The Warring States of NPF - Ever Wanted To Shoot A Minotaur With A Rocket Launcher? WELL NOW YOU CAN!

So I was in EB today, just browsing, and I noticed that Legendary had come out, and I was like "Hey, cool." So I bought it and played it and OH MY GOD YOU CAN SHOOT MINOTAUR IN THE FACE WITH A ROCKET LAUNCHER AND IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO KILL THEM BUT NOT REALLY 'CAUSE HOLY SHIT THEY'RE TOUGH.

So the plot of the game is that there's these two orders - the Black Order, and the Council Of 98. A long time ago, terrible beasts roamed the land and pretty much made life suck. It was discovered that these beasts were all formed of magical energy. Then a group of guys found a rock, which emanated the same energy as these terrible monsters - so they did what anyone would do: carved it into a box and used it to seal all the terrible baddies away.

Now, these guys formed the Council Of 98 - they're the good guys. They wanna protect mankind. They keep an eye on everything, and make sure we don't blow ourselves up with science or something. The Black Order, though, used to be part of the Council - they believed that it was their right to rule humanity - in order to help us.

So the two have been fighting ever since. Now, you're a freelance thief named Charles Deckard. The Black Order wants you to go to a New York museum and open what is believed to be Pandora's Box, and take whatever is inside. So you're like "Yeah, sure, whatever."

So you go to the museum, get in, get to the box, open it up, and in the process, you get a signet burned into your hand. Ow. Anyways, all of a sudden, a pillar of light erupts from the open box and the museum starts falling apart and stuff. Great, you've triggered an earthquake. The you rush outside where flocks of griffons tear through the skies, the citizens, cars - they just start tearing everything.

Then there's also this Golem, who, as you're fleeing from the Griffons 'cause all you've got is this crappy pistol, starts building itself. And it's not like, some Metal Golem shit from Diablo II, this is like, semi trucks and building debris drawn together to form this thing that rivals the Empire State Building. And then it goes for a walk through downtown New York - taking in the sights and sounds - literally: there's a guy in a bus that's being drawn to the Golem to make an arm or something like that and he's all like "OHSHI-."

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Then there's the Werewolves. Now these guys are born from Simos legends... I think. Anyways, they've got an increased metabolism - meaning that while their bodies can heal much faster than anything else, they're always hungry... so they're always hunting. Which kinda sucks for Deckard.

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And then you've got the Tentacles. These things come from any water source - like the sewers, manholes, and gratings. They're Echidna Tentacles - the "Mother of all Monsters" is a beautiful woman. Who just happens to have the body of a snake. She is apparently the mother of every horrible monster in Greek myth, and uses her tentacles/body to draw you into the murky depths. There's also Blood Ticks - specifically called "The Children Of Tsuchigomonu or something like that - that drop from an egg sac and latch onto you.

You also have Fire Drakes, which are kinda like really big dogs. That are made of fire. That spit fire at you. They're like... flamethrowers. On legs. Yeah.

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Ooh! And the Nari! They're kinda like Satyrs, except instead of having half a goat and half a man, you've got half of a child and... a dragonfly? Anyways, they can become intangible - they don't exist technically and can't be killed, and they can also possess stuff and throw it at Deckard.

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Then there's the tough stuff - Griffons, Minotaur and the Kraken. These guys can take a but of a beating. Take a shotgun, as much ammo as you can carry, and the Minotaur will have impaled you on its horns before you kill it. Oh yeah, they actually do that - the Minotaur impales stuff, and plays baseball with people, the Griffon grabs things/people in it's talons/mouth and takes off and the Kraken just kinda... tentacles people to death.

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The game play is fun, and though drags a bit in the beginning, once you get into the story - it picks up. From opening the box to where I'm at now, it's pretty epic. Watching a Kraken destroy Parliament is like... "Wow."
The plot holds up, blending science with magic - as well as keeping track of pretty much everything; objectives monster myths/realities, people, guns and all that stuff on Deckard's PDA. After you kill each creature, it leaves behind a little bit of magic, or Aquis Vitae, that through the Signet burned into his hand, Deckard is able to take the energy and replenish his health or power other objects.

There's a wide variety of weapons, a couple of good characters and thought I haven't beaten it yet, I've been playing since... seven/eight PM-ish and I'm still not bored. It's pretty fun.