::: SYNOPSIS
::: GALLERY
::: TRAILER
::: PRESS
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Pandora's Box Opens in '08
What happens when you shoot a Gryphon with a machinegun? He gets really pissed off.
July 6, 2007 - Charles Deckard is a thief and a good one at that. He doesn't ask questions of his clients; what they want, he steals. But Deckard is a curious fellow and when he's tasked with stealing an ornate box from a New York museum, he can't resist taking a peek inside. They say curiosity killed the cat; this time it may just kill all of humanity. Turns out, Deckard opened Pandora's Box, creating a portal that brings a flood of mythological creatures into New York. By the time Deckard escapes the cracked and crumbling museum, the streets of Manhattan are in total chaos. This is how Gamecock's newest title, Legendary: The Box, begins.
The mythological creatures want to take back the world that was once theirs. The awe-inspiring introduction to The Box makes it seem that won't be too tough a task. A red beam emanating from The Box has ripped through the museum and blasts into the sky. As creatures begin flooding Manhattan, the street splits open. Skyscrapers fall. A flock of gryphons soars overhead, backlit against the midday sun. Deckard spots a cop, a sight for sore eyes, even for a criminal. Then a gryphon descends, picks up the cop car in its talons and carries it off as if it were nothing. A man stumbles past a stunned Deckard begging for help. A gryphon swoops down from the New York skyline and bites him in half. Fireballs rain down, obliterating cars and killing hundreds of fleeing pedestrians. It's the end of the world. And then things get worse.
New York is invaded in the opening scene.A Titan Class Golem emerges in the middle of the street. This ancient creature is constructed from the building blocks of the time. In modern day, this formidable beast is made up of asphalt and girders and rebar. It's a fearsome sight to behold. And that's just the intro level.
Developed by Spark Unlimited, Legendary: The Box may have an awful name, but it has an awesome premise. Deckard was duped into stealing and opening Pandora's Box by a mysterious man named LeFey. This evil figure runs the Black Order, a cult of insane mercenaries bent on ruling the world. LeFey hopes to use Pandora's Box to control the creatures it has released and use them to rule the world. Until LeFey gains hold of The Box, the creatures will run wild. And once LeFey does get hold of The Box, those same creatures will run wild, but with a purpose. The only one who can save the world is Charles Deckard.
When Deckard opened The Box, he was branded with a signet on his hand. The signet allows Deckard to draw in animus from the mythological creatures he kills. This is more or less a siphon of health. So once Deckard is armed with a gun and starts killing these mythological beasts, he can hold out his hand and suck in the animus from the dead. It's similar to Onimusha, though the animus appears more crucial to your survival. The dark creatures invading New York can quickly make mincemeat of any human, so healing regularly is going to be key if Deckard has any hopes of saving mankind.
Werewolves in their youth.The creatures aren't the only thing Deckard must worry about. In order to save the world, Deckard and a group of resistance fighters must take on LeFey and his Black Order. This turns many firefights into three-way battles. The creatures are, well, creatures, and want to kill all humans. LeFey doesn't have control of them yet, which means they are freelancers. In a full-on battle, they will attack any human they see. They could care less if they are from the resistance or the Black Order.
The Black Order is a different matter. They want Deckard and the resistance out of the way, but their AI is programmed so that they can intelligently assess a situation and act appropriately. If you have numbers and there are just a couple of werewolves around, the Black Order will focus on the human enemies. But if an Alpha wolf shows, that means trouble for everyone. Gamers will quickly learn that Alphas are tough sons o' bitches. Your choice is either to fight alongside the Black Order for a brief time or draw the Alpha's attention towards your enemies.
Missions are fairly linear. Generally you are led through some enclosed paths featuring minor skirmishes before ending up in an arena battle. This may be the perfect set-up for a game like Legendary: The Box. The corridor moments are a good way to mix in some survival horror elements, while the arena elements feature long, intense firefights. In Episode 5 (of 8), Deckard and crew are storming LeFey's base. You end up in a large, cathedral-like room. The Black Order are coming at you from above and below, making for a tough shootout. Then, just when you think you might have everything under control, a wolf is spotted crawling in through a window. All hell is about to break loose. Good thing you brought extra ammo.
Fire bad!The werewolves in Legendary are long and slender and capable of crawling along walls and ceilings. Seeing a few scurrying along walls while you're engaged with another enemy is both creepy and nerve-racking. Because the wolves are so quick and powerful, you have to keep track of them at all times during a fight. This means that you can't spend long looking through a scope, because you lose your peripheral view. So it's difficult to camp and snipe your way through an arena battle. And these wolves are pretty smart, avoiding the line of fire and attempting to flank their prey.
Werewolves can take a decent amount of punishment, but unless you blow off their heads, they will heal. You can break its arms or legs with enough concentrated gunfire (you'll even see the exposed muscles as you shred them with bullets), but wait long enough and they will heal. If blowing off heads isn't your thing (and you have impeccable aim) you can set werewolves on fire with the well-placed throw of a Molotov cocktail. As the wolf burns, it will thrash about frantically hoping to somehow put itself out. That's when you lower the boom with your shotgun. But the standard Beta wolves are pushovers compared to the Alpha. These strong, white nemeses are relentless killers. Even the other creatures take note when they arrive on scene.
You will get to see the brutality of the Alphas up close. Your AI allies are just a bunch of Red Shirts meant to be slaughtered. After all, they can't suck up animus and heal themselves. Their only destiny is a gruesome death. And you will get to enjoy their cries as they are ripped limb from limb in the midst of a chaotic battle. It's a new food chain and man's no longer at the top.
As if the appearance of two alphas during this insane battle isn't enough, there's a powerful cinematic moment that occurs halfway through the firefight. As you cross a bridge, a gryphon smashes through the stained glass window, is shot to hell, and then crashes into the bridge. The burning bird attempts to crawl its way along the bridge as it crumbles. Pretty thrilling stuff.
Burn, gryphon, burn!The AI is surprisingly sophisticated for a horror shooter. Each creature has several levels of rage, which determines its actions. A werewolf that you stumble across outside of a fight will be at its lowest rage level. It won't directly engage an enemy in this stage - it's just not pissed off enough to want to bother with you. It still wants you dead, though, but prefers to strike from afar, often tossing bricks and other heavy objects in an attempt to weaken or even crush its foe. Start shooting at it, get in a few hits, and its rage will increase. It will still stay back, but will leap out for quick melee strikes as well, almost as if to try and scare you off. Give the wolf enough problems and it will finally get enraged and come at you directly. That is not a pleasant experience.
In close combat, werewolves will take quick swipes at you. But if one leaps at you, you will become engaged in a dangerous mini-game. A quick series of button presses are required if you hope to survive. Match the buttons and you will be rewarded with a brutal close-range headshot that explodes the wolf's head, sending pieces flying every which way. Fail and, well, you'll have a lot more in common with Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother than you might like.
Though a game like The Box seems primed for several boss battles, that isn't really in Spark's design plan. Rather than engineering a bunch of boss fights, Spark is instead creating special "showcase moments" to highlight the different creatures. One such moment is a battle against some gryphons. As the scene begins, a gryphon is in a courtyard, with Deckard in an adjacent covered walkway, protected by a number of large pillars. The gryphon begins smashing into the pillars, thanks to an AI understanding of how to interact with objects. The AI is smart enough to know that it can destroy certain pieces of the environment (or use them as weapons). So rather than being pre-scripted, the gryphon is merely acting according to its own intelligence. The scene itself is somewhat like a bird trying to break out of its cage to eat its owner.
Werewolves are agile and smart.The gryphon is later distracted by an assault helicopter. You are given a moment of relief as the gryphon launches into the air and attacks the helicopter, bringing it down in a fiery explosion. Later on in that same area, you'll need to figure out a way to kill a gryphon without much firepower. That's when you start using the environment to kill or even trap your enemies. Shoot a spire jutting out of a nearby building and you can send it toppling down on an unsuspecting gryphon.
To help you become a better killer, you'll have access to roughly a dozen weapons throughout your adventure. As with most first-person shooters these days, you can carry two weapons at any time along with an explosive. We only witnessed the shotgun, assault rifle, the axe, and the unbelievably cool SAW (aka the big machinegun). The weapons you choose will make a difference. You may want the SAW in a wolf fight, since you can spread fire easily and it's powerful enough to knock a werewolf back. But you should have a shotty as backup, because up close werewolves move far too fast for the slow-aiming SAW. Without your boom stick, you will likely be puppy chow.
The gryphon is tough enough to take shots from the SAW.Spark Unlimited has about a dozen different enemy types, but was only ready to focus on the gryphon and werewolf for E3. What we saw was pretty exciting. Of the numerous titles freshman publisher Gamecock has shown, Legendary: The Box looks the most promising. And yes, the will be multiplayer. But Spark isn't ready to discuss it anytime soon. For now, we'll just have to settle for our tantalizing peek into The Box. With its interesting three-way battles and epic feel, Legendary: The Box is one to watch out for. Expect it on PC and next-gen consoles in spring 2008.
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