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Legend: Hand of God - All News

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Thursday - November 20, 2008
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Box Art

Thursday - November 20, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Review @ ComputerGames.ro

by Magerette, 17:59

ComputerGames.ro has posted their review for Master Creating's and dtp's Legend:Hand of God, giving it a score of 50/100. About the only thing they liked was the music. Their conclusion leaves no doubt, however, that this game is not on their list of favorites:

At least when it comes to music, the game is a bit better. In cities, the soundtrack is reminiscent of “The Gladiator”, and the fighting sequences feature a heavy foreground beat, although the rhythm isn’t really that diversified. On the other hand, environmental sounds are rather generic. The “ding” sound that loot makes when falling on the ground reminds me of Diablo, and so does the malicious giggle goblins make. Precisely because they are so familiar to any Action-RPG enthusiast, these sounds make the game feel a bit comfortable.

Any likeness to Diablo ends here though. I’d like to be able to write that Legend: Hand of God is a Diablo clone, but I’d be just tainting the flawless image of a good game, because Legend is nothing more than a hack & slash game in which you’re most successful when stuffed up with potions and in which you’re offered nothing more than a click-frenzy.

The level cap can’t be reached through a single run through the game, but I can’t see anyone who would want to replay the game on a higher level of difficulty. The lack of imagination is obvious even by the limited variation in items you get to pick up. And if the introductory movie had a bit of a spark in it, the ending [is]nothing more than concept art.

Ultimately, I think that the developers got bored before finishing Legend: Hand of God. And considering the game’s quality, it’s not really worth the admission price.

Source: Blues News

Wednesday - September 24, 2008

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Review

by Dhruin, 08:47

Michael 'txa1265' Anderson takes a look at Master Creating's Legend: Hand of God in our latest review:

Legend: Hand of God is a single-player game in the action-RPG genre created by developer Master Creating. Their prior entry was 2005's highly flawed but promising Restricted Area, an action-RPG in a post-apocalyptic setting. That game had many technical issues as well as an unremarkable overall feeling, and suffered from poor localization and terrible voice acting in the English translation. Legend: Hand of God features improved visuals, hand-crafted dungeons, a varied class system and skill tree. But the game is wrought with bugs and bad voice acting and a character that is annoying and won't ever be quiet. Whether you play for an hour, once through or with every class, you can rest assured that what you see is what you get: an average 'Diablo clone' that samples only the core features from the genre and adds nothing back.

Read it all here.

Wednesday - September 17, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Review @ Out of Eight

by Dhruin, 22:33

Out of Eights' review of Legend: Hand of God awards a reasonable 5/8, despite some major criticisms:

At the start of the game, you pick two character classes out of ten, each with its own skills tree. I decided to play a Battle-Monk, a combination of Faith (Cleric) and Villain (Thief). When I took a look at my upcoming skills, I was more than a little disappointed. Except for Invisibility and two power attacks, the Villain class only offered passive skills like Critical and Dodge. The penultimate skills are some of the dullest I've ever seen. Play long enough and you can unlock Enemy Knowledge, which slightly reduces the enemy's chance of getting a critical hit. I can think of a better end-game skill for a Villain in about ten seconds: Nefarious Laugh. He tweaks his mustache, cackles "Nyah hah hah!" and enemies are either baited to attack or frightened and run away. It's a gamble, but it sure beats Enemy Knowledge.

Source: Blues News

Wednesday - September 03, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Beta Patch 1.03

by Dhruin, 00:45

A beta v1.03 patch for Legend: Hand of God is available at Worthplaying.  The blurb says it contains updated (beta) PhysX drivers but no specifics on exactly what improvements can be expected.

Monday - September 01, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Review @ Gamepyre

by Magerette, 16:11

Gamepyre posts a review of Master Creating's action RPG Legend:Hand of God, with an averaged-out score of 60/100:

Legend – Hand of God plays like just about every other RPG. You kill things, you get gold, you get exp, and if you manage not to get bored for long enough you might just get a few levels and move to a new zone. Weapons and skill points also works almost identical to most titles in the RPG genre. Strength helps you out with melee damage, dexterity is your attack rating and bow damage, intelligence helps you’re your spell casting and constitution is your health. As you gain levels you distribute points according to your desires, then you move on to killing more monsters and solving more quests.

Source: Blues News

Wednesday - August 27, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Review @ IGN

by Dhruin, 23:48

Master Creating's Legend: Hand of God has been reviewed at IGN.  They found nothing glaringly wrong, but nothing exciting, either.  The score is 6/10 and here's a snip:

The character build I spent the most time with was a Battle Monk, with Villain (dual wielding, critical hitting) and Faith (healing and support magic, offensive lightening spells). I also tried out an Arcan [sic? Arcane?] Archer, a Wilderness and Magic blend landing me with a crossbow wielding flame and ice thrower, and a Paladin, which is the standard combo of beefy Warrior and Faith healing.

None of the skill trees excited me terribly. Meteor was really awesome back in the day, but feels standard now. I do like that when you level, you get one point for each path, instead of having to choose one to upgrade. It's satisfying to make progress on both sides of the screen, and there are still sub-choices to make within each path, like whether you want to focus on shields or double-handed weapons in the case of a Warrior.

Source: GameBanshee

Sunday - August 24, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Review @ RPG Observer

by Magerette, 16:53

RPG Observer  has posted a review for Master Creating's recently released action rpg, Legend:Hand of God, giving it 3.5 out of 5:

So how does it compare to the other games in the genre? Well, Legend is more about battles against single monsters and small groups than hordes like Diablo II. Battles are more cinematic and have higher emphasis on single opponents. The loot is not as collectible as there is no real easy way to trade items with other players... Also, Legend has the tendency to crash in the final portions of the game, and can even delete save games at the same time. Hopefully these problems will be patched soon.

In summary, Legend: Hand of God is a decent hack-and-slash game that is held back by its lack of multiplayer play. It is not a game to play for its story, but rather for its gameplay, which is indeed quite fun... Hardcore RPG fans will likely find the story bland and will move on to something else soon after starting out.

Source: Blues News

Thursday - August 21, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Interview @ GamePlasma

by Dhruin, 11:25

Jan Beuck from Master Creating pops up at GamePlasma for an interview on Legend: Hand of God-

What do you feel really sets Hand of God apart from all the other RPG's?

Legend has a stronger RPG bent than other Action-RPGs. The way Legend tells its story is much more like a real RPG - non-linear, with multiple-choice dialogues and a deep, thought-provoking storyline. Not least, the technology is state-of-the-art: with high dynamic range lightning, shader model 3, normal mapping, dynamic soft shadows, and a fantastic physics engine (PhysX, also used by Unreal Engine 3).

But really unique is the mouse cursor – or better, that there is no normal mouse cursor. Instead you control a small luminous light elf which is part of the game and serves as the light source as well as a sidekick for the hero. Thanks to real-time dynamic lighting, this makes for some really cool shadow effects, especially in the dungeons.

And finally, there's the Cinematic Combat System...

Wednesday - August 20, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Review @ Gamespot

by Woges, 14:30

A poor rating given by Brett Todd of Gamespot.

As one last kick in the teeth, Legend doesn't even give you the option of skipping out on its lifeless single-player campaign for multiplayer mayhem, because there is no multiplayer option. It's hard to imagine such a perfunctory exercise in action RPG game design being any more enjoyable online than it is offline, although it would have at least been nice to have this as an option. Despite the above litany of complaints, Legend isn't so much an awful game as it is a dreary, cheerless one designed with a paint-by-numbers sense of artistry. Some action RPG fans may find it a reasonable way of passing the time, although more discerning players will quickly grow tired of its lack of imagination.

Tuesday - July 29, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - English Demo

by Dhruin, 12:13

Eisberg points out we missed the English demo for Legend: Hand of God recently.  Head over to the official site for links to the 1.8Gb file.

Friday - July 25, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Hits Direct2Drive

by Dhruin, 22:44

Legend: Hand of God from Master Creating is now available on Direct2Drive for USD$39.99.  Here are the features as a reminder:

  • Explore massive randomly generated dungeons populated with over 30 types of monsters and big bosses.
  • Fight scenes spring to life with fantastic 3D Cinematic Combat System.
  • Exciting storyline written by Susan O’Conner - Star Wars Galaxies and Gears Of War.
  • Search for the “Hand of God” in a campaign with over 30 challenging quests.
  • Create your character by combining 2 out of 5 skill paths; Path of the Warrior, Path of the Hunter, Path of the Villain, Path of the Magician, and Path of Faith.
  • Navigate through ARIS with a little help from a real-time light elf as she accompanies you, acting as your mouse cursor, companion and campaign guide.
  • Immerse yourself into the fantastic world of ARIS – made up of epic landscapes populated by Orcs, Goblins, Elves, Dwarfs and Humans.

Thanks, Eisberg!

Thursday - July 10, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Interview @ Destructoid

by Dhruin, 00:28

Jan Beuck from Master Creating has popped up at Destructoid with a Q&A for the pending release of Hand of God in NA. Since we haven't heard much since the German release ages ago, here's the intro question:

Legend: Hand of God is an action role-playing game, but does the focus tend to be more on the action (slicing through hordes of ferocious monsters) or the role-playing (story, character development, NPC relationships) aspect?

Jan Beuck
Legend has a stronger RPG bent than comparable titles. While you will spend most of your time fighting monsters, the world, the story, and the character development play a bigger role than in typical action-RPGs. For example, you can travel through the entire world without level breaks; there are multiple-choice dialogues, lots of sub-quests and so on. Additionally, we implemented many innovative features; for example our unique mouse cursor which takes the form of a small light elf – a character in the game world. Not only does it constitute a sort of sidekick to our hero, but it’s also the player’s light source, illuminating the dungeons and casting dynamic light and shadows.

Saturday - May 24, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - THQ Signs on for NA

by Dhruin, 01:14

IGN has news that THQ's Valusoft label will bring Legend: Hand of God to NA. The action/RPG from master creating has been out in Germany for some time now:

US, May 22, 2008 - Publisher THQ announced that RPG Legend: Hand of God (not to be confused with God Hand) is coming August 1. The Master Creating developed game will retail for $39.99 and is being published by THQ Inc.'s ValuSoft division.

Source: GameBanshee

Friday - March 28, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - Patch 1.03 ETA: April

by Gorath, 23:10

 From an unofficial but usually well-informed source in the official forum:

The next patch for Master Creating´s well-received but commercially unsuccessful RPG Legend - Hand of God is in the works. Expected release date is "April".

In preparation of the upcoming Legend Online release the URLs of the official pages have been shuffled around:

www.legend.de -> Legend Online
www.legend-game.de -> Legend - Hand of God

Wednesday - January 16, 2008

Legend - Hand of God - German v1.02 Patch

by Dhruin, 10:12

A v1.02 patch for the German version of Master Creating's Legend: Hand of God has been released addressing minor bugs, improvements and balancing.

Wednesday - November 14, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - German Demo @ Worthplaying

by Dhruin, 21:58

Head over to Worthplaying is you'd like to try the German demo for Master Creating's Legend: Hand of God (1.6Gb).

Thursday - October 25, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - German v1.01 Patch

by Dhruin, 00:37

Also at Worthplaying is a German v1.01 patch for Master Creating's Legend: Hand of God.

Saturday - September 15, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - GC Trailer

by Dhruin, 00:54

From the Legend: Hand of God site:

If you can’t wait until the – first of all German – release of Legend – Hand of God we now offer you the official Games Convention trailer as a download.

This year Games Convention at Leipzig counted about 200.000 visitors, who could already watch the Legend trailer, where the hero named Targon demonstrates wild action defeating his opponents. And Bright Elf Luna is also there… But not everyone had the chance to get to the GC, so we now updated our download section and offer this (German only) trailer.

Welcome to the Land of Aris!

Hit the link just above for the trailer on YouTube.

Wednesday - September 12, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - Movie Rights Licenced to Boll KG

by Gorath, 20:09

We have received official confirmation that Uwe Boll´s film production company has acquired the rights to make a movie based on Master Creating´s upcoming action-RPG Legend - Hand of God. Shooting will take place in 2008. The whole project will have a budget of 40 Mio of an unspecified currency, probably either USD or real money. ;)

Legend - Hand of God - Gold!

by Gorath, 19:57

According to the print mag GameStar the German version of master Creating´s action-RPG Legend - Hand of God has gone gold. The game is on track for a release on October 12th. 

GameStar used the opportunity to make the Legend preview from their current issue available online. They mention that Master Creating says they have worked on a couple of things criticized in the article. Balancing and useability have been improved and all known bugs fixed, among others.  

Source: Gamestar

Friday - September 07, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - Collector's Edition Announced

by Gorath, 22:16

dtp / Anaconda Games has announced a Collector´s Edition of Master Creating´s innovative action-RPG Legend - Hand of God. It will be released in the German speaking countries on October 12th, which is a small delay from the originally planned late September street date.
The CE includes:

  • An attractive box looking like an expensive book.
  • The game.
  • The sound track.
  • The novel Legend: Demon Storm.
  • An audio book (independent from the novel).
  • Poster.

RRP: 59.99 €

Sound track, audio book and novel will also be sold as stand-alone products.

A CE pack shot can be seen on the official site

Legend - Hand of God - GC 2007 Screens and Concept Art @ GamersHell

by Magerette, 16:21

Gamershell has added a few new screenshots and some concept art to their Legend:Hand of God files collection. You can check it out here. For more information on the fantasy RPG from master creating, the RPGWatch database has developer diary installments, more news and a link to the homepage.

Saturday - September 01, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - Wallpaper @ Official Site

by Dhruin, 00:39

Master Creating has kicked up some post-GC desktop wallpapers for Legend: Hand of God:

After this year Games Convention at Leipzig we brought lots of new content for the website with us, which we will present to you step by step during the next days and weeks. News is coming up. Just wait and see!

Today is the day of wallpapers. After obligating Cosma Shiva Hagen to be our Lightelf Luna, we present you a beautiful wallpaper of her. For those of you, who prefer masculine company, we offer a wallpaper of a troll. Atmospheric ambient is brought to you by a wallpaper showing a gorgeous Legend fortification.

Wednesday - August 08, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - Screens @ Strategy Informer

by Dhruin, 00:44

Strategy Informer has a handful of hopefully new Legend screens

Source: Bluesnews

Wednesday - July 25, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #11

by Gorath, 21:01

After a short break we resume our series of developer diaries for Master Creating´s and Anaconda´s innovative action-RPG Legend - Hand of God.
The next three articles are written by guest authors. Today producer Jan Wagner presents the winners of a community contest held a few weeks ago.

Tuesday - June 19, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #10

by Gorath, 23:03

Master Creating and dtp / Anaconda outsourced the whole audio part to a studio with Hollywood experience. Read all the details in our latest Dev Diary ...

The Legend soundtrack has two strong leitmotifs befitting the game’s content: a grandiose mixture of tribal and ethnic influences meets its gloomy, echoing and sacral counterpart; in the game, both will serve to tell a coherent story. Then there’s a stringent system of interactivity which contributes to the emotional gaming experience as well.

Link to article

Friday - June 15, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - Trailer now in HD

by Gorath, 00:34

 The Legend - Hand of God gameplay trailer is now also available in high res. You can find it for example on the official site and on the fan site Legend - HandofGod.de .

Wednesday - June 13, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - First Gameplay Trailer Released

by Gorath, 14:09

Fan site Legend-HandofGod.de posted the first gameplay trailer for Master Creating´s / dtp´s upcoming action-RPG Legend - Hand of God. It´s 1.5 minutes long and mainly shows the Cinematic Combat System described in one of the dev diaries here on RPGWatch. 

Tuesday - June 05, 2007

RPGWatch Feture: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #9

by Gorath, 04:14

Today we learn something about Legend´s implementation of one of the genre´s most important ingredients, The Skill System.

Another specialty of LEGEND: you get two skill points for levelling up, one for each of your skill trees. This should prevent you from investing all your skill point in the same skill tree or even the same skill, and can often lead to an interesting character.

Link to article

Wednesday - May 30, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - Screens @ Official Site

by Dhruin, 22:25

The Legend: Hand of God site has some new in-game screens on offer.

Friday - May 25, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #8

by Gorath, 20:24

Today Jan describes a typical work day at Master Creating. Normal office hours are something different. ;)

Here at Master Creating, a regular work day starts at 11 a.m. Before you start to complain about how your shift starts at 7, 8 or 9 o’clock… our shift usually ends around 23:00 – at the earliest! Believe me, 12 hours are a long time…

Link to the article .

Friday - May 18, 2007

RPGWatch Feture: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #7

by Gorath, 16:00
The latest Legend dev diary tells us more about the key team members? Who is the creative talent behind Legend - Hand of God?
Link to article

Wednesday - May 09, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #6

by Gorath, 19:12

In his latest journal entry Jan Beuck talks about the most important thing in an action-RPG: Combat.
Legend promises to improve on the genre standard with its spectacular Cinematic Combat System .

We all know how it usually takes many, many hours to reach an end boss. The boss looks impressive, and you expect a challenging fight – but when you hit him in the knee, he doesn’t react to the stimulus at all. Or even worse: hitting the boss in the knee seems to cause him serious chest pain. Did I accidentally pick the acupuncturist when choosing my class? Be that as it may, the giant‘s huge weapon hits the ground meters behind me. Ha, now his size suddenly is a big drawback! Or not: I seem to take damage no matter what. And in the end, one of us slumps with an arrow in his back… huh? 


Thursday - April 26, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - RPC 2007 Coverage

by Gorath, 00:41

Lots of German hands-on previews on Master Creating´s upcoming action-RPG Legend - Hand of God are popping up everywhere on the interweb since the game was shown on the RPC 2007 in Münster last weekend. All of them are positive. The shown parts (Cinematic Combat System, Bright Fairy mouse-cursor & light source) seem to add a lot to the game´s atmosphere. 

 

Tuesday - April 24, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #5

by Gorath, 16:49

This time Master Creating explains how they´ve developed the hero from early sketches to the final character.

Link to article

In the meantime Anaconda has revealed somewhere else that the hero´s name is Targon.

Legend - Hand of God - Official Website opens

by Gorath, 16:35

Publisher dtp / Anaconda sent out a PR announcing the new official page for their upcoming action-RPG Legend - Hand of God. It replaces the rather strange teaser site which was subject to a heated discussion in one of our news threads a few weeks ago. The new site offers screenshots, wallpapers, a sound track sample and a FAQ.

Wednesday - April 18, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #4

by Gorath, 00:17

The latest Legend - Hand of God Dev Diary reveals one of the game´s most innovative features: A mix of party member and mouse cursor named The Bright Elf.

By pure coincidence I saw the 3D Mark 2005 graphics benchmark; one of the scenes was about a dot of light zipping through a nightly forest. Magnificent! It was the best tech demo I have seen so far. I just thought: Hey, what if this was our light source? What if the player was in control of it? You could define your own light and shadow; you could have the dot scout ahead of the hero to illuminate dark corners! This would also serve to accentuate the shadow system, one of the greatest accomplishments of our Master Engine. And thus, the Bright Elf was born.

Link to article

Tuesday - April 10, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #3

by Gorath, 06:49

In this entry Jan Beuck explains how a goblin made it into the game, from a simple sketch to a finished object.

Usually I start with a rough sketch in black and white to give others an impression of what I want. The concept artist will go from there, creating one or more detailed drafts. If one of them is approved by the whole team, it is sent to the 3D artists who create a model with the Maya software. This first step – from a two-dimensional sketch to a low-poly object - can take several days.

link to article

Tuesday - April 03, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary #2

by Dhruin, 14:01

In his 2nd diary, Jan Beuck from Master Creating talks about creating the Legend prototype and pitching the game to interested publishers:

First of all, you need to build a so-called prototype. A prototype is a small part of the game which basically corresponds to the finished product. Okay, so that’s probably exaggerated: many objects will be represented by placeholders. There are no sounds, no skills, no mini maps… to be exact, a prototype will not contain anything that is not absolutely essential.

Read it here.

Wednesday - March 28, 2007

RPGWatch Feature: Legend - Hand of God Developer Diary

by Gorath, 00:52

RPGWatch struck a deal with Master Creating and Anaconda Games to publish the English translation of their bi-weekly developer diary on Legend - Hand of God.
We´ll release the first couple of issues on a weekly schedule and switch to bi-weekly when we´re up to date. Then both the English and German diary will be updated simultaneously.

In today´s entry Creative Director Jan Beuck talks about their new technology behing Legend, the Master Engine. Here is a short excerpt:

Of course a project like LEGEND is subject to economical pressure; the first question asked will never be ‘Do we want to develop a new engine?’, but : ’Is it expedient to develop a new engine?’. To my great surprise, the answer was: ‘YES!’

Next week Jan will tell us something about their prototype.

Friday - March 23, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - Interview @ Gbase

by Dhruin, 21:05

Master Creating's Jan Beuck speaks to Swiss site GBase about Legend: Hand of God in this interview.  Here's some strident marketing:

The "Cinematic Combat" feature sounds intriguing. What's the deal with it and aren't you afraid it could disrupt the flow of the gameplay?

The Cinematic Combat system we developed for Legend should change the portrayal of combat in action RPGs forever. Instead of always beating up enemies the same way, no matter how tall or small, Legend offers dynamic battles. Every battle is different. The hero pursues different strategies depending on the situation. Small enemies are swept away with powerful strokes of the sword, individual parades and numerous special attacks come and go. When attacking larger enemies, however, the hero has to jump in order to even have a chance of hitting them. For example, you can climb on the back of a big troll to bring him down by stabbing him in the neck with your sword. We're quite busy and having lots of fun incorporating finishing moves like that in the game.

At the same time, the equipment of you and your enemies influence the portrayal of battle dynamically. If someone carrying a shield is attacked, he'll use the shield to block attacks. If he has a sword, he uses that. If he carries an axe, he has to dodge. Depending on your weapons, different combat styles emerge. The weapons you carry also represent your decisions in terms of attributes and skills.

The controls stay the way you're used to however. Simple and fast, exactly what you probably expect from an action RPG. The typical gameplay isn't at stake at all.

Thanks Daniel and Avantenor!

Saturday - March 10, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - Screens @ GPM

by Dhruin, 10:36

Gameplay Monthly has some (hopefully) new screens from Master Creating's Legend: Hand of God.

Source: Bluesnews

Tuesday - February 27, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - New Screenshots [updated]

by Gorath, 19:55

Anaconda Games and Master Creating released a couple of new screenshots of the upcoming action-RPG Legend - Hand of God. You can hopefully find them in our gallery: click on Details on the right, then on Gallery and scroll to the end.
Here´s almost the complete official PR:

Three newly released screenshots from dtp’s upcoming hit action RPG Legend: Hand of God grant a first look at the game’s varied terrain and different landscapes.

They show some of the stops along the nameless hero’s journey through the vast and perilous world of Legend: Hand of God, as well as some of the dangerous creatures that he will have to fight as the last Keeper of the Holy Flame. Deep in Aelreth Forest, the hero is ambushed by a pack of wolves. The mist covering the Lar highlands reveals the imposing figure of a giant troll roaming the orc-infested area. The hero and his Bright Elf companion Luna search for clues concerning their quest near the Downwater Mill in the village of Turint.

Legend: Hand of God introduces players to a dramatic fantasy setting: For decades, the Order of the Keepers of the Holy Flame has watched over the portal that once allowed demons to invade Aelfal. The ever-burning Holy Flame prevents another invasion - until one fateful night: The flame is extinguished and demonic hordes descend on the Order’s abbey. The last surviving member of the Order, who is ordained as a Keeper that same night, sets out to find the legendary “Hand of God”. Accompanied by a mouthy Bright Elf, he searches for the shards of the powerful artefact – and in the process uncovers a sinister plot. The flame wasn’t extinguished by accident – somebody wanted to open the door to the demonic realm forever. The hero and his unusual companion form an unlikely team, as they set forth to keep the impending invasion at bay.

Many action-packed battles await them: unique graphical features like the Cinematic Combat System turn the fights into a true feast for the eyes with individual parry moves and a multitude of special attacks. Enemies are fought realistically according to their size. To defeat a giant troll, players might have to leap on his back in order to finish him off with a well-aimed thrust of the sword. The controls of the game will stay simple, fast and easy for genre fans to pick up.

Another unique feature of Legend: Hand of God is Luna, the Bright Elf herself, who serves three important functions. As the hero’s companion and sidekick, she aids the player with helpful hints and pointers. In addition, Luna serves as the player’s mouse cursor, leading him through the world of Legend: Hand of God. In dark dungeons and other gloomy surroundings, she unveils her full strength: As her name suggests, she illuminates the environment around her. Directing her with the mouse, players can quickly explore rooms and caves, as well as search for distant enemies without having to investigate every nook and cranny with the hero himself.

Many other unique ideas, state of the art graphics, great atmospheric feel and storyline will make Legend: Hand of God a must have for genre fans.

Legend: Hand of God is being developed by German studio Master Creating. The dev team includes industry figures like Lead Texture Artist Paul Campion, whose credits include the legendary „Lord of the Rings“ movies and games industry veteran Art Director Andreas Adamek.

dtp will publish Legend: Hand of God under their ANACONDA label worldwide, with a summer 2007 release date set for German-speaking territories. 

Based on the last sentence we´ll set the release date in our DB to Q3/07 until we receive more precise infos. 

Tuesday - January 09, 2007

Legend - Hand of God - First View @ RPG Vault

by Dhruin, 22:10

RPG Vault has kicked up a First View of Master Creating's Legend: Hand of God, offering a brief overview of exisiting information.  Here's the "Commendations" section:

Employing the proprietary Master Engine designed specifically for the genre, the game's Cinematic Combat System promises to make battles against sizable adversaries more realistic than we're used to. For instance, you might leap to attack an ogre or jump onto a troll's back rather than chopping at its knees. The story, crafted by accomplished writer Susan O'Connor, appears appropriately heroic. Described as non-linear with multiple dialogue options and a thought-provoking storyline, it takes place in a world combining handcrafted surface areas with randomly generated dungeons. A novel and potentially interesting feature is the luminous spirit that accompanies the player, providing information, acting as the cursor and lighting the environments in real time. Based on the screenshots released so far, the graphics seem likely to please.

Wednesday - November 15, 2006

Legend - Hand of God - An Interview with Master Creating

by Myrthos, 23:07

Our latest feature is an interview with Master Creating as we catch up with them about their upcoming action/RPG Legend: Hand of God to find out about their "Cinematic Combat System" and more.  Here's an excerpt:

RPGWatch: Many players associate the term "action-RPG" with "Diablo clone". What distinguishes Legend from the pack of nameless hack & slash games?

Jan Beuck: Foremost, I would name the depth of the story and world of Legend. We went to great lengths to build a compelling and rich world for the game to draw from. In terms of storytelling, Legend will be much more like a real RPG – non-linear, with multiple-choice dialogues and a deep, thought-provoking storyline.

Additionally, we are implementing many innovative features; for example our unique mouse cursor which takes the form of a small fairy – a character in the game world. Not only does it constitute a sort of sidekick to our hero, but it’s also the player’s light source, illuminating the dungeons and casting dynamic light and shadows. And of course I have to mention the Cinematic Combat System…

Read on...

Sunday - September 24, 2006

Legend: Hand of God - Interview @ GGMania

by Dhruin, 22:48
GameGuru Mania has spoken to Jan Beuck from Master Creating about Legend: Hand of God. Here's a lengthy bit on character creation that actually turns to combat:
GGMania: How flexible is the character creation system? Will you be able to choose different genders and appearances? What are the choices available to you in terms of "class" and how it develops through the course of the game?

Jan Beuck: We decided to have one unique hero - a human male - as the game's central character and make him an integral part of the story, which makes the plot much more compelling.

In terms of character development, this means you don't choose between set character classes at the beginning of the game, but you can develop him with a great amount of freedom throughout the game. Many different paths are available: you might want to go with a combat-oriented hero and develop a heavily-armored warrior or maybe you would rather develop a magic user who wears light robes and casts powerful spells. You can also play any type of hybrid between the two, concentrate on various typed of weaponry and much more. Together with the different magical disciplines, this makes for interesting combinations, e.g. flaming swords, when you master fire magic and swordsmanship or frozen arrows, when long-range weapons and ice magic are combined.
6) What can you tell us about the enemies in Legend: Hand of God? What sort of foes will you battle? How intelligent are opponents, by the way? Will they simply attack you on sight until you die, or will the smarter ones use tactics? You claim the game will feature a 'cinematic combat system'. Could you describe it?

The unique quality of Legend's combat system comes from the spectacular portrayal of the fights, paired with a simple and intuitive control scheme. In other action RPGs, combat is generally very samey. The monsters - big or small - are always fought in the same manner, which makes combat become boring quickly; it becomes a mere comparison of stats instead of an exciting duel.

One of our biggest aims is to change that - with the help of the Cinematic Combat System, which generates cinematic-quality combat that looks as though its been choreographed, but is highly dynamic at the same time. It takes into account the size of the enemy: you can simply clobber smaller enemies (e.g. goblins) from above, who have to jump to even reach you and deal damage. But this is reversed when you meet a larger-than-life monster - now you're the one who has to leap, and blocking their powerful swings is out of the question - you're only option is dodging. Some enemies are 3 times as big as the hero; some are bigger than the whole screen! And this leads me to the second important point: if an enemy has a shield, he actually uses it to block. If he has a sword, he parries - with an axe he has to try and dodge. This way, the style of combat changes dynamically according to the weapons used and the attributes and skills chosen by the player.

Different enemies also have different AI behavior. Some are rather stupid (like the undead), others react to your strengths and weaknesses (for example the type of weapon you're carrying) and use group tactics.

Friday - September 22, 2006

Legend: Hand of God - Interview @ RPG Vault

by Dhruin, 23:01
RPG Vault has the first English interview we've seen on Master Creating's 'Legend: Hand of God'. According to the first answer, the budget this time is 10x larger than for Restricted Area and this is what they are aiming at:
Jonric: What are you emphasizing within the overall gameplay experience? Do you have an idea as to how much playing time the average player can anticipate?

Jan Beuck: Legend is an action RPG, but it has a stronger RPG bent than comparable titles. State of the art 3D graphics - with high dynamic range lightning, shader model 3, normal mapping and dynamic soft shadows - a fantastic physics engine (AGEIA PhysX, also used by Unreal Engine 3) and a great storyline written by Susan O'Connor are some of its strong points. We especially wanted to bring the genre forward in terms of the story. As far as storytelling goes, Legend will be much more like a real RPG - non-linear, with multiple choice dialogues and a deep, thought-provoking storyline.

Your average player will probably take about 25 to 30 hours to complete the main quest line. All the side quests are on top of that.

Wednesday - August 30, 2006

Legend: Hand of God - Art @ Legend-TheHandOfGod.de

by Dhruin, 04:25
Legend-TheHandOfGod.de let us know they have some concept art from Master Creating's Legend: Hand of God.

Saturday - August 26, 2006

Legend: Hand of God - GC Preview @ GameSpot

by Dhruin, 12:24
GameSpot has a short write up on Master Creating's action/RPG 'Legend: Hand of God' from the Leipzig GC. Here's a snip:
Based on the demo we saw, Legend is keeping the gameplay extremely simple, with a focus on the satisfaction of hacking enemies to bits in dramatic fashion. This is achieved through the unique animations that add a special flair to the way your hero fights. The animations change to fit the situation--so, for example, if you're fighting a massive troll, your hero will have to jump in the air to land a hit rather than simply slicing away at the troll's feet. The effect is entirely superficial, though, so you don't have to worry about diminished power or accuracy when performing these leaping attacks. You also don't have any control over the type of attack you perform; it's all context-sensitive and at times seemingly random. In addition to the normal attacks, you can also perform finishing moves. Again, these finishers are random, but in this case we saw the hero fighting a large troll. After whittling away the troll's hit points for a while, the camera zoomed in as the hero leapt onto the troll's back and stabbed it in the neck to finish it off. Although these moves are entirely superficial, they do tend to make the combat a little more engaging and satisfying than it otherwise would be.

Monday - July 24, 2006

Legend: Hand of God Screens @ cRPG.ru

by Kalia, 21:39
cRPG.ru has published three screens from the recently announced Legend: Hand of God. You can see them at the link above. Thanks, Eddard, for the heads up!

Source: cRPG.ru

Legend: Hand of God Announced

by Garrett, 11:44
The new game from master creating (Restricted Area) has been officially announced by publisher Anaconda - it is called Legend: Hand of God and is an action RPG with really nice looking graphics as you can see in this sample:

Display full image


Here are some key points:
  • Diablo clone
  • story by a Susan O'Connor (Gears of War, etc.)
  • Art from Paul Campion (Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings)
  • Hand-made main world, generated dungeons
  • New "Cinematic Combat System", enemies are fought "realistically" depending on their size
According to PC Games.de "it's as addictive as Diablo and as beautiful as Prince of Persia".

[update] We just received the English announcement from Anaconda:

ANACONDA announces new Action RPG: Legend: Hand of God

Hamburg, 24.07.2006 - Action RPGers look forward to Q2 2007! Then ANACONDA, Hamburg based adventure expert publisher, will be releasing Legend: Hand of God - a new milestone in the action RPG genre. "It's addicting like Diablo, looks nice like Prince of Persia", German games magazine PC Games describes. Legend: Hand of God gives players a fantasy scenario. They will be helping a young adept by fighting the evil - and will have to stand in loads of action filled battles.
Unique graphic features like the cinematic combat system will make even watching the battles fun: Enemies will be fought depending on their size - so it can happen that Legend's hero jumps on the back of a giant troll to finally finish him. Controlling Legend: Hand of God will stay as easys as players are used to.
Many more unique features, state of the art graphics and great atmosphere and storyline will make Legend: Hand of God a must have not only for fans of Action RPGs.
Legend: Hand of God is being developed by Hamburg based studio Master Creating. US top story writer Susan O'Connor, Hollywood lead artist Paul Campion and creative director Andreas Adamek - one of the Gianna Sister's creators - are also part of the team.
German players will read more on Legend: Hand of God in the upcoming issue 09/2006 of PC Games which will be available in stores from July, 26 on. When visiting the official ANACONDA forum, players will have the chance, to meet the developers of Master Creating for an Q&A: http://www.anaconda-game.de/forum/viewforum.php?f=75

Information about

Legend: Hand of God

Developer: Master Creating

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Fantasy
Genre: Action-RPG
Combat: Real-time
Play-time: 10-20 hours
Voice-acting: Full

Regions & platforms
Europe
· Homepage
· Platform: PC
· Released: 2007-09-28
· Publisher: dtp

North America
· Legend - Hand of God
· Homepage
· Platform: PC
· Released: 2008-08-01
· Publisher: THQ