Geekatana Game Review: Chaos Legion

Chaos Legion is a hack and slash game developed and published by Capcom. It was first released about a month after Devil May Cry 2 back in 2003 with DMC seeing its debut in January and Chaos legion being released in March of that same year. With DMC 2 taking up the hype back then Chaos Legion didn't get enough hype to be its own thing.

Folks also saw Chaos Legion as Capcom's way of trying to duplicate the success of Devil May Cry and milking the concept dry. It had garnered mix reviews as well. But is the game really as bad as they say it is? So I eventually got a copy of the game recently and see what's the fuzz is really about.

Chaos Legion is a hack and slash game with a gothic opera theme based on Tow Ubukata's novel with the same name. It's about Sieg Wahrheit who is a Knight of the Dark Glyphs who can summon creatures called "Chaos Legion" who was given the command of the Order of St. Overia to stop Victor Delacroix who used to be his former friend. Victor plans to unleash Azrael and destroy all of existence and Sieg is the only person who can stop him.

The plot is serviceable if only they focused more on it rather than most of the game having you playing through the stages that has little to do with the plot aside from its the city where the villain is or the story happening. Most of the boss battles impressive as they are tend to have little to do with the story as just being there. There is like only three plot related Bosses in the entire game.

The gameplay is pretty much on its core reminiscence of Devil May Cry with a few major drawbacks. The game for starters has little combo potential outside of using the Chaos legion that Sieg can summon. His sword can do around 4-6 combo slashes and the secondary attack button is pretty much a special that uses up Spirit meter which does less damage and is twice as hard to build up.

The game is greatly unbalanced too with your character required to kill all the enemies or hit certain specific enemies in an area in order to proceed but that's easier said than done since before you get to said enemy you need to go through thirty or fifty other monsters that will try to chunk off your health bar. You will have your ass handed to you a number of times until you get good at the game.

It doesn't help that your sword barely damages these bosses unless you hit said boss certain weak spots with some really precise sword swings while at the same time avoiding the ten to fifty enemies that is also in the room wanting to slice you for dinner. Some legion gives you certain abilities like a double jump and a counter ability but knowing which legion to use can drastically change to you being screwed or having a fighting chance to win. 

Players will get to unlock the cute Arcia with you finish the game on Normal mode who has two pare of guns that fire like machine guns giving her the range advantage in a fight sadly she moves much slower when in shooting position and is vulnerable to attacks from the side and behind making her more of a challenge to use. Also play with a gamepad since it will make the game less painful to play.

There is also the issue of your Legion summon having a lifebar that can be killed off by a random enemy after two or three hits even if you level up their defense stat making the game pretty much a hit and run game and praying to high heavens the enemy won't get a lucky hit in. It's tedious and feels more like a grind than being actually fun.

This game is pretty much the hack and slash version of a SHMUPS Bullet Hell where it's more about trying not to die than actually taking out the enemy. Hardcore gamers who likes a challenge will like this game on how difficult the game can get even at an Easy game setting. It also doesn't help that the music for the game are forgettable.

The stages lack variety too with nearly every stage being this ruined city setting with one or two forest setting put in the mix. Not to mention ruin city these stages look all muddy and gray with little hint of color. All the 14 stages are way too long with no checkpoints. When you die you are send back at the beginning of said stage. Hopefully if they decide to make a sequel or reboot they would address these issues.

  

Overall Chaos Legion is a passable game that could have had a lot of potential if it didn't have the drawbacks of lacking the gameplay and story elements. This game is more of a step back to what the hack and slash genre was already. It's a challenge for players who want more difficulty in their games but new and casual players will find this game hard to get into and enjoy. Definitely a game not for everyone.