Developer: Renovation Publisher: Telenet Release: 09/21/90 Genre: Shooter
What the hell happened here? Renovation/Telenet was no strangers to the shooter genre. They blessed the Sega Genesis with many of its best shooters such as Gaiares, Granada, and Sol-Deace. So the thought of their developers bringing their talents to the PC Engine CD should be cause for celebration. We saw what they could do with cutscenes and such on the Genesis and Sega CD so I expected nothing less than greatness. But something went horribly wrong and rather than creating an all-time classic they instead made one of the worst shooters of all time in Legion. Yes the game truly is that bad. Let me tell you all the reasons why.
Legion is unique in that your pilot narrates his adventure like the Captain’s Log in Star Trek. At the beginning of each level he will give some exposition be it relating to the current planet you are inhabiting or the ongoing war effort. Surprisingly it is all in English. The dialogue can be a bit melodramatic but I will admit it is cool nonetheless. Next to the CD soundtrack this is one of the few good things I can say about the game.
Pretty much all of the weapons are terrible and suffer in some way. The default Vulcan shot is weak but grows in power with successive power-ups. But it covers a small radius which is detrimental in this game. The homing missiles are good for chasing enemies as soon as they appear. Unfortunately they lack power and if you come across multiple stronger ships (a common occurrence) they will chase and leave you defenseless. The only one worth a damn is the spread shot. Even at the lowest level it has a wide spread and once fully powered blankets a good portion of the screen. But to get to that point requires surviving long enough collect multiples of the same weapon. That is a mighty task that even the best shooter pros will find daunting.
There are a few others that help but would have been more useful if they dropped more often. You can get secondary missiles for ground targets, the too crucial for words barrier, and special move. In another baffling move there is no UI indicator for how many uses of the special move you have. In addition there are two; a smart bomb and a missile shower. But how you manually activate either one or if you can is a mystery. In a sea of bad decisions I guess this one should not be surprising but still. What is more egregious is the lack of any speed power-up. Legion desperately needs it, even more so than the barrier as it starts off near impossible and only gets worse from there.
Within the first few seconds of starting Legion you will die. It will come swiftly and unexpectedly. Enemies are aggressive and significantly faster than you. They don’t just take one pot shot and disappear; they will frequently circle back for another crack. The cheap deaths do not stop there. Legion revels in its gotcha moments that are completely unfair. From pieces of the environment that break suddenly to split second enemy spawns it features all the cheap tricks in the book. The best course of action becomes destroying them before they get a shot off but since your weapons are not worth a damn until max level good luck. Even worse death resets you back to the default Vulcan shot at which point the death spiral inevitably happens and it is game over.
If you can tolerate the frustrating first level it does get slightly better. You can choose your route through the game and the difficulty varies from one stage to the next. The lower path has one less level but is the harder of the two routes. Curiously you can also do them out of order with the intended last level coming earlier. This final stage is……..man. I have dealt with my share of bull shit in video games but Legion takes it to another level here. Between the infinite lasers fired in the middle of the screen, enclosing walls, and dubious enemy placement I defy anyone that suggests it was play tested before release. Even navigating this mess with an emulator was a harrowing ordeal. If their goal was to create the most annoying shooter ever they succeeded, for what it is worth. No one should ever play it however.
In Closing
Legion is an awful game. It has no redeeming qualities, be it production values or gameplay. The fact that no one brought it over to the US despite needing no localization speaks volumes. I hated almost every minute I spent with this game and regret it. Let this fade in to obscurity and stay there.
