Simple to a fault.
Editor's review by Adam Corn (2008-10-21)
The game Legendary is said to merge a modern setting with mythological monsters. The soundtrack, however, is all about the modern aspect, with dark rock instrumentals emphasizing mood over melody.
Simplicity may be a virtue but the excess of such is the downfall of the soundtrack. Instrumentation consists almost exclusively of rhythm/lead guitar (the two rarely vary noticeably), bass guitar and percussion, with the occasional ambient effect here and there. The limited instrumental palette would be acceptable were the compositions more varied. Even at an average of under three minutes in length (excluding dialog and sound effects), most tracks feel repetitive before they're halfway over. "Minotaur!" stretches the same simple five-note bassline over its entire duration, and "Target ID - KRAKEN" is a slow, uneventful drum solo with only a few sound effects and strums of the guitar scattered about.
"It's Just Business" is the one track that rocks right out, beginning with hard, grinding guitar then shifting the focus to a menacing bassline. Both segments could use more variation to keep from dragging on though, and were the final stanza a spiced-up arrangement of the first instead of an only slightly altered repetition, the track would leave a stronger impression. The bass guitar and wicked-cool beat in "Bullets and Blood" make for a dark, moody intro with a hint of danger, but without any significant progression through the remaining three minutes they become tiresome. The performances are all solid (particularly on percussion), but the compositions don't provide enough to work with.
Permeating the intros and outros of all but a few tracks are sound effects and dialog from the game. Such additions are a diversion under the best of circumstances, but in Legendary they're a proper nuisance, with dialog ranging from generic ("Kill all intruders!") to juvenile ("It looks like puke - some sort of barf pinata.").
Legendary is essentially forty minutes of backing music - passable at first but repetitive and clearly missing something. With only annoying dialog and sound effects to fill that void, it's hard to see where any appeal might lie.