by Adam - April 13, 2005

Congratulations! You have proven that you are the top knight in the realm. You are responsible for guarding all the villagers and the queen. This is the scenario in which you are immersed in SOE's newest hack and slash RPG Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade.

Slice Your Way Through Adventure

Untold Legends is a great game for the PSP. A very solid hack and slash adventure that leaves the gamer with more action and combat than it tries to tie up in extensive and boring dialog. This is not to say that untold Legends is a very shallow game, in fact it's quite the opposite. When the game opens you learn that you are the newest champion guardian of the land; your job is to protect the queen. This leads you to taking care of the queen and her villagers.

You can choose different classes and appearances on your characters in the game. Originally it seems like most of the characters you meet seem rather flat but as time grows on and you complete more quests you will have charisma towards certain characters.

The game play in this RPG is really fun and easy to understand. A simple equip item screen lets you scroll through your inventory with ease. The controls on the PSP are pretty basic: two buttons for magic spells and the others for hacking and slashing. Your character has both power and health that will need to be replenished as you crawl from dungeon to dungeon. As you gain experience you eventually develop skills to heal yourself and attack enemies. Movement in the game is based off your analog stick and feels pretty easy to manipulate and control. There is a mini-map for each level which helps you to navigate foreign dungeons.

The Eye of the Beholder

This game is beautiful on the PSP. Environments are rendered beautifully and characters look colorful and very vivid. Initially when you select your character you get to choose their appearance. By letting you choose the hair type and color as well as the skin color it's possible for a lot of customization.

Different armor will change your character's appearance as well as elemental effects on weapons. The story is told through pictures and dialog so it's pretty easy to read and follow. The ability to change the camera angle to zoom in and out and rotate around the character is really convenient.

If there's one thing that is unimpressive about the graphics of this game is that bosses look like nothing more than giant versions of a certain type of enemy. On the plus side, enemy bosses have convenient health bars that help you plan your battle.

Clash of the Titans

In Untold Legends there is no spoken dialog so there is no voice customization for each character, which is a little disappointing for one of the biggest PSP release titles. The music however is pretty decent and does a good job of setting a scene. Cold beats when the player is venturing through dungeons helps add to the overall effect of the environment. Jingling noises are made as your character equips items and drops items. The skirmishes in this game are impressive sounding as you can hear when you hit and when you miss enemies. You can also hear the launches of arrows by archers as well as certain noises each monster makes.

It's best to listen to Untold Legends through the headphones that the PSP comes with so it doesn't sound too overbearing coming from the built-in speakers.

A Portable Adventure

This game is a blast to own and play. The single player mode is fun and challenging as you go around slaying all sorts of enemies and leveling up. Different advanced weapons, armor, and magic await you as you become more skilled in the game. This allows for customization of your equipment which will weigh down your character and effect abilities. Slaying enemies gains experience which you can use to improve your magic skills. The magic spells in this game are fantastic with fireballs, stone meteors, and attack dummies at your disposal, it's so easy to eliminate monsters. Runes and other magical items let you customize weapons and armor. Certain items add elemental effects such as fear, ice, and fire. This affects foes in combat which can be used to your advantage.

With many different quests you must complete and the exploration of many different dungeons this game is addictive and will last a good while. With a small learning curve this game is easy to pick up and become good at. Saving is also very important in this game as you explore each dungeon. You can not save during a boss battle so it's wise to always save before heading into unknown regions. The ability to go back and restart the game with your original character adds to the replay value greatly. This makes this a great game for the PSP because you can play quickly and not get tremendously bored. This game is the ultimate portable adventure as it takes a great time to complete.

Online Venturing

Untold Legends is a game with its finger on the pace of multi-player gamers . With a highly addictive online multi-player mode up to four players can band together and search through dungeons and kill monsters. The four players are strongly linked together; the ability to see your allies' health and power helps you to change strategy and be sure to back up your team. Adventuring with other players is great because as you collect items in multi-player mode you can take those items and use them in a single player game. When other players teleport you go right alongside with them, allowing you to stick together as a team so no one gets left behind.

As the players advance so does the AI which will respond with harder monsters and different tactics. With the capability to play this with any other PSP with another player within 120 feet it makes it convenient to play with friends in other rooms or in other parts of your building.

Save the Queen

There is a reason why Untold Legends is one of the hottest selling PSP games. A fun action packed portable adventure immerses gamers in a great RPG. With many quests which propel the storyline and an addictive combat system Untold Legends is a great game. This game gives players a lot of control. With easy controls and an easy to understand magic system this game is fun to pick up and jump right into the gameplay. The addictive multiplayer only adds to how much fun Untold Legends is. I strongly recommend this game for anyone who owns (or plans on owning) a PSP.