Chaos Legion

No one does goth like Capcom. After successful heavy-hitters like Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, the console giant is notching its spiked, black leather belt once again with the edgy hack-and-slash title Chaos Legion.
The game’s first angst-filled moment comes during installation. A “Wrong Disk” error on launch renders it unplayable without downloading an unsupported third-party hack. As of this writing, Capcom has yet to release a patch correcting this blunder.
Once up and running, Chaos Legion is a quixotic blend of Soul Reaver and Gauntlet, and touts itself as a “Gothic Opera.” Redundant cutscenes, a boring soundtrack, and simplistic level design do nothing to further the operatic feel the game should have; it’s really hard to become engrossed and take it seriously.
You begin your mission as Sieg Warheit, a really dopey hero type. His one power is the ability to summon Legions: floating guardians that do most of the fighting for you. Even though Sieg is an armed and capable fighter, many key moments of the game are spent with you just unleashing the Legions while Sieg catches up on his knitting.
Mindlessly assailing your foes is ridiculously simple, but the difficulty is on par with previous Capcom titles—they’re not kidding when they say Hard mode. Despite wave after wave of homogeneous monsters, the game does not allow you to save frequently enough, causing you to replay many stages. In fact, repeating levels is a deliberate and important strategy for powering up your Legions, but isn’t very fun.
For a few levels the game is actually entertaining, but its novelty wears off about halfway through. Romping through Diablo one more time is both more gothic and more fun.

This article originally appeared in Computer Games Magazine #161