Warriors: Legends of Troy Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

System: PS3, Xbox 360
Dev: KOEI
Pub: KOEI
Release: March 15, 2011
Players: 1
Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p

Completing missions will reward Kleos, which can be spent on various power-up items like rings and such. These items are stored in a grid – very similar to the item system in Resident Evil 4. Equipping an item will require you to find space on the grid for it, often keeping you rearranging your items in various combinations to get everything to fit.

Warriors: Legends of Troy Screenshot

While I personally think the Trojan War is an incredible story, the version in Legends of Troy suffers for its lack of focus. Sure, Homer's Iliad (one of the major inspirations for Legends of Troy) tends to bounce back and forth between the Greek and Trojan sides, but when players get to actually step into the shoes of characters from the story, it's important that the choices they make ultimately matter. In Legends of Troy, you'll spend forty-five minutes thinning the ranks of the Trojan army, and when you finally feel like you're actually impacting the battle, you suddenly switch sides and slice your way through a whole bunch of Greeks. Instead of helping the player relate to both sides of the conflict, this technique only makes the player feel alienated from the characters. Do you really want to try to sympathize with the mighty Ajax, only to have to best him in hand-to-hand combat a little later in the story?

Some of the mission scenarios are so poorly conceived that they simply become laughable. For example, you spend one entire mission defending a battering ram. When the ram encounters a wall that it cannot get through, Ajax shows up to Hulk-smash it down. Which makes you wonder: if Ajax can bust through walls that even this battering ram can't, why on Earth would you waste so much of Ajax's effort on guarding this thing? This whole scenario could have played out so much more smoothly if someone would have just said "to Hades with this whole battering ram, let's just let Ajax smash his way into the stronghold for us." And to make this mission even more humiliating, the battering ram animations look completely awful.

When you add up the flawed gameplay, the poorly written story, a very short campaign (between ten and twelve hours), and absolutely no multiplayer whatsoever, Legends of Troy simply doesn't contain enough content to keep even the most devoted Trojan War fans satisfied for very long. Completing missions in the campaign will unlock additional game modes, but none of them have any real staying power. Consider renting this game for a weekend, but there's simply not enough to do for this to be worth its $60 price tag.

By Josh Wirtanen
CCC Freelance Writer

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

2.6

Graphics
Legends of Troy doesn't do anything special. Some of the cutscenes look like they could use some work, and the framerate tends to drop when there are too many warriors on the screen at once.

3.4

Control
The controls work for the most part, but they would definitely feel a lot better if the lock-on function were more intuitive.

3.0

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Music and sound fx are pretty much what you'd expect. There are some pretty bad voice acting moments in the game, though, and some hilarious mispronunciations.

2.7

Play Value
Once the ten- to twelve-hour campaign is over, there are a few additional gameplay modes to try out. But they get old pretty fast. You could easily rent this game over the weekend and be done with it.

2.8

Overall Rating - Average
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 - 1.9 = Avoid	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	3.5 - 3.9 = Good	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair	4.0 - 4.4 = Great	5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

Ancient Heroes: Play as infamous heroes such as Achilles and Odysseus from Greece, as well as Hektor and Paris from Troy.

Epic Battlefields: Clash with legions of soldiers on glorious battlegrounds that reach for miles throughout the ancient world.

Strategic Carnage: Do anything to survive. Grab a sword from a fallen enemy and hurl it at a soldier bearing down on you. Smash an opponent with your shield, and then run your spear through him. Or just throttle them with your bare hands.

Legendary Battles: Battle larger-than-life heroes and even confront mythical creatures sent by the gods themselves.

Brutal History: Among the inspirations for the game are The Iliad, Homer's epic poem from the 9th century BC, and in-depth research of the ancient battlefields of the Trojan War.