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Legendary

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7.4 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 39 critic reviews
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Based on 53 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Gamecock Media

Developer: Spark Unlimited

Genre(s): First-Person Shooter

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: November 4, 2008

Summary

(Also known as "Legendary: The Box") Legendary tells the story of Charles Deckard, an art thief who is duped into stealing Pandora’s Box. When he inadvertently opens it, he releases hordes of beasts thought to be fictional – such as werewolves and gryphons – into an unprepared modern world. A full scale war between man and myth begins, and it is quickly complicated by the actions of powerful secret societies. As the person responsible for releasing this terror, Deckard’s unwittingly become the only person capable of containing it once more and saving civilization from being destroyed by the terrifying creatures. [Gamecock Media]

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Game Chronicles

Legendary is a fantastic thrill ride that you won’t soon forget.

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Official Xbox Magazine

While the formula feels a bit dated now, the result is a shooter that is still incredibly fun. [Dec 2008, p.90]

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Gameplanet

This could well be a surprise hit for those willing to invest the time. Despite a lack of polish, there's a relatively deep story for fans of mythology.

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MS Xbox World

Now that I’ve beaten the game and stand back to surmise my feelings, I can honestly say that although there were a few times when my blood boiled and I was tempted to reach for the teabags, cups and saucers(because of cheap moments); Legendary is actually quite compelling and solid fun.

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GameZone

The game tells a compelling story, is loaded with exciting combat, and is chock full of memorable moments. It could have used a bit more polish in certain areas, true, but as an interactive summer blockbuster, Legendary delivers.

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GameFocus

When I first heard of Legendary I was honestly very excited for the concept of shooting mythological creatures and monsters with guns because it is a rare concept. The final product has me on the fence with is it a worth while game to recommend for first person shooter nuts like me, or to leave it be and forget you ever saw it. As a person who enjoys Clive Barker’s Jericho for its unique first person shooter story and gameplay mechanics I would say this is an easy rental.

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Team Xbox

Accept that Legendary won’t wow you with the gameplay polish of a budget-busting title, and you’ll likely have a good time fighting to shut Pandora’s precious package.

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GameDaily

Legendary is sure to be lost in the shuffle this holiday season, which is sad because it's actually pretty good.

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ZTGameDomain

Everything about Legendary from the story to the set pieces screams epic proportions and honestly I really wanted to like the game a lot more. However, the small setbacks really take away from the experience and cause the game to go from legendary (pun highly intended) to just plain decent.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Legendary isn’t the most involved or technically excellent shooter to come out this season—Left 4 Dead and Gears Of War 2 outclass it. But it’s a fun change of pace with some extremely satisfying combats.

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GamingExcellence

Legendary’s problems would be easily forgivable if the rest of the package came together well enough but it doesn’t. With only four different enemies to fight for most of the game (one is a second breed of Werewolf), a mostly useless selection of guns and annoying bosses paired up with a story that doesn’t go anywhere the game fumbles its execution totally.

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Deeko

Spark has produced a shooter that crams as many fun monsters and insane action packed scripted events as possible into one game and lets gamers shoot them to their hearts content, which makes it perfect for a weekend rental.

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Game Informer

Legendary is by no means awful — it’s just about as vanilla as first-person shooters get. It all wraps up with a completely unsatisfying “wait for the sequel” type cliffhanger. We’ll see.

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PTGamers

Legendary is an acceptable, sometimes frustrating game, a simple entertainment until the great first-person shooters of the year are released.

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GamingXP

Beside some drawbacks in graphics and speech the idea around Pandoras box - for itself really great - cannot get off. The world isn't really interacting with the player, the gameplay is very sterile.

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Xbox World 360 Magazine UK

A frustrating mix of good and bad - we'd take it over "Blacksite" and co though. [Christmas 2008, p.63]

Level7.nu

Even though this game is built on top of a great mythology, the one about Pandora's Box unleashing chaos onto the world when opened, developer Spark never manage to make the actual game interesting in any way. The game structure is linear, the presentation is bleak at best and the gameplay is rather poor. This sums up to one mediocre experience.

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Official Xbox Magazine UK

The problem with this is that Spark is relentless at throwing a huge number of beasties your way, crowding you into a corner and ripping you to shreds. There's not enough breathing space for you to heal yourself and absorb energy to use it effectively as a defensive measure. To say this had us throwing the controller at the telly and cursing is an understatement.

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Cheat Code Central

There are just way too many better shooters available to make this game worth your time and money.

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GameShark

Spark has made a better game this time around than its previous attempt but it still isn’t on par with the elite of the genre. In the end, Legendary is a cool idea wrapped inside an average shooter.

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Variety

Though it brings gusto, wit and a sharp eye for horror cliches, Legendary is still at its core a clunky, mediocre first-person shooter that’s likely to vanish under the mountain of topnotch actioners shipping this month.

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DarkZero

The Minotaur says with his sad cow eyes glistening “Don’t worry guys, everything will be alright”, but the Minotaur knows it’s not going to be alright… it’s not going to be alright at all.

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Planet Xbox 360

The only reasoning I can see behind playing Legendary is to see the awe-inspired mythological creatures in action.

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Gameplayer

The overall experience left us with a bad taste in our mouths and an almighty “WTF?” resonating from our lips. Sigh.

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games(TM)

Every hour, you are presented with the ideas that the developer had but simply couldn’t afford, and that only serves to make Legendary’s unrelenting run-and-gun approach harder to swallow. [Christmas 2008, p.96]

X360 Magazine UK

So many cliches, so little time. [Issue#40, p.103]

360 Gamer Magazine UK

A game that simply doesn’t stand out from the crowd. Constantly spawning enemies. A lead character with no hands. Unskippable cut-scenes you must continually sit through. Solid walls that light can leak through. NPCs that can be shot at, but not harmed. Action sections that feel like a movie you just happen to be walking through, and not interacting with.

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Edge Magazine

The dev team has an eye for spectacle – a towering golem comprised of cars and other metallic detritus is a visual highlight – but these moments mostly serve to illustrate how dull your actual actions are by contrast. [Dec 2008, p.98]

AceGamez

What we've ended up with is a shambles, a game that looks boring and plays badly - a game that feels as ancient as the mythical beasts that you must vanquish.

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3DJuegos

Constantly spawning enemies… Solid walls that light can leak through… A bad first-person shooter experience.

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GameSpot

This frustratingly bad first-person shooter is not the stuff legends are made of.

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Gaming Age

All together, Legendary had a decent idea behind it that's been marred by some poor design decisions. Shooting and controls feel ok, but everything you shoot at, interact with, or run through is lackluster, broken, or just plain boring.

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Gamer 2.0

All things told, the game reeks of derivation.

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1UP

By the time I'd defeated my 10th werewolf, I was already tired of needing to cut or shoot its head off so it didn't regenerate. By the time I defeated my 200th, I just wanted to turn the game off.

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IGN

The gameplay comes across as messy and incomplete, the arrangement of hazards and threats from monsters is ineffective at best and boring at worst.

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Eurogamer

Legendary is the gaming equivalent of cheap supermarket own-brand beans, but instead of costing eleven pence it costs the same as a prime steak cooked by a top chef. It's a bad, bad game. One of the worst I've played on this generation of consoles, in fact. In that regard, at least, the title is surprisingly accurate.

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NTSC-uk

The basic ideas behind Legendary were quite sound. Unfortunately it seems they were never properly realised, instead cobbled together with the digital equivalent of shredded newspaper and masking tape.

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Game Revolution

Legendary is in the same league as Battlefield: Earth and Turok of how not to do something. How bad is this game you ask? It's Superman 64 bad. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but Legendary sucks more that a Hoover on overdrive. It's bad like ET for the 2600 bad. You might even say it's Legendarily bad.

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Gaming Nexus

Legendary is something of a marvel. While I've played a lot of terrible first-person shooters, I never realized that there would be one that missed the mark so completely.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 53 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jason L gave it an8:
I really had a ton of fun with this game - sure it doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but what is here is an action-packed adventure with addictive gameplay, decent graphics, well thought-out sound design. I avoided this game due to the critic review scores, but now I have first hand experience, and can honestly say that it's well worth a play-through.

Rooster Illusion gave it a1:
Behold God's mistake. I rated this game a one because I'd like to thank the designers for making good games look even better. The lighting in the game was fair and that's the only positive. The story line has been done how many hundreds of times before and there is no originality or thought to any concept. Can designers actually be hit with plagiarism? Might wana look into that with this game. With a bland plot one would think this game would have graphics. Uhmm, no, I have regular Xbox games with better texture and shading. The models were horrible. The game play is anything but smooth. It is choppy at best and being hung up on small benches and bushes is very frustrating. I can't believe you guys rated this game higher than Too Human. Are there any real gamers out there or will we just play any first person shooter these guys will stick in front of us?

Jack S gave it a7:
This game is not the best game ever witnessed by Pc or todays consoles. But it by far isnt the worst. The fact that it came out amidst the likes of Farcry 2, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead and the countless other great games that were released over the last couple of months, and the fact tht it was labeled the same price tag left it as an obvious thing for critics to jump at and give a bad review, but the problem is people are to busy comparing to all these great games that they can;'t step bacvk and relise what a great game this actually is. Legendary tries hard to create a game that at times leaves you in awe and wondering why it got such a bad score, whether you stopped dead in your tracks by a ginourmous Kraken clawing at the big ben, or chased through New York City by a giant golem ripping apart the realisitic city sceneary, your never left unsatisfied after a play on this game. Yes, it has its flaws, and plenty of them, but Sparks Unlimited really did put everythin they could put into this game with thier budget, and they did a bloddy good job of it too. The ytried there best, tried something new and were slated unfairly for it. I'll be surpries if Sparks unlimited ever takes off after pulling off thid game and seing the pathetically negetive revbiews its got. A good buy if your looking for an action packed, massivle cinematic game, but are not hoping for anything truly ' Legendary ' I give this game a justified 7 out of 10

Justin G gave it a4:
The story line to this game is awesome and really unique, but it could have been way better in a lot of things. For example graphics and controls. I mean the graphics weren't terrible, but they were not as good as i was hoping. And the controls are not that bad either, but the aiming seems a little off and the difference in the weapons strength is a bit ridiculous. Im not so fond of the jumping either. Its a good game still, but a lot of it is just plan annoying. All in all the whole thing about pandora's box is awesome, now only if they could have fixed a lot of other things. It was a good try at a game though.

Dylan gave it a7:
Legendary is definitely a case where the developer's reach exceeded their grasp. Sure, not every technical element of the game is spot-on. Sure, the pace might be a little jumpy sometimes, and it's probably too hard alltogether. Still, Legendary is worth playing, on the strength of its spectacle alone. The developers have mastered the art of the scripted sequence--Half-Life's have nothing on what happens here. The first twenty minutes alone make Legendary required playing for anyone who can appreciate a game that makes you feel like you're living through an epic summer blockbuster.

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