Black Legend, by publisher/developer Warcave, takes place in a semi-fantastical alternate history of our world in the 17th Century. The concept feels something like Dark reimagined as a turn-based strategy game. No, there are not any gigantic demons squishing you in the first 10 minutes, but there is a variety of grim-looking enemies that will make you regret taking them head on.
We enter the city of Grant as a mercenary, and we are told that the ongoing wars has left the city in a precarious situation. A cult formed around an alchemist named Mephisto, who saved the city from foreign invaders by creating a fog and distributing an antidote to his followers. Mephisto mysteriously left, and now his cult rules the street. Grant traded one occupation for another, but the fog remains and people are still dying. The king’s solution is to provide a pardon to war criminals if they help fight the cultists. All those who came before us did not survive, so we have an uphill battle.
Our initial goal is to find a man named Johan, who appears to be the head of a Merchant Guild, and he is the only one who has curbed the Mephistite ambitions by trading with them. The time has come to take Grant back, but the Guild needs help. The local merchants and artisans are willing to trade their wares with you, provide your mercenaries shelter, and to offer work. Along the way, we can find more characters who can join our cause or might be willing to offer quests.
Combat is where the game tries to shine in all this fog. When you enter an enemies’ field of view, you will enter a deployment mode. Since you need to be within the enemy’s sight, you can try to maneuver to the most advantageous starting position for the battle. The order of events is determined by initiative, and sometimes you will just not be lucky at all when it comes to turn order. You can use skills, as prescribed by the character class, as well as consumables like a throwing knife or a health potion. Flanking and backstabbing are optimal for dealing damage, while ranged attacks always deal a consistent damage, as though hitting the front.
The combat also uses a system to maximize damage, and it involves alchemy. We take advantage of certain humors to deal as much damage in one turn as possible. In the tutorial, we throw a knife at an opponent and a strike. Some combinations do not work together, as indicated by the humors. This is kind of cool when you finally get it to work. The alternative is doing minimal output, such as 10 points of damage per turn because you only have one attack. Do not underestimate your opponents, because you never know when you are going to encounter a mob who will have higher initiative, health, and damage output than you. My team got wiped out by a bunch of dogs at the docks, for example. I thought it would be easy. Whoopsie!
There is some character design to this game. You create your avatar in the beginning, and you have three other mercs in your roster. The tutorial advisor also joins us as well. You can customize your crew with their gear, but you can also choose which class they belong to. Skills are mostly learned like how Morrowind does it; you learn skills by using them. Black Legend offers a unique chance to cross-train your units and to come up with interesting strategies. Switching between classes is as simple as entering the party menu and selecting what you prefer.
The environments are divided into sections of the city, like the Merchant’s Guild and the Docks. Similar to Dark Souls, areas are divided by obstacles that deliberately place you in harm’s way. This can come in the form of locked gates and debris. Sometimes there is wonkiness to the environment, like enemies having strange path finding combined with clipping. I also have a feeling that the camera works better on PC, when compared to console. The controls feel a little stiff, which makes navigating a battlefield a little cumbersome. It is terrible using up an action point to accidentally move one tile away from where you wanted to go. Nothing is worse than ending your turn and accidentally turning your character away from the enemy. There is also no real consequence to bordering a combatant on an adjacent tile. I think enemies and squadmates should either be locked in place or receive potential damage for trying to move when so close to an enemy. Enemies can just walk around you and backstab you, it is kind of ridiculous.
Overall, Black Legend is decent but has some flaws. I really like the ideas behind the combat system, regarding humors and unit placement, but it is undermined by the free movement of player and enemy units. I like the mercenary classes and the ability to switch between them. I think it can get a little confusing, as I am still trying to find the advantages of dual classes. The soundtrack and sound effects are good, but there is something lacking in the voice acting. Everyone has the same monotone, tired, crestfallen, voice. The story is there, but the exposition from the beginning is the summary for the most of it.
I think a fair rating for this title is a 7.5 out of 10. The concepts are good, but my impression is that the gameplay only gets better over time like a fine wine.
Check Out the Black Legend Gameplay Trailer:
Black Legend is available for Steam, GOG, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, and through backwards compatibility for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Black Legend is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, and Korean.
Find out more about Black Legend on www.blacklegendgame.com
Xbox One Review
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
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