This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Brian Mohr.

Role-playing games have been a big part of Sony’s console success both in the United States and abroad for the PlayStation 2. They are hoping to continue that trend on the PlayStation 3 with one of the system’s first RPG’s, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom. Sony Online is very familiar with the hack and slash genre with hits like Everquest and Champions of Norrath. Does Sony have a hit in the making or is Untold Legends another run of the mill role-playing title?

Overall the story and game experience are solid. You go on a near 20 hour exploration in the land of Dureth. In the beginning you are given the chance to choose one of three fighters - the warrior, scout, or mage - and then you can choose to play in one of four levels of difficulty. Both the inclusion of three different characters and four difficulty levels does provide a nice variation in play and gives players the opportunity to go back, especially considering each fighter has a slightly different story to tell.

From there, you are chosen by the king to go out and extinguish the barbarian unrest by facing wave after wave of enemies. Soon enough though, you realize that the king himself is killing his own people and now it’s up to you to stop him.

Like most other RPG’s, the game allows you to level up by gaining experience and various orbs in a variety of colors. Red orbs are for health, blue for mana, and yellow for essence. As far as experience goes, killing enemies will boost your statistics which in turn can be used to level up one of nine spells included in the game. Meanwhile, essence is used at checkpoints to upgrade a wide variety of items for you including new armor, upgraded weapons, and more.

One other nice thing in the game, although very small is the fact that friendly fighters join your cause once in a while. The fighters include villagers, animals and more, and you actually have the ability to give them armor and weapons. The only thing with these characters, however, is that they don’t stay forever. They’ll show up on occasion and then disappear.

Of course, you can’t talk about Untold Legends without discussing a key fact about the title and that is online play. Dark Kingdom does allow gamers to play with up to four people from any save point they have in the single-player game and you can then continue your quest offline after you’re done playing with friends. Overall this was one area in which Sony’s developers did a very good job.

Finally, the score from the Prague Orchestra is a very nice compliment to the game. Sadly, the voice acting couldn’t live up to the same standards and seriously needs an overhaul.

The big problem with Untold Legends is once you actually get into battle. Whether you’re the warrior, scout, or mage, all of them basically require you to push X and square repeatedly to pull off various attacks. Sadly this is what the game mostly requires of you and even the magician or mage is quite capable of hand-to-hand combat. Thankfully though, Dark Kingdom doesn’t solely rely on fighting and instead does have a few puzzle solving elements too.

Aside from the repetitive hack and slash nature of the game, there are some serious flaws in the game and environments. Although there are lots of characters on-screen at times, the result of this is some significant slowdown. On top of that, environments are rarely interactive unless getting stuck on or in objects is your idea of interactive. Add to that the fact that load times are rather long for a next-generation title and there’s little question this title was rushed to market.

As for the graphics, they look ok, but the environments are sparse. Most levels feature a few rocks and barrels and then much of the rest of the area is wide open space. What gets worse than that is the fact that areas will actually look empty and then enemies magically appear from nowhere. Meanwhile, the camera in Untold Legends is pretty rough too. Walls, trees, rocks, and more will get in your way during battle and block your view of the action.

Sadly, the last thing that needs to be mentioned particularly for a PlayStation 3 launch title is the exclusion of the motion capability in the SIXAXIS controller. Unlike just about every other launch title on the market, Dark Kingdom doesn’t utilize it at all.

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom isn’t a terrible experience on the PlayStation 3, but it certainly isn’t the role-playing game most are hoping for either. Instead, it’s probably more of a title for RPG fanatics as the game’s graphics and repetitive gameplay pull it down. Certainly there are some good elements to the game like its online play and various upgradeable options. In the end though, Untold Legends sticks to its roots and doesn’t quite feel like it’s made the jump to the next-generation.

The game has very repetitive hack and slash gameplay that utilizes just a few buttons.

Graphics look decent, but the game suffers from slowdown and a poor camera.

Voice acting isn’t very desirable, but the music score is very impressive

Not a very enjoyable experience because of the gameplay and the fact it doesn’t feel next-gen.

Online mode should give players a bit more to do, but still suffers from poor hack and slash.