App Review: Dark Legends by SpaceTime Studios

Last week we mentioned that SpaceTime Studios has rolled out their newest title in the line of their "Legends" mobile games.  The significant point to be made with this game is that this marks the first time an MMO has been simultaneously released for both Mobile Devices and the Desktop Computer.  Pretty cool!

If you are familiar with SpaceTime Studio's other games (Star Legends and Pocket Legends) you kind of know what to expect as far as character design is concerned.  But let me go on the record to say that this game is nothing like it's previous two namesakes.  For one, this title is a great deal more violent than their previous titles.  Sure, Pocket Legends and Star Legends involve a great deal of fighting and combat.  But neither of them dump buckets of blood during a session of gameplay.  This title does.  Enough with the intro, let's jump in and see how this game stacks up.

Story:
Your character is a newly sired vampire in a world where people are aware that vampires exist thanks to innovation in technology.  Now the humans are hunting the Vampire Nation using said technology and the Dark Arts (hence the appearance of all the monsters in the game).  And it is your job as a new member of the Vampire Nation to take up arms and fight.

Honestly, this is a new take on the whole Vampire legend as far as I know it.  It is a somewhat simple storyline but it's great because that is all you need to know to understand what goes on in the game.  No further explanation is needed.

Graphics & Sound:
As mentioned above, the character designs are the cartoony and fun designs that we have come to expect from SpaceTime Studios.  Unlike SpaceTime's previous two games that we full of color, Dark Legends is much darker.  Given it's source material it has be portrayed this way.  And I can honestly say the atmosphere in the game is great.  It's that dark, but not too creepy dark.  The levels are designed in a way that rewards short bursts of fast gameplay, which we will get too shortly.

Sounds is pretty good.  You get all the fanfare you would expect from hearing the sounds of the onscreen baddies to your attacks doing their job.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is pretty good overall.  The action during the combat missions is great and a blast to play through.  You will find yourself running around slicing and dicing evil fiends very quickly as this game has a pretty small learning curve and does pretty well to get you playing pretty quick.  The earlier "training" type missions are solo missions.  So they are pretty easy.  After you complete that handful of early missions you'll be able to play with other people as you run through the combat missions.  Playing with others is a lot more fun as it gives you a sense of being a "team player".

My only complaint (and it may be I just overlooked this) is that the interface feels a little cluttered and right out of the gates there was a little confusion about what certain icons were telling me.  Although it is easy enough to figure it out as you play through the earlier levels.

The game is made up of basically two types of missions: combat and search type missions.  The combat missions are pretty straight forward.  Run through a map either solo or with others and kill pretty much anything that moves.  Most of the area's have a type of boss character at the end that may take some work to kill earlier on.  But as you progress and your character gets stronger, even these enemies go down fairly quick.

The search missions aren't actually playable missions at all.  Instead you simply tap the mission icon on the map and watch an animation (or cutscene) to see what happens.  Personally, this was a little off putting the first couple of times I played through these particular missions.  Some missions involve watching your character "Glamour" an NPC to charm information from them.  While others involve watching your character look through a pile of rubble or even breaking into a tomb of vampire's lair.  Personally, I feel like the search missions could have been a little more.  Maybe something like a puzzle of mini-game to break up the monotony of fighting through every mission.  But nonetheless, these missions serve the purpose of furthering the story more than gameplay.  After playing through a few levels you get used to them and it makes you look forward to the combat missions all the more.

Energy is one of the hot topics among the players of this game.  Some like it, some don't. Here's the deal, you essentially have a limited amount of energy.  From what I gather, each mission requires a certain amount of energy points in order to play it.  Not enough energy?  Simply redeem your in game platinum for more or step away from the game for a little while and let your energy build back up for free.  Personally, I like this feature as it forces me not to burn up all afternoon playing the game.  This does prevent marathon play for those who like to play that way.  But for me, not a big deal.

Skills:
As the game thus far that I have played it plays fairly linear you level up and acquire new skills automatically as you play.  One of the nice things about the game is that there is very little emphasis on customizing stats.  A lot of people tend to get lost when it boils down to getting a better character because you have juggled stats and numbers to do so.  This free's up the player to do more playing and earn new costumes for you character as you play.

Multiplayer:
As mentioned above, the early missions force you to play solo in order to learn the game.  After those missions you can jump into playing with other people.  And that is where this game shines.  There is no bloat or crap to deal with.  You simply jump in and run the mission assisting others.  Which turns out to be a lot of fun.  This game boasts to be an MMO but it feels more like a hack & slash co-op title to me.  With that being said, there is a PvP aspect to the game as well; however, I haven't actually tried it out yet.

Overall:
If you are looking for a fun coop style game to play on either your mobile device or in your web browser.  Than Dark Legends is a must have.  It is free to play.  Although there are plenty of opportunities to swap real world cash for in-game items if you so choose.  But it is not forced to shell out your hard earned cash, which is nice.  Also, a lot of free to play games (especially on mobile devices) are riddled full of advertisements that get in the way.  And so far, nothing like that has popped up for me.

If you don't mind having limited access to energy points to delegate you play (which I don't mind at all) you should have a blast in this game.  So far I have, and I am not that big a fan of vampire related games.  But this one does it right.

One side note that I'd like to make is just some simple advice.  I would recommend this title to the older crowd as some of the source material is a little too mature for children.  With this being said the Google Play Market page for the game shows "High Maturity" for the Content Rating.

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars!




Pro's:
-Fun multiplayer
-Great gameplay
-Easy to find people to play with.
-PvP is available
-Character customization is basically equipping crystals and costumes.
-It's Free to Play!

Con's:
-There are missions that are only for progressing story involving no gameplay whatsoever.

Get it at:
Google Play: http://bit.ly/IyXeVO
Chrome Web Store: http://bit.ly/HMLHJg
Apple's App Store: Not available yet, according to their forums the game is pending Apple's approval and should be available in a few weeks.