[Arial Type]

Originally Posted by harald

Sure, if I could find a brand new, complete release with low shipping cost, I might spend that much. But not on every title! Also, the auction you posted doesn't even include the box. No way is that worth $100.

No, no, I ment a completely new game from a reunited Legend. Which will never happen, of course

Since most of the designers come directly from Infocom, I suspect many of the games share some of the hair-pulling aspects with their IF forefathers. Dead ends, unforeseeable death scenes, struggling with the text parser, you name it.

Dead ends and time limits were one of the main reasons I never completed Spellcasting series. Steve is merciless.
But I can't say the same about other Legend games, especially those that came out after 1993. Even in Gateway 1-2 or Eric the Unready most of the deaths could be "undo"ne without fear. And there are very few dead ends as far as I'm concerned.
Death Gate, Shannara, Callahan's - those play just like you normal graphical adventure games.

[Ascovel]

I was very fond of Legend as a studio devoted to more IF-like adventures. They should definitely be remembered for successfully continuing for many years certain traditions established by Infocom. However, I have mixed feelings about some of Legend's specific games.

I haven't played them all yet, but my favorite ones so far are Death Gate followed by Gateway. Those 2 were brilliant. I just wish Death Gate was a bit more challenging.

Spellcasting 101 didn't do it for me (nasty puzzles and not my kind of humor) and I never tried the sequels. Xanth and Eric were fun, but uneven and too silly to care sometimes (I prefer to play similarly pun-infested Quest for Glory games instead). Shannara was a nice piece of adventure gaming lite, but somewhat modest in its ambitions.

I was completely bored by Mission Critical and gave up on it after an hour or two - I don't understand the appeal it has for many people. Blackstone was very well made, but it finally disgusted me to the point I stopped playing near the end. Far too much physical and mental torture for me to stomach.

Oh, and Superhero League of Hoboken had a neat premise, but was weakly realized and repetitive.

[harald]

Originally Posted by Arial Type

No, no, I ment a completely new game from a reunited Legend. Which will never happen, of course

Dead ends and time limits were one of the main reasons I never completed Spellcasting series. Steve is merciless.
But I can't say the same about other Legend games, especially those that came out after 1993. Even in Gateway 1-2 or Eric the Unready most of the deaths could be "undo"ne without fear. And there are very few dead ends as far as I'm concerned.
Death Gate, Shannara, Callahan's - those play just like you normal graphical adventure games.

Oh, now I see. Thanks for clarifying that. I suppose it's time to start saving up for some of these.

[rtrooney]

I loved the Legend games. Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is always in my top-ten favorites of all time list. Unfortunately, it and Shanara, which I didn't like, were published/distributed by Take2. I don't believe it was the happiest of relationships, and may have lead to the ultimate demise of Legend.

[Oscar]

I didn't think much of Shannara either, it's probably the weakest Legend game. It looked very similar to Death Gate but I felt that the writing wasn't nearly as good. It didn't have the humor of Xanth or Gate and I'm not really into the straight fantasy stuff, so that might have something to do with it. But I did like some of the characters, and the ending was really well done.

[ClassicADV]

Another fan of Legend Ent here. Already enjoying text adventures, the addition of a graphical window, not to mention an ever present inventory, for me at least provided further immersion. Timequest, Eric, and the two Gateway games would be my favorite. Xanth had some great imagery, but many of the puzzles were of the '...really?' variety. Of their later games Callahan's and Blackstone were both very interesting, the latter being horrific in its description of actual early medical procedures.

[Giles Habibula]

Apologies if this has been posted already, but I just ran across a recent interview with Josh Mandel regarding "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon".

It's on Matt Chat, which is a long-running series on Youtube. Lots of good interviews with developers...

[Banter]

I love the Legend adventures. Callahan's and Blackstone Chronicles are certainly on my top-ten favorite adventures of all time. I wish they hadn't done so much medieval fantasy games, I can't bring myself to enjoy that kind of setting

It is a tragedy they went under. They were the only company to focus on adapting literary works to the adventure genre, and no other company has picked up the torch since. Their games were sophisticated, intelligent and well designed. I miss these types of games a lot.

[Agustin]

Legend was, simply put, the most consistently good adventure game company. LucasArts, Sierra, Infocom, they all had their duds. Not Legend. Since this thread has been revived, I'd like to mention that I've been working on an exhaustive article that will cover the history of Legend in addition to reviews for all their games

By far their most overlooked title is Mission Critical, which is in my opinion the best sci-fi adventure ever made.

[Agustin]

Originally Posted by Ascovel

I was completely bored by Mission Critical and gave up on it after an hour or two - I don't understand the appeal it has for many people.

The first half is quite run-of-the-mill alright, but it's the surprisingly great second part that elevates the game to its cult status. The conclusion is one of the most thought-provoking in the history of gaming, period.

[Arial Type]

Originally Posted by Agustin

By far their most overlooked title is Mission Critical, which is in my opinion the best sci-fi adventure ever made.

For me, Gateway 1 and especially 2 were far superior. But Mission Critical had its moments, although the only thing I ran recall nowdays is that smart strategy game.
And please let us know when the article is ready The world needs more great articles about this wonderful company.

[Banter]

It is a shame Mandel seems to have given up on adventures for the moment. Is any of the other Legend developers working on something adventure related? I would love to pay for their games and play them

[Agustin]

Originally Posted by Arial Type

For me, Gateway 1 and especially 2 were far superior. But Mission Critical had its moments, although the only thing I ran recall nowdays is that smart strategy game.
And please let us know when the article is ready The world needs more great articles about this wonderful company.

Certainly, the Gateway series come very close. Both installments. But it's the poetical conclusion of Mission Critical which literally made the game for me; rarely has an ending improved my views so much. In retrospective, it's the Legend title that has stuck with me the most (and bear in mind I'm a hardcore fan of Gateway, including the books).

So far the Legend team have been working on social games mostly. Bates and Verdu work at Zynga for example. Kind of discouraging, yes, but you never know what the future can hold...

[ozzie]

I think Mission Critical's critical flaw is that as a player you have little reason to care about this critical mission. You never knew the crew, you never knew their plight, heck, the only person you get to know better is the traitor! Not exactly a smart storytelling choice.
I was disappointed by the sterility of the spaceship and by the lack of traces the crew left behind that could've told of the lives they lived on board. Maybe then I would've cared about this mission. Instead, I simply shrugged.

But the game does indeed get better later on and the ending moved me quite a bit. So I'm glad I didn't stop playing! It's not a classic, but it has its worthwhile moments.

[Oscar]

I think the problem with Mission Critical is that they show us what happens to the ship in the intro, and then put us into the protagonist's shoes who is not supposed to know what happened. The first half of the game relies on mystery and atmosphere of being on an abandoned ship, but when we know everything that happened there is not much to engage you except the puzzles. Then again, the fact some people loved it and saw it as Legend's best game suggests otherwise.