I have no nostalgia glasses when looking at this game just because it's the first time I play it. Despite being a huge fan of TBS and historical games (especially set in Antiquity) I never heard about it. It has a very special charm of Windows 3.x-era games. Interface is clean and pleasant to the eyes but newer generations of gamers can be frustrated by it a little. Graphics is nominal. Economy system is effective and not complicated. Diplomacy is rather wanting but it has its strategical meaning nevertheless. The principal fun of playing Legions is in the careful strategical planning of moving your units (there are 43 types (!) of them including camel riders and BURNING PIGS), and tactical planning before automated battles. I could give it 5 stars just for BURNING PIGS but it is a very charming strategy game as a whole, and old-school to the bone.
PRO - Unique gameplay on three levels (surface, underground, orbit) - Decent Sci-Fi plot - Three distinct factions, each with its own tactics - Fun and effective unit customization - Giant mechas fighting each other with catanas, buzzsaws, grenades and lasguns - Excellent soundtrack, different for all three factions CONTRA - Soundtrack needs some tinkering to play correct on modern systems (and still not 100% correct) SUMMARY - A must-have for fans of mecha games, futuristic RTSs and RTSs as a whole
When I first saw this game on Steam I have been incited, foolishly waiting for something like "Master of Magic spiritual successor". And I couldn't resist and bought it there. Well, the game looks nice for an indie title made by only a couple of persons, but it's literally everything that's good in it. Be sure, there's not much interesting choices here or strategically deep gameplay. The game is like shallowed-down Master of Magic mixed with some traits of Warlords. In brief, this is an entertaining for a couple of evenings before you return to the more valuable fantasy strategy games like aforementioned MoM, Warlords of HoMM.
Now, with time passed, and 'Diablo spell' almost dissipated, I can surely say that DS1 and DS2 (with add-ons, of course) are probably the best ARPGs that ever graced this poor planet. GUI, visuals, music (oh, this old sorcerer Jeremy Soule!), class system, items system, magic system, battle flow, party management, even plot - everything is top-notch in old-school way, and incredibly satisfying, comfortable and inducing 'one-more-hour' feeling that only good old Diablo 1-2 could call forth. And Dungeon Siege series are BETTER than Diablo, you know. Now I understand. As an enthralling singleplayer adventure they are definitely better. Just forget about DS3 as if it has never been real.
What can be better than Diablo in medieval Japan? Well, in fact this Japanese flavour is probably the only positive thing I can say about this game, alas. The VERY tedious party management kills half of the fun right away. The party formations (that look like an interesting idea) work bad or don't work at all, and their management is also very tedious and counter-intuitive. The rest is killed by the game action speed, you just can't feel the fighting as it feels in Diablo and other ARPGs, you almost never can even read the types and names of enemies not to mention their health bars. Everything is happened too fast, characters move very fast, the animations are jerking (and I use a very old 2-core CPU on WinXP machine). So the fighting brings no enjoy, and the items system doesn't add to it as well, the loot is scarce, weapons and other items are rather bland (except for their Japanese names and look). So the gameplay is the constant fight against the interface and party management, interspersed with chaotic and hectic fights against unmemorable enemies. Not the type of fun I personally waited from the game with such a good starting point as 'Diablo in medieval Japan', you know...
The only thing I still can't grasp till now is why such things are sold for real money. Mods must keep being mods, the products of fulfillment of dubious desires of eccentric individuals, using the optional donation system. The quality of the product in question is... well, more than questionable. The main thing the modder Seravy (and his turnkeys from Slitherine) can't understand is that the game design is what it is for a reason, no matter the release year, 'technological restrictions of the past' and other bullshit. You can screw the game code, AI and stuff all through, but you're just making Frankenstein, the ugly freak only imitating life. The game design as well as life is a complex thing, and you can't just write a line here and erase a line there to make your Frankenstein walk and speak. The 'good old game' is a result of many connecting force lines, 'the Garden of Converging Paths' (thank you, señor Borges, for a hint), including Zeitgeist and even the perfumes that girlfriends of the developers used in those far times. The only way to make this game a tiny bit better is to try to fix remaining bugs. You should have stopped there.
Well, the title of my review says all. I found out this game when I was 30+, when I already played Disciples 1-3, Heroes 1-5, Age of Wonders 1-2, Master of Magic, Cavewars, Dominions 1-3, Lords of Magic, Fantasy Empires, Fantasy General and so on. So there's no pink glasses of nostalgia here. Its battle mechanics seem simple but it's full of hidden nuances. Its strategic depth is shocking. Its graphics is not the prettiest even for its time but you'll be under its charm in half of an hour of playing. Its soundtrack is just exceptional, I'd even rate it higher than HoMM stuff, because it suits the wargaming essence of this game perfectly - being modest and plain but functional and going straight to heart as a sword. Its campaigns are maybe the best and the most entertaining and engrossing set of scenarios I've seen in startegy games. And the last but least, its AI is probably the best you can meet in strategy gaming. Greetings, Warlord. Let the war begin.
