Score
Gameplay:	9
Graphics:	9
Sound:	8
FunFactor:	10
PlasmaFactor:	9
Overall:	9

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse Review
November 28, 2005 by Jonathan Corey

by Jonathan Corey - November 28, 2005

The X-Men, with the help of Magneto and the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil, have just rescued Professor Xavier from the clutches of Apocalypse. The 5000 year old mutant has assembled a group of like-minded mercenaries hell bent on the task of global domination. Enter X-Men Legends 2. This sequel to the hit Action RPG of 2004, with its expanded range of playable characters and online cooperative play, presents many things missing from the original.

Nothing is perfect..

One of the first things you will notice in X-Men Legends 2 is that, like the original, nearly every scenery item in the game is destructible. As you begin and your characters are fairly weak, everything tends to remain pretty much intact. However, once you progress through the game and your mutant powers increase, the proverbial excrement hits the fan. Anytime four mutants with an appetite for destruction are packed into a tight space, the end result is going to be messy. The constant mayhem of crumbling walls, exploding barrels and airborne chairs combined with constant discharges of mutant powers create a deliciously chaotic game environment.

Following the storyline of Legends 2, the game boasts a greatly enhanced roster. The lineup includes all the well known X-Men, such as Cyclops, Wolverine, and Storm, as well as a few others including Bishop and Iceman. The Brotherhood characters consist of Magneto, Juggernaut and Sunfire, among others. Through play, Xavier, Ironman and Deadpool can be unlocked as playable characters. The storyline of the game, split into five acts, takes the player through familiar environments such as the Sanctuary and X-Mansion, as well as the Weapon X Facility, Avalon and Egypt. Travel between locations is possible through the use of built-in extraction points reminiscent of the waypoint system of Diablo 2. Quests are given by familiar faces from the comics and cartoon such as Angel/Arachangel and Forge, and generally consist of destroying some key component of Apocalypse's master plan.

One of the major drawbacks to X-Men Legends 2 is the ability interface. The screen one must enter to upgrade their characters skills and stats upon level up is crammed full of needless information. This makes upgrading characters a rather tedious process. With the frequency of level increases in Legends 2, the player is constantly filled with a foreboding of something which should be celebrated. Those awful words, Wolverine Leveled Up, will become the bane of your Legends 2 experience. Apparently, in anticipation of this shortcoming, the designers did add the ability to automatically assign new skills and stats, however this function will leave the player quite disappointed in its efficacy. Additionally, once this feature is chosen, there is no way to turn it off, forcing you to spend your techbits on skill redistribution.

Ooh... shiny.

Graphically speaking, the levels in Legends 2 are fantastic. The characters have all been modeled to resemble the illustration used in the comic books, which adds to the immersion in the game. One of the drawbacks to graphics in this game is that, at times, the players field of view can become inhibited by scenery or merely by the sheer volume of action. This creates some mildly confusing fights, however a good dose of fleet-fingered button smashing should do the trick. Most of the characters in Legends 2 have their original comic book costumes as well as those form the Age of Apocalypse.

Thwack!

The soundtrack in Legends 2 is nothing less than excellent. The voice acting for every character is on the mark and the music and ambient sounds fit well with with the game. One auditory fallback is the repetitive use of some items, namely Rogue's taunts, delivered with all the linguistic flair of a true Southern Bell. With enough twang to send you packing, Rogue will most likely not be a main part of your party throughout the game.

X-Men Legends 2 � Uniting the world one gamer at a time.

For Action RPG fans, Legends 2, doesn't leave much to be desired in the fun category. Constant hack and slash mayhem is well delivered with minimal downtime. However, where the game truly shines is in its multiplayer capability. Invite three of your closest friends over to join you, or merely meet them on Xbox Live for hours of destructive glee. One of the nicest multiplayer features is the ability to play saved games on Xbox Live. This way, if you encounter an area of the game too hard to defeat alone, which will happen on Hard difficulty, you have the power to save the game and then load it online with a team of allies ready to help you battle it out. One fallback of the online play, however, is the rampant lag. Luckily, this tends to only be a problem in full games, and the ability to limit the number of additional players will help ease the lag.

Wanna see my claws?

Overall, X-Men Legends 2 is a great game that will provide the player with hours upon hours of hack and slash entertainment. With a veritable shmorgishborg of Action RPGs to choose from, Legends 2 is one of the best. This is in part due to its unique play style. Who doesn't want to shoot lasers from their eyes or wield the power of weather against the hordes of their enemies. When it comes down to it, playing a video game chock full of mutants with a cadre of powerful abilities is just damn cool.

 

Quality Product

To sum it up, X-Men Legends is a well done sequel to a great game. It has everything we loved from the predecessor, however, things like crowded interfaces and internet lag remove some of the luster.