The announcement trailer for Misplaced Legions opens with a Roman Emperor bellowing “GIVE ME BACK MY LEGIONS” like a child who’s simply had his pudding taken away. I’d simply had an enormous swig of espresso earlier than watching, and was immediately swept off by visions of an apoplectic Roman bigwig rampaging by way of the forests of darkest Germania, gluing kidnapped legionnaires collectively right into a form of Octavian katamari… after which they revealed that it’s one other open world survival recreation, with at least two trailer beats devoted to the act of hacking down a tree.
I imply no disrespect to builders Tarock Interactive – they’re to not blame for my addled creativeness – however there are a lot of open world survival video games and as a weary Ed Thorn not too long ago famous, the bulk are closely frontloaded with wilderness carpentry. I don’t assume survival video games ought to emphasise wood-chopping of their announcement footage. It is like doing a Name of Responsibility montage of individuals getting shot three seconds from spawn. Nonetheless, if there is not any katamari mechanic, the thought of elevating a small military of largely AI-controlled Roman troopers behind enemy strains has a sure appeal. With out additional ado, right here’s the trailer.
Misplaced Legions is about in a world impressed by the Teutoburg Forest in Germany, and takes place following what is named the Varian Catastrophe, by which an alliance of tribes cornered and butchered three Roman legions utilizing Roman army techniques – a humiliating finish to a interval of enlargement beneath the Emperor Augustus, who’s the man yelling within the trailer.
You play one of many scattered legionnaires. Base development and equipment crafting apart, your goal is to get well every legion’s banner to revive Rome’s honour, however between you and that aim stand barbarian tribes, ferocious beasts and hints of supernatural exercise. Is this particular supernature, although, or simply the standard factor the place it seems to be dudes in paint sporting cranium hats?
The sport helps 1-4 individual multiplayer, which doesn’t appear in line with the press launch’s promise to allow you to “rebuild an empire”. I’m fuzzy on the precise numerical definition of a legion, however I’m fairly positive a bunch of 4 is a squad, right? Assist me, historians. Nevertheless, you can too discover and recruit different computer-controlled legionnaires, coaching them up at your base camp. So maybe there’s the opportunity of forming a phalanx, at the very least. I dare to dream.
“From the 4 playable characters to the troopers working for you and the barbarians you encounter, everybody has a narrative so that you can uncover,” the Steam web page provides. “As you work together with them you’ll start to see the patterns behind this world the place every part will not be because it appears.” The overarching plot “touches on the matters of colonialism and imperialism”, which is actually so much to the touch upon – to see how that squares, or does not sq., with the promised empire-rebuilding above.
Misplaced Legions is down for launch within the first half of 2025. Any store? I did get pleasure from The Eagle Of The Ninth film, and this seems to be conjuring the identical environment of gathering ice and darkness. There was much less tree-felling in The Eagle Of The Ninth, thoughts you. I am fairly positive we by no means see Channing Tatum craft a leather-based jerkin, both.
