Legendary Wars Review
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Legendary Wars Review

Our Review by Chris Hall on January 28th, 2011
Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: TEDIOUS
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Legendary Wars is a solid side scrolling castle defense game, but it requires more micromanagement than I'm willing to put in.


Developer: Liv Games
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

Graphics / Sound Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar
Game Controls Rating: starstarstarblankstarblankstar
Gameplay Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar

Legendary Wars is a lot like other side scrolling defense games (Trenches, Epic War 3), but it has a few major differences that make it stand out quite a bit. In fact, calling it a straight defense game is hard to do, as it contains far more RTS elements than other games in the genre.

Like the rest though, the basics of Legendary War are the same. You have a castle to defend on the left (on most levels) and you must either defend or fight your way to the other castle on the right. Winning in this particular game requires a good deal of skill, but the basic idea is just to have more, stronger troops than the opposing force to win.

The RTS elements come in to play right from the start, with the game having you use miners to collect gems that are used to build troops. This subtle change may seem subtle, but with gem collection (done with a tap) and between level resources being funneled into the miner upgrades, it really does make a big difference in the game. Also different is the fact that you can build as many troops as you want, as long as you have the resources. Troop limits and things of the sort are a total non-issue in Legendary War.

Most different though is the way the troop movements work in Legendary War. Instead of just having one lane of attack, Legendary Wars uses three. When you build a unit it is assigned to a specific lane, but can be moved manually if necessary. Units aren't intelligent though, so if you are trying to defend your castle and your unit is in the wrong lane, say goodbye to all your handiwork. Having three lanes to deal with, as well as non-intelligent, straight forward walkers, as well as having to deal with the miners gem collection in battle makes Legendary War a gold mine for fans of micromanagement.

Unfortunately for me, I don't have a big soft spot in my heart for micromanagement. I like the upgrade aspects of the game, as well as the basic attacking, but having to deal with unintelligent units walking in specific lanes is a bit beyond me. Here's what I would like to see. I think the lane idea works fine as a way to further micromanage your attacks or defenses, but the global attack and defense buttons need to be intelligent. If I hit the global attack button, my units should just attack anyone that's in front of them in any direction, same with the global defense button. It would also be nice to have some preset formations that you could activate in a pinch. For example, if I could hit a button that would automatically put archers behind the knights, my defenses would be much more successful.

Aside from my micromanagement woes, I like the path that Legendary War takes with the graphics and the story. Both are rich with detail, but not so crazy that you don't know what's going on. In other words, it's pretty and in-depth, but never confusing or hopeless. As long as you don't go into Legendary Wars thinking that you will be playing some easy to figure out side scrolling defense game, you should be fine.

iPhone Screenshots

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iPad Screenshots

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