Legion Arena arrives in the U.S.

[LlamaGod]

<strong>[ Game -> Preview ]</strong> - More info on <a href="http://www.tacticularcancer.com/wikitacticular/index.php?title=Legion Arena">Game: Legion Arena</a>

<a href="http://www.strategyfirst.com">Strategy First</a> has now released <a href="http://www.slitherine.com/">Slitherine Software's</a> new Roman strategy game <a href="http://www.legionarena.com/">Legion Arena</a>.

Here's the press release:

<blockquote>Following its release in Europe, Strategy First announced today the release of Legion Arena (preview) to stores across the United States. This latest strategy title from UK developer Slitherine Studios begins at the birth of the Roman Republic, and follows the country's rise through the Punic Wars until the rise of Caesar. Through a mix of real-time and turn-based combat, players command a growing army in combat against other civilizations of the time in historically accurate battles, including those against the Celts and Spartans. Victory and fame play an important role in expanding an army: fame, fortune, and conquered armies can all expand the might of Rome.

Legion Arena is priced at $39.99 and more information can be found on the official web site or by trying out the single player demo. The game can also be ordered direct from Slitherine Studios and is widely available in Europe through Black Bean Entertainment.</blockquote>


If it's anything like their old game <b>Legion</b>, i'm going to steer far far away.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Argh, I tried to check out the official site and it's slow as shit. Why do some many companies insist on stupid flash sites?

I finally got the POS to load after about 2 minutes and now I'm gonna try out the demo. Game seems interesting enough.

 

[LlamaGod]

Tell me what you think of it, I was actually almost gonna get it once because I wanted a new strategy game but I found out the dudes who did Legion made it and then I also found my Shadow Magic CD.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

So far I've been enjoying the demo, but that doesn't mean it has a few rough edges. For one thing, it seems to be a linear campaign, no plotting over a world map choosing your own battles. The battles themselves are nice, and I like how in the beginning you can place your troops and set up how they're going to attack (Slow defensive advance, offensive charge etc.), though I didn't really see much of a difference between what I chose because the demo was easy as shit. I just flung my troops at the enemy and they ran off after like 2 minutes of fighting.

Try it for yourself, I'm gonna have to play a bit more before I decide if I want to buy it or not.

 

[chaedwards]

I picked this up for 6 GB Pounds, and for that it's sweet. It is a linear campaign, but within that there's quite a lot of scope for change, as each unit gains experience with which you can buy skills, and these can lead to two identical starting units being very different after some battles. Additionally, you recruit units yourself as well, meaning that at the end of the 50 battle campaign, the army is likely to be heavily personalised. What I enjoy most is the more 'hands off approach' to fighting a battle, which is a tad more realistic than the Total War complete control approach.

All the other games made by Slitherine are 'take over the world' style games; reviews for them have tended to be negative because reviewers assume that they are low-grade Total War or Civ games, when they're actually a different type of 4x game - the grognards at wargamer.com certainly appreciate them. I have Chariots of War and enjoy it, and it's apparently an improvement over Legion. Spartan is meant to be even better, but I haven't found it cheap yet. www.deafgamers.com has pretty good reviews of all of them if you're interested in them at all.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Thanks for the info, mang.