Developer: Soldak Entertainment
Publisher: Soldak Entertainment
Platform: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Tested on: PC
Din’s Legacy – Review
A remark often made is that games are being dumbed down and just look pretty. While in shooters this often just comes down to health packs disappearing in favor of regeneration, RPGs face bigger changes. Unlimited options to customize characters and distribute points in stats, active/passive abilities, skills, and spells are transformed in so-called “cookiecutter” presets. Sometimes less is more and sometimes more is just more.
Story
Being an Orc is never easy. In the Lord of the Rings, they are abominations created by torturing Elves and in the Warcraft universe, they are corrupted by demons and turned into a bloodlusted army to massacre entire races. In general, they are the baddies. In Din’s Legacy, they don’t fare any better. During the Orc Schism, the entire Orc race was violently split into Dark Orcs, zombie lords, and the mutated. The mutated ones are the main focus of the game. The mutated are tainted with Orc blood, a zombie parasite, and necromancer magic. Being different usually scares people and considering they slowly mutate over time, so wherever they go they are mistrusted or feared. Yet they remain closely related to the Elves, which everyone seems to like. All they want is a chance to prove themselves to the world in a good way.
This is where the trickster god Din comes into play. This is the same Din referred to in the title. He is intrigued by the mutated and their desire to prove themselves. Always in need of champions, he made a pact with the mutated. Each volunteer would become one of his champions trying to save the world wherever Din sends them. In return, each time they die in his service he resurrects them to continue their service.
You write the story yourself through your interactions with the world and its inhabitants. There will be consequences to your actions or your lack of action for that matter. Neglecting a village that is being attacked might result in the total destruction of that village if you don’t respond to their call for aid within a certain time.
Graphics
Looking at the minimum requirements to run the game, Windows XP or higher, 512MB ram, 500MB disk space, GeForce 2 or higher, we can already assume that graphically the game will not compete with other RPGs out there today. A better comparison would be older games in the same genre such as Diablo 2 and Dungeon Siege which were released respectively in 2000 and 2002. It’s a clear decision not to focus on the graphics. The different areas do have a distinct look through their color pallet. There is a wide variety of monsters and NPCs to fill the world. The game is also procedurally generated so it will look different every time you start a new game. A plus to this is that the game can be played smoothly on virtually any computer.
Sound
Usually the graphics and sound go hand in hand. Din’s Legacy is no exception. The sound design is as sober as the graphical properties of the game. The sound effects of the spells and abilities are ok but not great. As mentioned before it’s clearly not the main focus of the game to excel in graphics and sound. This is not a dealbreaker as all the old games we loved had this graphical prowess in the past. It’s easy to say that we have become spoiled over the years in terms of the design of games.
Gameplay
Din’s Legacy is an action RPG, which is a subgenre of the role-playing video game genre. The game emphasizes real-time combat where the player has direct control over the characters. Speed is important and the lower end graphics of this game make sure the game runs smoothly, so you can’t use lag as an excuse for dying. As far as gameplay goes, you can best compare it with the Diablo series and Dungeon Siege.
In any RPG the creation of your character is by far the most important. Din’s Legacy offers you a wide array of classes to choose from, however, not all classes are available from the get-go. Through the mutation system in the game, you’ll be able to combine classes into new classes which then become unlocked. Leveling up your character will grant mutation points allowing you to merge your current skills with the skill-set of a chosen class, creating a hybrid. The game truly shines in making you feel like a proper mutant. A few examples of the classes available once unlocked are Gladiator, Shaman, Fire Mage, Hunter, Druid, Necromancer, Blackguard, Minstrel, Nightshade, and many, many more.
All of this makes Din’s Legacy a complex game as you can fully shape your character, but with great power comes great responsibility. If you’re not careful you can also create a pretty awful character. Each time you level up you gain points to distribute in stats and skills. Stat points are the main staple of your character and these will also influence which pieces of gear you can wear. You’ll notice that you need different stats to wear heavy plate armor than spellcasting robes, which require intellect. While it would seem obvious to pour all your points into your main stat, this is not wise, as you will also need to spend at least some points in other secondary stats like vitality to increase your hitpoints. While adding points to skill and abilities you face the same issue, each point in a skill will only increase it by a small amount.
What makes this genre fun is the abundance of loot and the excitement of finding rare gear with amazing abilities. Yet again, comparing two items is not always easy. How does one compare two swords with vastly different abilities, one sword provides more stats and a flat damage increase while the other sword provides a percentual damage increase and adds points to certain passive abilities? Plenty of data can be found in-game to help you make the decision and this seems to cater to the target audience of more experienced players. The overall difficulty of the game can also be customized in a very interesting way. When you start the game you get to decide the starting power level of monsters in-game.
Another interesting feature is that quests can expire, if you are asked to defend a village and you ignore the request, the village might be wiped out. There are real consequences to the world depending on your actions. Luckily you can also install gates around the villages to protect the NPCs inside. You might find doors in the wild by killing monsters just like any other item. Even more, lucky is that they only take up one bag space, as in all RPGs bag space limits how much loot you can drag to the next vendor.
Since Din’s Legacy is not that easy, a tutorial system is needed. The game floods you with a lot of information pop-ups at the beginning of the game and reading it all is a bit tedious but necessary.
Conclusion
Din’s Legacy is complex but fun game hiding behind low-end graphics and sound. While no game is for everyone, it’s clear that they had a very specific target audience in mind: older and more advanced players. This game is pretty much a gem for those who can look past the rugged exterior. Fans of old-school titles such as Diablo 2 and Dungeon Siege will love the freedom this game has to offer, but this freedom comes at the price of messing up your character.
Din's Legacy - Review,
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