Minimum Requirements:

CPU : 450MHz Intel or AMD processor
RAM : 128 MB
Video : 16 MB DirectX 7.0 compatible video card
Operating System : Windows 9X
Internet Connection: 56k+( Broadband recommended); $9.99/month subscription

Developers who get involved in the pay-to-play online gaming know that they need to come up with something exciting and unique to attract customers and their hard-earned dollars. Luckily in the short time that massively multiplayer online games have been on the scene, we have seen the best that the genre has to offer, and the worst. So when Maximum Charisma sent me Fighting Legends, I was hoping to see something completely different from what I was used to seeing from the MMORPG games released before it. I should have been careful what I wished for, because I sure did get it. Fighting Legends is a wacky, cartoonish online game that blends some real-time strategy elements with role-playing elements, while keeping everything simple so that anyone could play. But is different always a good thing?

The story takes place before time, where a giant robot entity known as LERGAN was traveling through deep space, carrying with it dozens of species from various galaxies. A spider-janitor, known as Blathak went nuts and decided to sabotage LERGAN's guidance system. LERGAN would crash on a planet, and all of the species on LERGAN and on the planet were deformed and scattered. Nine clans would emerge, and their search for enlightenment and survival begins.

Gameplay:

The main character that you will control is an Avatar. The Avatar is an immortal, and cannot be permanently killed in battle. However, the Avatar can die of old age. How can an immortal die of old age? I don't know, but it's possible in Fighting Legends. Once you select your Avatar from one of the nine clans, you must then select one of five archetypes to define the role of your avatar. The archetypes range from melee, missile, Mpow, techniq, and speed. While melee, missile, and speed are pretty much self-explanatory, a character with a Mpow archetype will focus on mana attacks, where someone with a techniq archetype combines melee and healing. The archetype will change the appearance of your avatar, thus creating forty-five distinctive characters in the game. Many of your operations will revolve around your base, which can be summoned anytime. When summoned, you can create additional squad members, research new abilities, and regenerate your current damaged fighters. Your base is just as vulnerable to attack as you are, and should your base succumb to enemy attacks, any characters that you have summoned will die. What make matter's worse is that if you die, they will transport you to the nearest safe zone. This can put players in a loop, especially if they have not explored that particular area. I know that I have been fighting in one area, then the next I was in a zone where they were selling hamburgers!

Combat in this game is simple in design, but marred by technical glitches and bad camera control. You are given two different interactions: passive and aggressive. You will need to keep an eye on this when you interact with characters, because your squad will go into an auto-attack mode when aggressive. Many times, staying in the passive mode isn't good enough for the enemy, and will attack anyway. If you decide to engage in battle, the fight becomes turn based, where you have an active time meter (a la Final Fantasy), and once the bar goes green the character will attack. If you have squad members at your side, you are able to set up formations. However, this feature is mostly cosmetic, and really does not give you any advantage when in battle. This is hampered even further with lag and camera control. Often, when you rotate the camera while moving, some characters seem to slide around the field. I found myself on occasion looking for one of my squad, only to find they guy all the way down the hill, which brings up another problem. Fighting Legends has areas where a character cannot advance, usually in the form of a cliff. A lot of times you don't know that you have reached a cliff until you have gone over it. And once you go over, you cannot go back up because the movement keys seem to disable and you become stuck. Luckily, I have used the game's bad camera control and squad formations to get myself unstuck, but I should not need to go that far. A simple invisible barrier like the one that is on your base would remedy the problem. Getting stuck doesn't end there. Walking to a plant will get you stuck, and serious lag will freeze your movement altogether.

Leveling Up is basically the same found in other MMORPG with a few new additions. I have noticed that it seems to be a lot easier to gain levels then in a game like Everquest. The thing is that you don't figure that out until you advance several zones ahead, because the early zones are very skimpy on the experience and resources. While gaining levels is easy, researching new abilities seems a bit high. Some abilities require you to have at least seven thousand total resources, so being in zones that are only giving 10-20 total resources, but giving almost double experience doesn't seem a bit balanced. Once you gain enough experience, the coring up and hero abilities become available. Coring up allows you to research new abilities, whereas the hero ability allows you to promote any one of your characters to immortal status. As stated earlier, your character will eventually die of old age, so you will eventually need to select an heir to continue your journey.

Because some quests will be more than one person to handle, interaction between players will come into play. Like in Everquest, you can set up temporary alliances or guilds, which are more permanent. The beauty of this is that you could easily have four guild members online, but could travel in a pack of twenty! The number of characters can increase rather fast with more members, and before you know, you have a full-fledged army. And combat is not just limited to the various land creatures, as player vs. player combat is active and can happen anytime. So not only do you have to worry about that big, ugly monster on the hill, you have to worry about that big, ugly player who is trying to sneak up on you for a surprise attack.

Graphics/Sound:

Fighting Legend's graphics are full of color, but lack detail. The land that you travel on is just a solid color, with some occasional dynamic lighting thrown in. The trees are very blocky and lacks any sense of imagination. The characters and buildings have more detail, but their low polygon count gives them a blocky look as well. One would think that this would mean better framerates, but even on my P3 1Ghz system with a GF2 vid card, the game at maximum detail would rarely go above 30fps. The framerate would usually dip into the single digits whenever I would enter a new zone. It really made no sense because maximum detail didn't seem all that maximum. Nevertheless, the game runs in real-time, letting the player play in the day and at night. Those who might join guilds may want to turn everything down, because having too many characters on the screen and fighting will cause major lag and some significant slowdown. Because the design of the game is marketed to all ages, I was surprised to see that the game has a "teen" rating attached to it. Though you do engage in "cartoon violence," there is no blood and defeated foes do not just lay around, but instead they disappear, and their ghost descends into the heavens. Nothing more than what kids sees Saturday mornings while watching Power Rangers.

Besides the ancient Chinese music that you hear in the intro of the game, the music is very repetitive and does not add any excitement to the overall atmosphere of the game. You can't have cartoonish graphics without cartoonish sounds, though the ones found in Fighting Legends are somewhat vacant. Most of the sounds only occur when you engage with the enemy, and are limited to a screech or a loud, deep grunt. Other than the sword, most of the other weapons sound like you are shooting rubber at each other.

Multiplayer/Devices:

A large part of the game is based on player interaction. The sad thing is, that's the one thing Fighting Legends is lacking. I have rarely been in a zone where there was more than fifteen people, while a third of them are not GM's. That's not to say that the GM's are a nuisance to have in the zones. In fact, they are extremely helpful, and will even guide you through some quests in the game. Player vs. Player in Fighting Legends has not fully been realized because everyone is really kind to one another in the game. But that's to be expected due to the overall environment that players are put in. Even with a low population on the servers, lag can get unbearable at times, which is something you don't want to worry about when you are trying to take on a high level monster.

If you have played MMORPG's with gamevoice and teamsound, then you already know the benefits of using those selected devices. Talking directly to another player without having to type everything that you want to say speeds the game up quite a bit, and allows you to focus more on playing the game than typing on the game. Couple that with voice commands, and you just play the game with your mouse.

The Wrap-up:

Those who have been looking for a different kind of MMORPG will definitely find something in Fighting Legends. Yet with low population, dated graphics, bad camera control, and some nasty graphics, those who enter the world of Fighting Legends may not stay long. That does not include the fact that you have to bear with these problems for $9.99 a month. Nevertheless, like many massive multiplayer online games, there is plenty of room for improvement. Hopefully this game will improve, or else it may just become a legend.