Crossfire: Legion

Crossfire: Legion is a perfectly adequate RTS capable of generating some spectacular player-driven action, but it's so keen to be the next Starcraft that it skips right past much of what made Starcraft great in the first place.

Crossfire: Legion is a competent but uninspired return to the Command and Conquer era of games that fails to live up to that legacy.

Crossfire: Legion does a great job of evoking great memories playing better games in the RTS genre. It does very little if anything to innovate and leans heavily on the tracks that many other games have laid before it. But what hurts it most of all is the fact that there is NO A.I. matchmaking, which means that if players want to play the game, they must use the multiplayer option which seems to be on its way to being abandoned at this point. So that leaves players to repeat a lackluster campaign filled with generic characters (whom they utilized some top tier talent such as Ashly Burch who is wasted here) and cliché plots. Crossfire: X was my first introduction to the world of Crossfire and as you can read in my review it was a terrible first impression. And now with Legion being the mess that it is I think I may not give Crossfire a third chance to disappoint me.

Crossfire: Legion is best described as a purely adequate RTS, which is why I’ve struggled to review it. Games like this are the hardest to talk about because there’s nothing that is worth dissecting or getting excited about. The gameplay is fine, the campaign is passable but dull and the online is already struggling to hold a healthy player base. Even though we have been starved of RTS titles recently, the only reason to buy Crossfire: Legion is if you’ve already played everything else and you really need to scratch that real-time strategy itch.

Crossfire Legion marks a false step for BlackBird Interactive, a software house that has its fair share of experience in the field of RTS. Precisely for this reason we were surprised in negative to experiment with a product of this kind, all in all valid from a technical or artistic point of view, but rather monotonous and uninspired in the tactical-strategic components.

A really solid feature-complete action RTS title that brings back great memories of better games. You can have a lot of fun in the campaign and against the AI, but the experience is let down by a forgettable story, generic-feeling characters, and a nightmare of a competitive mode.

Crossfire: Legion tries not so hard to find its own way for the heart of RTS' fans, but despite being a fully enjoyable game, it lacks personality in basically everything. You can have fun with its campaign and online modes - if you can stand the annoying pathfinding that will plague your army – but it's hard to imagine Legion being remembered in the long run.

If I had to define Crossfire: Legion in one word, I'd use "competent". If I could use more than one word, I'd say "competent, but overall lacking in personality." While it's not a bad game by any means, it also never really shines, it never surprises, and it doesn't leave a mark. It doesn't help that, despite a good variety of multiplayer game modes, the population has already dropped to a few dozen players. Still a decent choice if you're itching for more RTS gameplay, but don't expect to be blown away.

Crossfire: Legion is an exercise in nostalgia, bringing to mind real time strategy games back when the genre was at its most popular. Its mechanics are comfortably familiar, but that might also be a disappointment to gamers looking for innovation or depth. Skirmishes limited to online-only play, some bugs left over from early access and a forgettable campaign weigh against Crossfire: Legion’s basically engaging RTS gameplay and graphics. Diehard fans of the genre will absolutely appreciate the game’s classic feel, but will be left wanting more.

Crossfire: Legion may not be a terrible game but it's not a good one either. Its single-player campaign is entirely forgettable, the three factions are about as generic as they come and gameplay wise it's a bit basic, lacking the depth of other (better) strategy games. Blackbird Interactive has shown better in the past but sadly they didn't seem to be as inspired with this project.