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Untold Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade represents part of Sony’s
first-party launch schedule for the PlayStation Portable. As Sony Online
Entertainment’s first PSP offering a lot of eyes will be cast upon the latest title
from the team responsible for the Everquest franchise.
Untold Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade may not be on the top of many
gamer’s lists for their launch-day purchase, but the heritage of the title cannot
easily be ignored. The game follows the patterns of many traditional RPGs viewed from a
top-down position; you begin by building a character, with four classes to choose from,
and enter a pre-determined world which you are already playing a part in. A rapidly
expanding and engrossing story of betrayal and violence follows as you are summoned as a
Guardian for the City of Aven.
The gameplay, as said above, follows the traditions of the likes of Baldur’s
Gate. Equipping your character with the best equipment you can find followed by
routinely hacking-and-slashing your way through tunnels crawling with hell-bound beasts
hounding for your blood is rather rewarding. The maps are cleverly designed – each
compelling you to wander down that corridor you know is a dead-end, just in case
there’s a treasure chest containing a fantastic new blade or that Cold Resistance
Item you’ve been searching for since you bought your new boots. Whilst this may sound
strikingly familiar  to fans of the genre, its beauty is in its
simplicity. Gone are heavy statistical body-armourments and comparing a weapons velocity
to it’s weight; Untold Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade merely requires you
decide between a single-handed weapon or double-handed, to make sure you’ve enough
room left to pick up that Halberd the felled Skeleton just dropped or to select an upgrade
for either your Fire Magic or Acid Power. While the first two or three dungeons will see
you meeting your gruesome demise at regular intervals, once a little experience has been
gained Untold Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade becomes a pleasing and brutal
hack-‘n’-slash adventure.
The title’s graphics are certainly commendable. Running at a nicely
high-resolution the dauntingly-large PSP screen displays crisp and clean visuals of both
characters and scenery. While minimal textures are evident (leading a lot of levels to
appear as re-mapped versions of those previously played) and the irritating pop-up plague
is present, the title’s lighting and special effects far outstrip anything
I’ve seen on the PlayStation2. The sound too is praiseworthy; with fire crackling and
subtle growls to be heard from the beasts looming down each corridor.
Whilst the title may seem a little uninvolving to those
familiar with every twist and turn of the top-down-RPG genre, and a little uninviting to
those not yet acquainted with the idea of slaying 426 trolls to get that little extra
experience so you can use your new Bow,
overlooking Untold Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade would be a very sorry mistake.
With the Wi-Fi multiplayer being akin to the Multiplayer Mode featured in Phantasy Star
Online: Episodes I&II on the GameCube – little more than an item-grabbing
enemy masher, but no less than an enthralling four-hours-in-ten-minutes evening of Halo
2 on XboxLIVE! – and an extensive single player adventure which remains
compelling throughout, Untold Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade is playing
it’s part in carving the way for future PlayStation Portable software development
– a perfectly bite-size rendition of an often misrepresented genre.
 
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