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Raven Software attempts to deliver another solid action RPG. Last year, Raven Software surprised the gaming public with an incredibly well-put together game based on the X-Men franchise. X-Men Legends was quite enjoyed, prompting Activision to greenlight a sequel which we’re seeing about a year later. X-Men Legends II doesn’t stray far from the formula established by the first game but remains a compelling game nonetheless.
The story of X-Men Legends II is good even if you don’t follow the X-Men series much. Essentially, the game pairs some key members of the X-Men (Wolverine, Cyclops and Storm) with their formal rivals, the Brotherhood (Magneto, Mystique and Sabertooth). The two teams must combine their resources to defeat a new, greater force that threatens them both: Apocalypse. You may know that Magneto isn’t a walk in the park but Apocalypse is considerably stronger, and he plans on getting stronger by extracting the mutant powers of four mutants he kidnapped. One of them happens to be Magneto’s son, Quicksilver, explaining why Magneto chooses to assist the X-Men in their battle against Apocalypse. Overall, the story is enjoyable with plenty of twists, just like a good comic book.
X-Men Legends II is split up into five parts. At the end of each you’ll face one of the major bosses from Apocalypse’s Horsemen of Apocalypse. One that X-Men Legends II has in abundance is X-Men characters. You’ll find characters like Wolverine, Magneto and Gambit in the game’s playable roster. All in all, 15 characters are playable right from the start (17 from the start in the PC version), out of a total of 18. Aside from the playable characters, the game boasts many more that appear as enemies of nonplayable characters. The characters offer a bit of personality since you unlock skins for them to make them a bit more unique. Additionally, depending on whether you’re playing as an X-Men or Brotherhood character, others will react differently.
The actual gameplay hasn’t changed much. You still have a part of four characters, one in your control and the three others controlled by the generally inoffensive AI. You can easily change characters and you’ll need to since certain tasks require specific characters. As you move on, the characters get stronger, gain experience and learn new skills. Each character has a number of different moves ranging from traps, melee and projectile in addition to a special skill unique to each character.
In addition to the excellent single-player mode, X-Men Legends II boasts an arguably more fun cooperative mode. The three console versions allow for four-player cooperative multiplayer. Players can enter the game at any time and can easily teleport to the party if they get too far behind. This is a handy feature since the camera zooms out to include all the characters onscreen. Though the PC version doesn’t have an offline cooperative mode, it does support online multiplayer along with the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game. We noticed a bit of lag with the PlayStation 2 version, but nothing too distracting. Of course, the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions benefit by offering both offline and online multiplayer.
The game’s visuals are true to the comic. The different characters look great, with plenty of detail and color. The animations are still a bit erratic, and somewhat robotic, but this is a fairly minor distraction. The environments are considerably big and varied. You’ll visit a temple, a jungle and a factory, among other locations before the game is over. The stages are all very interactive with plenty of rocks to throw, rails to throw people over, and walls just waiting to be smashed in. The interface is a bit confusing and could certainly be made more intuitive, but as is, it works fine. As expected, the PC version of the game looks sharper than any of the console versions. The Xbox version follows because of 720p. The high-resolution widescreen allows you to view more of the stage and simply makes everything look sharper. Differences are negligible between the Gamecube and PlayStation 2 versions of the game, though the Gamecube version looks a bit more blurry. This is offset, however, by the shorter loading times. It is especially bad on PlayStation 2 since you need to wait through a loading screen to check status and another to go back into the game.
The game’s audio is pretty well done though not great. The music doesn’t irritate but it doesn’t really stand out unless there is a high-action moment, when it then steps up a notch. The sound effects are effective though repetitive. The voice acting is solid though again, nothing extraordinary. The Xbox’s sound is insignificantly better thanks to the Dolby Digital support. The Gamecube and PlayStation 2 both support Dolby Pro Logic II, which is more than up to the job.
X-Men Legends II isn’t a drastic improvement over the first game, but it is definitely an improvement and ultimately a fun game. In addition to the lengthy single-player mode, the cooperative mode adds many hours to the game. This isn’t even mentioning that the single-player mode has a high replay value since you can easily go through to the game with another set and enjoy yourself. Overall, X-Men Legends II is definitely recommended.
-- Edited by Jose Liz -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Sep 24, 2005
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