Thursday 29 June 2006
Even above the whirr and click of the UMD drive, you can hear the gears turning. It's the sound of Sony Online Entertainment's machinations moving tirelessly to turn what at first was a relatively impassive dungeon hack into a franchise.

Where Brotherhood of the Blade limply draped a narrative over its satisfyingly proficient mechanics, The Warrior's Code wants to elaborate; it wants you to know its lore; it wants you to flip through its bestiary and know its creature's individual quirks; it wants you to remember it by name.

Above: Still present from the first is Untold Legends' fantastic sense of weight and impact

Character is what separates this from the original and, while it still falls short of lending true purpose and pathos to your quest, even a small dose of personality goes a long way in engaging you with its world.

Functionally, though, Warrior's marked improvement is in its streamlining, which neatly nips and tucks away the frayed edges that marred the first. The palette on to which all equipment was previously scattered has now been stacked, sorted and compartmentalised by item, neatly stripping the chore out of stock-taking.