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Untold Legends filled the RPG slot at the launch of the PSP, but despite strong sales it wasn’t everything it could have been. It opted for simplicity over the more traditional complex gameplay found within an RPG, and this led a rather repetitive game – hacking and slashing being the order of the day. Untold Legends: The Warrior’s Code looks to capitalise on the success of first game, but rather than reinventing the wheel developers SOE have simply expanded their offering.
The story in the first game played second fiddle to the action, and some effort has been made to make it more important this time around. It’s still not hugely original though, with an evil demon taking control of the kingdom thanks to his army of minions. As ever, there are a group of rebels who won’t go down without a fight – in this case, the changelings – and you are one of them. The evil emperor sets out to defeat all those that challenge his throne, and thereby the game’s plot is set up.
Players of Brotherhood of the Blade will feel instantly at home, as things really haven’t changed all that much. The biggest change comes from the visuals, with characters looking almost like caricatures of characters seen in every RPG since the dawn of time. You’re given the choice of five characters, with the usual Warrior, Mage, Ranger, and the like on offer. Some basic character customisation is also possible, but don’t expect to spend hours creating your image in Warrior form. It’s simple at best, but much more detail would have been worthless given the overhead camera view.
Changes to combat are few, but still significant. The new ‘charge attack’ (performed by holding down the ‘X’ button) lets you perform a more powerful attack, and the new ‘attack of opportunity’ lets you do something similar, but this time when enemies drop their guard. As with any RPG, there are numerous screens that let you sort out equipment, plus a way to choose which special abilities you wish to acquire. It’s standard stuff, and works as you’d expect.
Being a changeling, you can transform into a beast when your essence meter is full. This is replenished by collecting the essence of fallen enemies, and considering that you’re never more than a few seconds from the next battle, it’s not a hard thing to do. Despite the new additions to the combat system that I mentioned above, the majority of your time is spent simply hammering ‘X’ until you’re victorious, and when you become the near invincible beast, things become easier still. A thinking man’s RPG this is not.
Although a new game, it’s only really in the multiplayer options that it does anything all that different to the original game. Untold Legends was best when played with friends in co-op, and to make this all the easier Warrior’s Code features online co-op play; up to four players can join together using either the online Infrastructure mode or the local ad-hoc wireless mode. A number of competitive modes are also included, such as Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, but the combat isn’t in-depth enough to make these modes much more than token gestures.
A rather zoomed in camera is still used, but the game looks impressive, especially when the screen is filled with special effects that illuminate the environment. While your character remains silent, others feature some so-so voice acting, and the whole game is played to some genre standard orchestral music, which is neither terrible nor breathtaking. Item screens feature plenty of text, but it’s presented well, and all the menus are easy to navigate.
Untold Legends: The Warrior’s Code seems like rather a safe move from SOE. The PSP is still waiting for a standout RPG, and rather than trying to stake a claim for that iconic position, the game treads the same, rather repetitive, path. The new online mode makes multiplayer gaming all the easier and gives players a greater chance of playing the game in the best way possible, but other than that it feels like a slightly tweaked, albeit newly clothed and well polished, version of the first game.
