Geryk Pre-Analysis: Land of Legends
Brooski - Columns - Comments - 07/22/05
Land of Legends plays just like a console game, which is to say it has no interface summary screens. You’re clicking on the comment link right now, aren’t you? There are plenty of console games with interface summary screens, like the one where you take the flying sailing ship with all the little kids and you have to open the inventory window to trade School Lunch and Hello Kitty items. You’re right. How could I have been so stupid.
The point remains that in console games, stuff happens sequentially on screen because console gamers are too stupid to do things out of order or they get all messed up. Comments link clicky clicky! PC elitist! You think Desslock wrote this! Relax. It’s not hurting you nearly as much to read this as it is for me to admit I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether to move the druid there...or there. To use the Regeneration spell on the paladin. Units in Land of Legends have special abilities, and fixed damage and hit points. You can tell exactly how many point of death your runner (weaselly elf guy) is going to inflict on the gnome gardener. I know. After all, I had to type it.
I meant what I said about the console feel, though. As you collect money in the give me the money phase, little money numbers float above each city in sequence. When characters talk to tell you what amazing event has just happened in your middle school, that comes across the bottom of the screen. In sequence, too, so it’s like characters are talking to each other. This revolutionary alternative to the Neverwinter Nights dialogue box has the major advantage of not being so goddamn tiny, plus you can just click the mouse a lot and it goes away. You won’t find out why you are trying to kill all the undead, but basic logic class might point you in the right direction. “Who are we to judge their undead lifestyle?” Indeed.
It’s amazing how much console strategy games feel like boardgames. You have a certain number of units. You can tell exactly what they can (or cannot) do in any given turn. Some units have missile attacks. Some are immune to retaliation. There is nothing quite like getting a bunch of monks together and karate kicking the heck out of a gnome thief or whatever it is. And it’s all accompanied by excellent interface design, like showing you exactly how far a unit can move once you click on it. Pass your cursor over a target and you can see what the attack and retaliation damage will be if you attack. Taking over cities takes time, which depends on Influence, which changes the position of a flag each turn in the appropriate flag-changing phase. It almost makes up for the lack of interface summary screens. I got you again, eh? I like the Skies of Arcadia, too. Just kidding.
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