Legendary Champions is a free to play MMO that has recently been put out by Aeria games, the same company who is behind Last Chaos, Shailya, and the new browser game DDTank, they normally stick to free to play games with optional paid features, but unlike most games where you have to pay for these items to really get anyplace, with Legendary Champions you can do quite well without even dropping a dime in. I was first introduced to the company’s games due to a random internet search back when Last Chaos was still new, though I strayed from the game after about six months of playing, so when I saw advertisements for Legendary Champions, needless to say the improvement in graphics alone grabbed my attention, so I decided to check it out, and here’s what I thought.
Character customization:
Most free to play MMOs lack much of anything in ways of character creation, it’s just a fact of gaming life, though I must say that Legendary champions did offer a decent amount of customization in regards to character appearance. All classes are able to be either gender, though the amount of hairstyles to choose from is lacking, it’s not as lacking as most free MMOs and it does allow you a wide choice when it comes to coloration of the hair. They have a few face types to choose from so not everyone looks the same, sadly there is no skin tone choice, but it’s a free game, it’s kind of expected to not have full customization.
Though the character creation section could be improved, it’s enough to give you some selection, and lets face it, if you’re playing a free to play MMO then sometimes you get what you pay for, in legendary Champions you get a bit more, so all and all I would give it a 7 out of 10 when it comes to character customization. It’s a bit above what you’d expect of a free game, but not enough to completely floor you.
Graphics:
Being that the last game I played by the company was Last Chaos, I must say they have improved in the graphics section quite a bit. The terrain is pretty good, you can still tell the leaves on the trees are just graphics on a surface, but that’s to be expected, every game does it, otherwise most home computers wouldn’t be able to do the real-time rendering client side. The character models are rather good, in my opinion the character models here are better than the ones in WoW, they’re rounded pretty properly for a game, proportionate, the animations fit the models and, overall, the graphics are not what you would expect from a free game, they are much better.
The creature models look a little flat texture wise but you aren’t paying a lot of attention to that when you’re beating the snot out of something. For a free to play game, they put some work into the graphics, it’s not top of the line but it is very good when compared to the normally, sort of blocky graphics of many free games. They certainly did well in capturing the mood of the game, the graphics and locations fit well in a surreal sort of way. Overall, the graphics are a 7 out of 10, sure, companies are capable of much more impressive graphics, but for a free to play game, the graphics are certainly above average.
Soundtrack:
The soundtrack of the game surprised me quite a bit, when you’re fighting, the music gets heavier, and it is definitely rock, rock in an MMO based on the stuff of legend, you would think it wouldn’t fit, but surprisingly it does, and very well at that. They use individual situations to cue the music, going from calm when out of combat and merging near seamlessly into heavier, more rock styled music when in combat. I think I had to pick my jaw up off the ground when I heard that. Yes, I have seem games use such soundtrack tricks before, but they normally weren’t games based on legends. The music contrasts the setting, but it contrasts in a way that compliments the game, very, very well done on that aspect.
Overall, I have to give the soundtrack a 9 out of 10, it doesn’t quite hit epic, but it does do very, very well, both contrasting the scene and oddly setting it at the same time.
Game play:
The game play is where it fell short a little. While they do have the champion game mechanic, where you can turn into the champion of your choice for a short time to really plow through enemies, it didn’t really bring any other new mechanics to the table. There are the instance quests where you take control of someone like Lancelot, or Jean de Arc and you are able to temporarily transform into a stronger champion of your choice for a short time, but besides that the game play is really the same as any other MMO. This being said, however, the game play is also rather solo-player friendly. The enemy designs are good, the mix of some agro enemies among passive enemies keeps you on your toes, it’s about on par with more retail MMOs. I would give game play a 6 out of 10, as it is pretty much the same stuff we’ve seen before in other games, even though they did add one game dynamic. It does hold potential though, if they decide to expand on it.
Overall:
Legendary Champions is, overall, a pretty good game. If you don’t have the money or don’t want the headache needed for a monthly subscription fee, then it is certainly something worth looking into, overall the game ranks at 7.25 out of 10, at least in my opinion, which is higher than I’d rank some paid MMOs, so if you’re looking for a free game to mess around with, Legendary Champions is certainly worth glancing over.
If you’re curious about it, look it up, it’s not too hard to find via a Google search.
No comments:
Post a Comment