Have you ever killed enemies in tactical games using alchemical marks, applying the effects of rubedo, nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and activating gold, scarlet, silver and bronze catalysts? But in Black Legend, these still incomprehensible (I’ll explain soon!) Things can be done. But how interesting were these mechanics and did they help the game?
Скорость1
There, here, back – but we are now unpleasant
Black Legend is a story – driven tactical RPG. True, the plot is pretty standard and not burdened with special intrigues. We play as mercenaries who are trying to save the inhabitants of the city of Grant – the alchemist Mephisto and his cultists have unleashed a poisonous fog on the streets that drives you crazy and kills. Many tried to escape and help the residents, but, of course, only we have to do it.
The local guild of merchants becomes the base for mercenaries, where we trade, replenish a squad of four fighters with new mercenaries (if any) and get main and additional tasks. And throughout the game we run from the guild to some area of the city and back, performing mostly simple quests.
Just arrived, and again on the road.
Unblock the passage to the port, go back, find out what happened to our scouts, and go back, kill one of the leaders of the cult and go back. Find an artisan in the customs area and show him this, and he, of course, will ask you to go back to the merchants’ guild so that we can take something for him and come back … Oh my God!
As a result, the whole game comes down to such a running around the districts and intricate streets of Grant. But a normal map was not brought here – instead, they offer to navigate by the signs on the pillars, where the location of the north, south, west and east changes depending on which side you look at the signs.
You can get used to such navigation, but not immediately.
At the same time, the city itself is empty. This, on the one hand, is explained by the plot (the survivors sit in their homes, and only cultists and looters roam the streets), but on the other hand, it would still be possible to come up with something, add scenes and situations. Only occasionally are there rare characters who issue a side quest and agree to join us in exchange for help.
The only interesting side-episode has to do with these strange ladies.
Well at least, with the atmosphere more or less worked out. Everything is gloomy and painful, there are barricades and gallows with corpses all around. And the architecture is non-trivial – medieval, XVII century, reminiscent of the Gothic (the authors speak of Scottish).
There are many cemeteries, monuments and high fences in the city.
Interclass equality
In the gameplay itself, everything seems to be more diverse. Mercenaries can be of 15 different classes. Moreover, the class becomes available after we find all of its profile equipment. Then we find equipment for another specialization, and so on – as a result, they are allowed to change the class for which the game automatically puts the best “equipment” on the character at any time.
There are a lot of equipment here, and you can take unique ones from the bosses.
It is also interesting that each weapon gives active and passive abilities for one or even several classes. And these skills can be learned as they are used (passive ones are learned just during a fight) – after the ability is learned, it will be allowed to be used as an interclass one. This is a really interesting mechanic that encourages experimentation and selection of different specializations, skills and their combinations.
Only the strongest ability of each class cannot be used as an interclass ability.
Body alchemy
In addition, the system of alchemical marks mentioned at the very beginning of the article works in Black Legend , which here correspond to the humoral doctrine of the four fluids in the human body. We must accordingly cause an imbalance in these fluids. Marks (“humors”) are applied by skills, and their combinations are poured into unstable catalysts of different colors. For example, from nigredo (black) and rubedo (red), a scarlet catalyst is obtained, and from rubedo and citrinitas (yellow), a bronze one. And then you need to use catalyst attacks that do huge damage. This works both against enemies and against our charges.
Now we will remove the enemy with one shot.
Characters can also be equipped with special items that use these catalysts – for example, one inflicts bleeding when a target is crimson catalyzed, and the other restores 5% of maximum health for each rubedo mark on the enemy.
It sounds tricky, but in reality everything is simpler: you first need to spud enemies with skills, without bothering too much, they impose citrinitas or, forgive, nigredo, and then finish off with catalyst strikes. And it is advisable to do it from the flank or rear – this way the damage is greater.
Backstab duelists and rogues are especially useful.
And the balance and brains were not delivered
And everything would be fine, but in Black Legend there are obvious problems with the balance. There are a lot of enemies, equipment and consumables are pouring out of all, plus boxes with the same good all around. Classes open quickly enough, and the experience flows like a river. And after a while, you stop meeting resistance, and your pockets crack from cool equipment, potions and money, which simply have nowhere to go. In addition, the enemy AI is frankly dull – for some reason, opponents rarely finish off the fighters hung with marks.
Even bosses do not pose much of a threat – it’s just longer to tinker with them.
So I had it on the “custom” level of difficulty, where, compared to the usual one, I reduced the experience gain for my heroes. Those who played on “hard” write on Steam that there is about the same situation. But in any case, if you want to get at least some kind of challenge from Black Legend not only at the beginning of the game, then turn the difficulty to the maximum, forbidding you to save during battles and use stones that resurrect allies. You can also reduce the number of enemies and equipment dropped – as they say, less is better.
Before the battle, you need to correctly place the heroes.
The Black Legend have interesting ideas, but, as often happens in such cases, not all turned to the implementation. This I have not yet said about the not very user-friendly interface, technical flaws, bugs and crashes, which, however, actively manage patches. And if the authors listen to the feedback, fix the AI, adjust the balance and add a map, only then it will be possible to enjoy Black Legend .
Pros: Ability to change classes on the go, as well as learn and use interclass skills; original mechanics based on body alchemy are used in battles; many types of equipment; beautiful architecture on the levels.
Cons: dull runs across locations without a normal map; problems with optimization, balance and AI of enemies; bugs and crashes; outdated graphics.
