Previous Next

Legend Of Steel is a story of ancient century-old battles, a story of a fight for survival of the human race, a story of heroism, where you get to play Darkin, the hero that saves human civilization from terrible demons known as the 'Delorians'. But it won't be easy, trust me, I have a very sore controller thumb as proof of that!

In this maze action dungeon exploration game, the situation is dire. Only one small settlement of humans are left carrying the fight to the evil Delorians and they are based in Garua, a city in the centre of Africa. They have managed to capture a Delorian shaman who after several days of interrogation tells the humans the secret of his strength - "Your swords are useless, no matter how hard you fight, you will not be able to destroy us. We have the source of Immortality in our underground den. With it we shall live eternally. It is found in the deepest part of our dungeons, but you will never be able to find it. Only death awaits you there".

As I found out, death did await me many times. So what are the humans to do? They hatch a plan to send out fearless warrior Darkin to invade the Delorians' Den [Lucky guy, isn't he? - Ed] and bring the war to an end once and for all.

As Darkin, you possess a glorious sword forged with Astatine, a rare metal giving it unparalleled capabilities, almost the perfect weapon for such a spiteful war. I say almost as it has its flaws, you know in the movie Jaws, the line "we're going to ned a bigger boat", well I wish I had a bigger bit of steel. Your battle skills are paramount to success. While there may not be hordes of foes like in Atari's arcade game Gauntlet, there are enough on each screen to give you a cracking challenge to overcome, giving the feeling that you are battling hordes of enemies. This is done by the enemies constantly rushing at you, bringing the fight to you, ready or not. Battles can get pretty intense at times. This is why I mentioned above that you really need a bigger bit of steel.

The game consists of a large number of challenging screens divided into 3 distinct levels: Initially you start in the dungeons, then descend to the dark caverns and finally if we can get out of these you will reach the underground palace of the Delorians. As you control Darkin around each of the rooms, which is really quite smooth and fast, you need to grab the keys to open the doors so you can pass through to the next screen. Don't worry, they are always in the same place every time you play. As you will find, the screens contain items including food, magic potions, hearts and treasure to collect. Food and hearts are the most important to collect as they replenish your health shown at the bottom of the screen as red hearts.

Each of the enemies have different capabilities. Green Orcs are easiest, knock them down three times and they are out for the count. Skeletons are pesky evil villains, knock them down three times and they respawn after 4 seconds. Delorian guards, they are tough. I don't think they can be killed. Their armour is resistant to your sword attacks. Then there are the Slimers. These green blobs were the most frustrating for me, as I couldn't escape them when they jumped me, my best plan of attack was to avoid them. Wizards are cool looking dudes, but don't befriend them as they shoot fireballs at you. When you knock down some of the enemies they may leave gold or a heart for you to collect.

Save points have been installed. Once you reach one you have the option of returning to it when you are dead. Basically if you pass one of the levels you can start your next game from there instead of repeating from the very start, that's a cool option.

Graphically, it's very colourful and has the right feel for a dungeon exploration game. In game sprites are very cool, I loved the sprites in particular all of the enemies. Moving Darkin around the dungeons is quite fast and you are challenged throughout all the levels with new foes to contend with. Nice bit of title music and animated fire on the menu screen.

Those green slimes, I just couldn't seem to get away from them. Darkin needs a bigger and better looking sword to show he is a true warrior. Battles can get frustrating quickly as you get pinned down by enemies. When you walk through doors there could be an enemy on the other side attacking you as you have passed through. There is no in game soundtrack just some noises when you interact with enemies.

A highly enjoyable game for sure, challenging and frustrating at the same time. That loading screen is so impressive, one that oozes real legendary status, however it doesn't translate into the game. Inserting more steel into the gameplay would have made it a true legendary game.