Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Legio Review for PC

Legio Review for PC

Easy to Play, Easy to Buy?

During an era of gaming where improved graphics, AI, and game engines reign supreme, it is difficult to imagine there is a place left in gamers’ hearts for a simpler presentation. However, if there is one thing cloud platforms such as PlayStation Store, Xbox LIVE, and Steam have done, it is made it as easy and cheap as ever to fall in love with those indie games that tug at our nostalgia. Legio, developed by Ice Game Studios, is one such game, which hopes to capture your inner chess player rather than your eye.

Legio screenshot

Legio’s back-story is simple to grasp. The kingdom of Bella Lagucia had a benevolent King named Theoron the Witty. His wife died while giving birth to twins, Lorenzo and Florentia, who Theoron raises to compete against one another. After about 20 years, this constant competition makes the siblings hate each other. On his deathbed, King Theoron sees the stupidity of his son and the pure evil of his daughter and refuses to pick an heir to the throne. After the King passes, Lorenzo and Florentia divide the kingdom and begin fighting each other, both refusing to the leave the castle. Eventually, after much of the land is destroyed until all that remains is the castle standing atop two plateaus, the twins declare a truce. Instead of waging war against each other for control, they agree to share control. To help facilitate this shared power, they agree that any disagreements would be decided by playing a game of Legio.

Unfortunately, Legio’s interesting and quirky storyline ends there, with players taking up the job of deciding these “disagreements” by simply playing either one on one against the computer, online with a friend, or at the same time using a single computer. The lack of any kind of single-player campaign or story-focused gameplay is understandable, but disappointing. The “Alice in Wonderland” feel to Legio gives it a very interesting atmosphere and dark mood that could have been fun to explore.

Legio is a thinking-man’s strategy game. Players prepare for each match by picking the pieces they wish to use on the board, placing those pieces on specific spaces, and then choosing the board layout of their own castle interior, which comes into play once a winner is declared on the draw bridge board. The starting board, which is the drawbridge connecting the siblings’ castles, is always the same. Each player is given 25 points with which to spend on picking different pieces to use. Each of the 7 pieces has specific advantages and disadvantages that depend on the board layout, the pieces chosen by your opponent, and your own piece selections. For example, the priest piece can heal damaged pieces, while the Giant is able to do area damage to enemy pieces that are nearby.

Legio screenshot

There is no tutorial for beginners to learn the basics of the game, but the relatively quick games make jumping in fairly easy. The first several matches will easily be learning experiences as players get a feel for what the pieces are good at, how they move, what kinds of damage they do, and how they should be placed on the board. Interestingly, there is no difference between the types or appearances of the pieces between the two sides, so strategies formulated will work regardless of whether you are playing as Lorenzo or Florentia. While this aspect of the game mirrors that of chess and makes the gameplay more accessible, one can’t help but feel that an opportunity for added strategic depth was missed.

Essentially, the game is played out and the winner determined by strategically moving your pieces across the board and eliminating all your opponent’s pieces. However, while this is plays the largest role in determining victory, Legio adds another layer of variables by allowing players to determine the outcomes of specific attacks. For instance, when a piece moves to attack another piece, the camera view switches to something resembling first-person. In the center of the screen is a small, outlined circle, while an equally-sized circle moves around the screen quickly, often passing directly through the outlined circle. At this point, it is the player’s job to left-click and attempt to line up the two circles directly on top of each other. The more accurate the player is, the higher the damage their piece will deal to the opponent’s piece. Therefore, while moving your pieces around the board will be the largest determining factor, a few mistimed clicks could cost you the game.

Legio screenshot

Another feature added to Legio is “Speed Mode,” which acts as a fast-forward for the game’s animations and short attack scenes. While this would seem like a no-brainer for a turn-based strategy game, its inclusion here is greatly appreciated as there is an apparent lack of varying animations and sound effects. There are only so many times you can listen to the Archer’s evil laugh each time it fires an arrow followed by the same damage sound effect. Legio could really use a much greater variety of attack animations and sound effects to break up the monotony that forces most players to skip them altogether using Speed Mode.

Players looking to hone their strategies against the computer will have three modes with which to do so: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Of course, at first, even the first few matches on Easy will seem rather quick and brutal until the player has a grasp of the pieces, at which point they can attempt to take on smarter AI. Then again, Legio also supports two types of multiplayer modes: one purely online and another that lets two people play using the same computer. From a gameplay perspective, there is absolutely nothing that separates any of these modes from one another. And, while going head to head against a living, breathing person would certainly be far less predictable and interesting, it is difficult to find anyone else online to challenge.

Legio screenshot

Like many indie games of the casual/puzzle-solving genre, Legio’s online community suffers from a shortage of active players. While much of this isn’t necessarily the game’s fault, it is difficult to understand why such a small game would offer its online multiplayer stand-alone instead of integrating it into an online gaming website or a platform such as Steam, which would certainly ease the process of finding opponents by exposing more people to the game and making it far easier to see who is online. Rest assured, however, that when an opponent can be found, players are treated to a deep and interesting gameplay experience that will require their best strategic thinking.

Legio is a strategy game that takes the rigid parts of chess, breaks them apart, adds a bit of strange and fun, and then keeps its complexity subtle and hidden. While it is certainly easy to pick up and enjoy, so much so that the lack of a tutorial isn’t an issue, the game has layers of strategic depth that will challenge even the most logical and analytical thinkers. The absence of story-based gameplay is a small, forgivable mark on a game that really doesn’t need any back-story at all. It also benefits from having exceptionally low system requirements, making it accessible on even the most slim-downed machines such as laptops or netbooks. In fact, the only thing holding Legio back from being a favorite among chess-like, turn-based strategy enthusiasts is its lack of a comprehensive multiplayer platform.

Regardless of how you look at it, Legio isn’t a game for everyone. Instead, it caters to a very specific niche audience in both its gameplay and presentation. However, for a price tag of just $10, it is difficult to say whether this is something you’d want or not. If you very much enjoy one on one games of the mind, then you’d certainly love it. Of course, if you prefer human opponents over AI, then you may want to wait and see if the online community either gets a better platform or just more players.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.0 Graphics
A strange, yet interesting art style that is reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland lacks polish but ensures smooth playing on slower machines. 3.5 Control
Easy-to-learn mechanics and simple, mouse-driven gameplay are great to see. 2.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Decent music that changes to fit the situation on the board. An obvious lack of sound effects makes hearing the same ones over and over a bit annoying at times. 3.0 Play Value
A strategic and deep game lies beneath a simple and casual game despite the lack of story-driven gameplay. The lack of an active online player base makes finding online matches difficult. 3.0 Overall Rating – Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master – Legio is easy to learn but difficult to master. The rules of Legio allow for many different styles of play, from very aggressive strategies to strictly defensive play.
  • Single and Multiplayer Modes – Offers both single-player (vs. the computer) and two-player games (hotseat on the same PC, LAN, or Internet).
  • Rich Backstory – The Legio universe is an immersive fantasy world with a rich back story, populated by unique creatures and characters.
  • Dynamic Music – A dynamic music engine changes the musical theme to reflect the gameplay.

  • To top