Back in December of 1993 SSI released a combination strategy and action game called Archon Ultra. I won't go into detail here, but suffice it to say that it was bad. It was a great idea, though, and I had high (albeit desperate) hopes that SSI would take that same idea and try it again. To my complete surprise, they have, and this effort eclipses their previous failure.
Dark Legions is one of those cross-genre games that's hard to categorize: part strategy, part action. Games that try to be more than one thing often end up failing, but such is not the case with Dark Legions. The strategy and action aspects of the game fit together seamlessly, resulting in a high-quality game that should appeal to open-minded members of both camps.
In Dark Legions you control an army of fantasy characters ranging from thieves to illusionists to demons. The goal is to capture your opponent's orb holder, while safeguarding your own. The trick is--you don't know which character is the orb holder! Only your seer can reveal this; she can also spot invisible creatures, locate traps, and differentiate between normal and illusionary monsters, making her a highly valuable member of your army. Strategically this game succeeds by making you strike a balance between powerful fighters and weaker characters that offer advantages in areas other than combat.
Speaking of combat, this is where the action portion of the game rears its head. When one character moves onto the square of an opponent, a vicious one-on-one battle ensues. There can be only one winner, and occasionally there will even be less than that! In much the same way as DL's ill-fated predecessor, combat takes place in a zooming top-view battlefield. Using the keyboard or a good arcade joystick (definitely the recommended controller) you maneuver your fighter around the arena, dodging attacks and lashing out with your own. Each character has its own attacks; most characters have two, but occasionally you'll find a monster with a powerful third attack. Each character type also has its own movement speed, stamina level, and life force.
One of the best things about the combat is how different characters interact with each other. Some pairings are grossly mismatched, but sometimes even weaker characters can have an advantage. For example, the demon is the most feared creature in the game, a virtually indestructible combat machine. But when fighting against a fire elemental, the demon and its user quickly discover that its fiery breath attack is completely useless, leaving the monster an open target for the speedy elemental's long range fireballs.
Just because a character is the Tolkienesque equivalent of a 98-pound weakling doesn't mean it's useless. Creatures that have no talent for battle are usually worth their weight in gold on the strategic map. Wizards can't fight to save Gandalf's good name, but on the map they can cast powerful cold blasts that freeze enemy units for a number of turns. Illusionists can create characters which are mere shadows, but the enemy will perceive them as the real thing. Conjurers open an interdimensional gate to summon forth additional monsters for your army, but these creatures lose 10% of their life force with each passing turn, and so must be used quickly. All these special powers cost the user a small portion of their life force, so an overall strategy is still needed to win the game.
As involving and addictive as the gameplay is, one of Dark Legions's strongest points is found before you place your first demon on the map. I'm talking about the setup of the game. The package comes with several ready-to-go scenarios, but you can also customize your game. A good amount of maps are included, and they range from tiny little battle arenas to vast expanses of terrain. You can also set the amount of money you and your opponent start out with, which controls the size of your army, since you must buy each piece with gold from your own coffers. (You also should allocate some money for buying insidious traps and magical rings to boost your characters' abilities.) These settings allow you to play a short combat-intensive game or a long drawn-out military exercise full of tactical challenge. Or something in the middle. This should help keep strategy and action gamers happily addicted for a long time to come. The addition of modem play doesn't hurt, either.
I've been waiting for a game like this for a long time. It seems like every time I get to the interesting point in a strategy game I magically lose all my free time to play it. With Dark Legions, I can sit down for an afternoon and play a good involving strategy game. Or I can take a week's worth of vacation, start a gargantuan assault, and never come up for air. Dark Legions is an easy game to learn, but it's so well-constructed that it's bound to hold your attention for a good long time. If it's time for you to go beyond boring computer chess games, this is the title to get. In games like this, simplicity belies a great wealth of strategy waiting to be revealed.
