System: Playstation 2 (also available on PC)
Release Date: August 5th, 2003
Rarity: Unknown
Price/Location: $4.99/GameStop
This is not a game I’d typically play. The whole “protagonist is a vaguely Asian girly-looking guy with giant sword” kinda games are ones I’d more than likely pass over when looking at new games to buy. Luckily for Chaos Legion, it was placed in a yellow GameStop disk sleeve and stuck in the bargain bin (they had the actual case behind the counter for whatever reason). I couldn’t really tell from the disk art that this game had the aforementioned girly-looking guy as the protagonist.
Lucky for our hero, the main antagonist is even more feminine looking.
I chose this game because I had never heard of it. When I seek out games for this blog, I try not to focus on games where I know the reason for its price. I know why that copy of Madden 2004 is only 99-cents, and it’s pretty obvious why no one is going to shell out the big bucks for the game based on a Saturday morning cartoon show which was a spin off of a box-office bomb.
Exhibit A
This game was made by Capcom! It says “If you loved Devil May Cry, you’ll love this game!” right on the cover! How many games were in that series? Like 4 at least right? With a reboot of the series coming soon. It piqued my interest in the same way Tin Star did. Why was this game with Capcom behind it the same price as a Big Mac combo at McDonald’s?
“Video Games Cheaper Than Most Food” was just one of many rejected names for this blog.
The first thing I check out in any new game I play is the Options menu. Not much out of the ordinary here. I didn’t feel the need to change much, although your enemies’ life meters are turned off be default. I turned it back on. When starting the game, you are given the option to play on either “Easy” or “Normal” difficulty. Wanting to get the developer’s intended experience for this game, I choose “Normal.” The opening cinematic looks nice for a PS2 game. It’s thankfully short because the characters, Sieg Wahrheit (our protagonist) and Victor Delacroix (our antagonist) are awfully broody and the setting looks like a bad sci-fi movie centered around religion.
Exhibit B
I’m not particularly religious. It just doesn’t interest me. Fantasy religion doesn’t help things here. I will say this about the story after spending some time with the game: I don’t care. It’s like when you’re watching a movie and no matter how well it may be written, if it’s poorly acted, it takes you out of the world the movie is trying to immerse you in. That’s how I felt during cut scenes. I could only focus on the things the game probably didn’t want me focusing on. Like how a scout reporting damage done to a nearby town sounds like a guy from southern California. It just couldn’t hold my attention.
One of these two may be the culprit.
The actual important part of the game, the gameplay, thankfully makes up for the hammy acting and forgettable storyline. When you first gain control of your character, you immediately get the feeling that this is going to be another run-of the-mill, hack-and-slash, mash-the-attack-button-until-your-thumbs-bleed kind of game.
The “win the game” button.
The gameplay centers around the Chaos Legion, which are monsters that you can summon to fight alongside you. This feature helps break up some of the monotony of mashing square over and over and will actually serve to add a bit of strategy in later levels. You start off with one, Thanatos, the ultimate Legion at the beginning of the game. You can use these Legions in one of two ways. One is when you do not have them summoned, hit triangle to do a powerful burst attack (which consumes “Soul points”, or when summoned, they act almost as a CPU-controlled second player. Thanatos was a great aid in getting through level one. His burst attack had an area-of-effect capability and could defeat waves of enemies in one shot. I found it odd that Sieg would be wielded with such a powerful ally from the outset, but alas, Thanatos’ crest is destroyed at the end of Level 1 and you must find all 9 fragments over the course of the game to get him back.
Level 1’s “win the game” button.
Although you lose Thanatos, you gain Guilt, who attacks with swords. This is when the game delves into the strategy of when and how to use your Legions. Any Legion, when summoned, will slow your run speed to a walk and lower your attack power, but it adds more attackers to the fray. When Guilt is summoned, he splits into 3 and attacks any enemy in sight. The strategy comes into play here because of the numerous waves of enemies coming at you. Guilt can take the focus from some of your attackers while you concentrate on other enemies.
Also known as a playground rumble. What are friends for?
After Level 2 the strategy element is extended further with the introduction of the Legion, Malice and mechanical vs. organic enemies. Guilt is strong against organic enemies and Malice is strong against mechanical enemies. Switching Legions on the fly is a bit cumbersome, but it didn’t get in the way bad enough that it hampered my ability to dish out swift justice. The action on screen during Level 3 gets a little hectic at this point, but in no way did it feel impossible.
Verdict: HIGH FIVE
It wasn’t the story, graphics, or even the controls that sucked me in. The gameplay and strategy alone saved this from the bargain bin. By the time I got to Level 3, I was destroying some fools in a way that made me utter “Heh. Sweet!” I felt that this was a game I could have felt comfortable paying more than $5 for. This game may be $5 because it was overlooked due to mediocre reviews upon its release or because of its age in regards to the PS2 lifecycle. Either way, this game is by no means perfect, but it’s fun enough to make me feel my 5-spot I spent on it didn’t go to waste.
So Episode 3 of Five Dollar Gamer is in the can! If you want to leave comments, praise, criticisms, or suggestions you can leave them here, or on The Official Five Dollar Gamer Facebook Page!
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Five Dollar Gamer 