Meet Sun Soo, the hero of New Legends.   Screenshot Gallery

New Legends
Developer: Infinite Machine
Publisher: Infogrames

Although it was absent from the show floor, Jedi Knight designer Justin Chin's game New Legends was shown off-site to a select group of press.  Based on the Unreal engine, this third person action game takes place in China, telling the story of the character you play, Sun Soo, and how he fights to free his homeland and country from oppression of the warlord Xao Gon.

New Legends stands out because it takes the existing tenets of third person action game design and adds new twists.  This is very much a game about melee combat, requiring the player to engage enemies as opposed to using a sniper rifle to pop them off from a distance.  Instead of having an arsenal of tens of weapons in his backpack, Sun Soo will only be able to carry four weapons at a time.  Thus players will have to make strategic decisions about which weapons to carry forward.

One of the best innovations in New Legends is the weapon combat system.  Players will be able to hold two weapons at a time such as a sword in one hand and a gun in the other.  Shields will also be available to put in the player's hands.  Although we were worried the combat might become too complicated with multiple weapons to control, the team at Infinite Machines has devised an intuitive mouse click system – click the left button to control left-handed weapons and vice-versa.  Some of the larger weapons such as the rocket launcher will require the player to use both hands in order to operate them.

The levels in New Legends are gigantic in scope and detail featuring huge outdoor areas similar in style to Jedi Knight.  What's most impressive is the fact that most of the game's levels are already finished in a rough form at such an early date, making New Legend's 2001 ship date very realistic.

There are quite a few first and third person action games due out over the next 18 months, but very few have any innovation in the way the game is played.  New Legends is one of only a handful of games breaking new ground in its play mechanic.  By taking what gamers like about third person action games and augmenting it with a new combat system, New Legends has the feel of Jedi Knight meets Soul Calibur and is bound to turn heads simply based on its uniqueness and epic scope.