike from anywhere. Shooting on the beasts will take off skin, showing the muscle structure underneath. Craig Allen, the CEO of Spar, explained in many games simply hiding behind walls would give you a rest from all the action. Not so in Legendary. The creatures will hunt you down and kill you. They act and behave like predators making their actions very unpredictable. The live demo in front of us not only confirmed what we had been told, it was quite simply jaw dropping at times.

The first demonstration was set in Durham. And while not yet the finished article, the Durham demo looked simply brilliant and could have been the polished retail product. The destructible environment worked really well. Walls were smashed with debris flying everywhere, the animations and lighting worked well, and the graphics were what you expect from next-gen without a doubt.

We saw plenty of werewolves in this live demo. I won’t spoil the story for you, but there were other characters in the setting. Out of nowhere a werewolf blasts through a door taking out one of the guys in front of you. A nice example of the hunting instincts these creatures have.

Bull in a China shop

But to just emphasize the point, at one point we were looking out into the street where we watched the hunting instincts, intelligence and behaviour of these creatures unfold. We saw a werewolf climbing up the building opposite using absolutely no effort and at extreme speed. It finally stopped and began to break through the walls and windows, trying to reach its prey. We also got to see the damage bullets cause to these beasts, with skin being shot off and the muscles underneath being exposed. It all looked very high-quality.

Watching the creatures hunt was impressive - as I've already mentioned, hiding isn't going to keep you safe. In what appeared to be the grounds of Durham cathedral, the player avatar was chased by a Minotaur – a part bull part man beast. Now after a while of going round in circles it appeared that the Minotaur had stopped chasing. Not so, instead it decided to go straight through the walls to get to its prey. Scary stuff when you think about it. You now have nowhere to hide, constantly on the lookout just in case you’re being stalked by something. This can only be a good thing in a game! (not if you're an abject coward like me -Ed.)

Destruction on a grand scale

The second demonstration was very impressive though clearly less complete at this time than the Durham section. Here we got a chance to see the urban landscape in a New York section. One thing that did come across well in the city environment was the way the destruction occurs. Roads break up in a natural fashion – just as you would expect if an earthquake had just hit. Pillars and walls of buildings fall naturally too. The physics engine in Legendary is simply brilliant, some of the best I have seen to date.

It’s safe to say that there is still some work to be done, but there is a lot of development time left. The physics and AI are brilliant. Intelligence was a word that came up a lot during the presentation, and I think it’s a word that deserves to be used in conjunction with this game. The AI does act intelligently, like it should. The bad guys hunt you down for god’s sake! I saw a beast smash through thick stone walls to get to the player, instead of it wasting energy running around after him. How often do you see that in a game?

The early signs are good, Of course we haven't actually got our hands on the joypad yet, but we're now itching to do so. Legendary shows the promise of an award-winning title. Only time will tell, but the signs are good so far.

Legendary is set for release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC this summer.