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> Results: Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade
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Untold Legends comes from a lineage that includes Diablo II and Sacred on the PC and Champions of Norrath and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on consoles. If someone told me last year I could have ﾑhandheld Sacred' in a year, gorgeous graphics and all, I'd never have believed them. When Untold Legends was announced as a PSP launch title, I knew I wanted both the system and the game. How does this type of game translate to the PSP?
It's pretty much the same experience as on the PC. You run around the world following some bland and thinly plotted story killing things while looking for people with exclamation points over their head. They tell you to (a) kill something and return, (b) get something and return, or rarely (c) talk to someone. Mostly you do some combination of (a) and (b). The quests and the story are secondary to fighting, attaining new skills through leveling up and acquiring new equipment but the combat grows repetitive and the quests do not become more complex or interesting as you progress. Two of the best things about Untold Legends have to do with the PSP itselfﾗgraphics and controls. The graphics are beautiful. There are nicely rendered areas and monsters as well as pretty spell and combat effects. The controls are also excellent. Movement with the analog nub makes this the most playable action-RPG ever on a handheld. Another positive is that it takes over 20 hours to complete the single player quest.  However, everything else about Untold Legends is mediocre. The story is thin and bland, and you will often check your quests while having a hard time remembering which one is the main quest. The music and sound are lackluster and uninspired, with nothing memorable even right after turning off the PSP. The dungeons and areasﾗexcept for the main townﾗare randomly generated, in the hope of adding replayability through variation. Unfortunately, the result is boring areas that show a lack of design and often make little sense. You simply traverse the maze killing whatever is in your path until you reach the Boss or exit. Another complaint is the lack of direction. While it is clear from the world map that the locations of exits from an area make sense, there is no ﾑNorth', no sense of how to get to a given exit. To make matters worse, the mini-map is oriented differently each time you load an area. Speaking of load times, the last thing you want in a handheld game is to sit around watching load screens, but that is precisely what you do. From the time you start the game until you have loaded your last save takes you over two minutes. If you want to teleport back to town to sell off loot and return, that will take at least three minutes. Replayability also comes from using different characters and in multiplayer. There are four character typesﾗKnight, Berserker, Alchemist and Druid. While they don't get any different ﾑpath' through the game, they do get different equipment and skills and the combat is different for each. My main character was an Alchemist, basically a mage, but I also played as a Knight. However, the ﾑsameness' of the game, along with the mundane random dungeons, made it a chore to do more than just experience the combat differences for a few hours. As for co-operative play, I was able to quickly test the multiplayer mode in a two-person setting, and it worked very well, being easy to connect and get playing. I did little more than that, so I can't comment on how it extends to areas with heavy loads of enemies or tight constraints. But if you are looking for good co-operative action, you should check this out. Overall, Untold Legends is a pretty game for what it doesﾗprovide an action-packed hack-and-slash diversion in a handheld setting. It isn't remarkable in any way except for the controls, but it is enjoyable while fighting and leveling. If you are a fan of games like Sacred or Diablo, and already have a PSP, this is definitely worth renting. 
This game feels like a T-rated game. There is constant action and peril, and the level of violence is significant. Kids who have played console games like Champions of Norrath or Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance will have no problem with the feel and combat, and there is nothing inappropriate for them to see or hear.
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