Before the game starts you need to choose a scheme and Mastermind for your game. The base game comes with 8 schemes and 4 Masterminds with more added with each expansion so there is room to mix and match. The scheme will give you any special rules and the "Evil Wins" condition. 
The Mastermind is who you are fighting against. Defeating the Mastermind is how the players will win the game. Under the Mastermind card are 4 cards with a special effect that will take place when a player fights the Mastermind. When you can beat the number in the bottom right corner you can choose to fight the Mastermind, you draw one of the cards from underneath and do the Fight action. You can then put that card in your victory pile. If the players can get rid of all four card under the Mastermind they win. The card also tells you who that Mastermind "always leads". You need this for the set up because when you create the Villain Deck you have to include that villain group as well as any others you choose or are required to by the scheme.Next you need to build the villain deck itself. You will make it up by shuffling together different sets of cards. Most of it will be made up of different villain groups and henchmen. The number of these will be determined by the number of players and some schemes might ask for extra to be added but you have to add any that the scheme or Mastermind tell you to add. When the villains are drawn from the deck they are put on the board in one of the city spaces. As more are added they will move up the board and if they are forced off the end they escape and the players must take a penalty. Players must draw a card from this deck at the start of every turn and must use the attack value of the cards in their hand to stop villains from overrunning the city.
On top of that you will add a few bystander cards to the deck, these will be captured by villains in the city if they are drawn from the deck and can be rescued by the players if they defeat the villain that has them. Next you add scheme twist cards, when these come out you need to perform the "Twist" action on the Scheme card and the number you put in the deck is determined by the Scheme card itself. Last to the Villain deck is the Master Strikes. You put 5 of these in the deck and when they are drawn that's the Mastermind attacking the players, when they come out the plays need to take the action of the Mastermind card.
If the Villain deck runs out, the players lose.
The Hero deck is made up of different hero's, 14 cards to each hero. Five cards are drawn and laid on the board, if one is brought another is drawn to replace it. These are the cards the players can buy to help them get better decks and better hands. The cards have a cost in the bottom corner and then different attack, recruit or special abilities. They may also have types or affiliations. Different cards might need other cards played first in order to activate special abilities so it is important to get cards that work well together to get the most from each hand. The base game has 15 different heroes for use and each hero has two groups of 5 basic cards, 3 improved cards and one rare. The heroes included are:- Black Widow
- Captain America
- Cyclops
- Deadpool
- Emma Frost
- Gambit
- Hawkeye
- Hulk
- Iron Man
- Nick Fury
- Rogue
- Spider-man
- Storm
- Thor
- Wolverine
The theme of the game can really come out, setting up a Mastermind with a Scheme they might do in the comics and helped by Villains and Henchmen that they might use you can set a nice story. Of course you could just pick everything at random and thats how I mostly play but it is fun to play out a good story from time to time.
The combinations of Masterminds, Villains, Henchmen, Schemes and Heroes give the game real replayability and although the difference might seem only slight they can feel very different to play with.
I enjoy the game play, trying to get the best cards into your hand is fun and it is really satisfying to pull off a big combo where they work well together to do a lot of damage. I am also a massive comic fan, I might prefer DC but I still like Marvel and a good game where you get to play as Superheroes was what I was looking for and what I still enjoy getting to the table.
The Bad
There isn't much about the gameplay of Legendary that I don't like, it is a really good Co-Op and deckbuilding game. There are a few problems with it though. The set up and set down of the game can take a while. You have loads of different decks of cards that you have to select and shuffle together into larger decks and then sort them after a game to stop them being mixed up for next time.
The Organisation time isn't just for each game, When you first buy the game the cards come wrapped in 4 big decks, these really aren't in much of an order and it took me close to an hour when I first got it just to go through and sort each card into the correct group and sort a divider for them.
The final issue I have with the game is the card quality isn't great. It is no worse than most games I play but this game involves a fair bit of shuffling and handling cards so they can start to see a little bit of wear. It isn't a major issue, it was a few games before I started to see a little wear on the edges. I decided to sleeve all my cards but I have friends with the game that haven't and there's no problems with the cards other than a little around the edges. It is nothing that would put me off buying the game again or any future expansions.
Overall
I like this game, I play it solo from time to time trying to work out go combos and beat my own scores. It was so popular in my group that after the first playing two other people in the group went straight out and brought it.
It is currently my second highest played game on BoardGameGeek (after One Night Ultimate Werewolf, which can be played 5 or 6 times in the time one game of Legendary takes). This shows how much I enjoy it and how much table time it sees.
If the Marvel theme isn't something that intrigues you but you are looking for a good Co-Op deck builder there are other themes with the same system. I haven't played either of the Legendary Encounters series (Alien and Predator theme) but I have heard that the actual game play of them, while the same system is better in these games. I haven't brought them yet because I am happy with this one and would rather spend my money of other games instead of one so similar to one I already own. There is also a Marvel Villains set, where players can be the villains and fight against the Heroes trying to stop them. All the sets can be combined, I wouldn't cross Marvel and Alien personally but it is possible (The X-Men trying to fight off the Aliens and Facehuggers from the film does sound pretty cool though), I would like to try the Marvel Heroes and Villains mixed, or Alien crossed with Predator though.
Anyway I gave this game a 9/10 on BGG and I stick by that. I also gave all the expansions I have played 8 or 9/10. So consider this me recommending it to anyone that likes Superheroes or deckbuilding.
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