Everlost_MI
10-23-2005, 11:10 AM
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse Review (XBOX)
By Everlost_MI (Brian K. Nichols), Editor in Chief
The world famous mutants are back in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse developed by Raven Software. The sequel places the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil on the same side, as they must stop Apocalypse and his Acolytes from destroying the world. To get the excitement flowing, the game starts with a cutscene involving the rescue of Professor X by a group of mutants that include the Brotherhood of Evil and the X-Men. The cutscene pulses with adrenaline and atmosphere, especially when Wolverine indicates in a not so subtle way of what he thinks of Sabertooth. The results of this odd coupling of long time foes gives the ability to build some interesting teams. For example, the team I took through the game included Wolverine, Sunfire, Juggernaut and Magneto. On the Xbox version of the title, there are fifteen characters that are immediately playable with the ability to unlock an additional three if other objectives are completed. The game is broken into five acts that are bound by cut scenes to help push the story along. Each act has subchapters that are packed full of Marvel Universe characters and history. For example, the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury shows up in act four to help the cause. The bosses at the end of each act are entertaining enough but typically a bruiser like Wolverine or Juggernaut will make short work of them. The sequel now supports the use Xbox Live! in multiplayer to add more life to the title. The downside to either the local or Xbox Live! multiplayer action is how the camera zooms out to include all the human controlled players on the screen at the same time. Between the main storyline and the Danger Room exercises, the game takes over twenty hours to complete on normal difficulty.
The look and feel of the game has not changed since the original title, which provides a comfort zone for returning gamers to the series. The camera and mini-map can be adjusted to a certain degree and are non-intrusive to the gameplay as a whole. The characters are still cell-shaded and the environments still maintain a more realistic look that forces the characters and the action to really stand out. The Danger Room and the trivia game have returned to polish and increase the characters’ skills while allow gamers to garner additional experience points based on their X-Men and Marvel Universe knowledge. The mutant store also makes a return with the ability to buy and sell various attribute increasing belts, armor and accessories that are often dropped by defeated enemies.
The gameplay hasn’t changed since the original title as you still command a party of four characters but are directly controlling only one at a time. Again, the A.I. of the team characters can be adjusted according to the gamer’s preference in the form of what is used for the primary attack, the healing threshold and the level of aggressiveness. Depending on how the teams are built, various team bonuses are applied. For example, if a team is built with the Juggernaut, Colossus, Wolverine and Rogue the team bonus of 20 energy points is given per knockout. The sequel allows you to change costumes on the characters right off the bat, unlike its predecessor where you had to wait until the game was completed to unlock that feature. In addition, in the third act the ability to change into the Age of Apocalypse (AoA) costumes for all the characters is unlocked. This not only gives comic book fans some visual love it also endows an additional team bonus if all four characters switch to the AoA costumes. The title tries to entice gamers to use the various characters at their disposal to manipulate the environment in various clearly denoted locations. For example, when presented with crossing a chasm to acquire a homing beacon, the gamer could use Iceman to create a bridge or use Sunfire to fly over the chasm. The game is generous in allowing fallen comrades to rejoin the ranks at a reasonable cost to your tech bits, currency that is acquired in the game. In addition, the ability to get back to the home base is even easier than before with an on-demand portal provided by Blink. Once the Blink portal has been used it takes five minutes until the option can be used again. There are still various standard save locations scattered through out the game. The title still uses a light RPG method of increasing statistics as well as adding and increasing mutant powers as levels are acquired. In this sequel, the gamer can choose to allow the title to make the statistic selections as levels are acquired to allow more focus on the action or leave the statistics selections on manual. Additional mutant powers skills have been added since the original game and again they differ for each character according to their mutation. As the character and their mutant powers progress in levels the visuals and damage they inflict become more spectacular.
The controls haven’t changed since the original and for new gamers the learning curve is almost instant. The various combos that include standard and powered attacks have returned as have the Xtreme Power attacks. Each character has a different feel accordingly, for example the Juggernaut is slow but powerful with Nightcrawler is nimble and quick. The combat system offers a range of standard and powered attacks as well as combo attacks if coordinated with your teammates. Unlike the original title, a better sense of timing is required to execute some of the combos in the sequel. However, the results are typically worth the effort in working out the proper timing.
The overall music and sound effects for the game are of standard fare with nothing that really adds or detracts from the game. The voice talent however is rather uninspiring and feels forced aside from Patrick Stewart’s work in providing the voice for Professor X. The various repeated banter during in game play does become wearisome after a few hours into the game, especially from Juggernaut or Magento.
In conclusion, this game is worth the time and money as it provides the right balance of action and longevity to earn its place in your gaming library. However, if you haven’t played the original I would recommend picking it up as it’s being sold for twenty dollars or less. Hopefully, Raven will update the look of the game for X-Men Legends III, aside from that they should keep the formula the same and the sequels coming.
The Good
The rich storyline chucked full of Marvel/X-Men history and characters.
The cutscenes.
The action.
Short load times.
Length of the game.
The Bad
Voiceovers, Professor X aside.
The Ugly
Multiple loading between areas/acts.
Score: http://www.evilavatar.com/images/icons/e4.jpg
4 EvilEyes out of 5.
MSRP: $49.99
http://www.evilavatar.com/images/thumbs/xmemaoa.jpg
By Everlost_MI (Brian K. Nichols), Editor in Chief
The world famous mutants are back in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse developed by Raven Software. The sequel places the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil on the same side, as they must stop Apocalypse and his Acolytes from destroying the world. To get the excitement flowing, the game starts with a cutscene involving the rescue of Professor X by a group of mutants that include the Brotherhood of Evil and the X-Men. The cutscene pulses with adrenaline and atmosphere, especially when Wolverine indicates in a not so subtle way of what he thinks of Sabertooth. The results of this odd coupling of long time foes gives the ability to build some interesting teams. For example, the team I took through the game included Wolverine, Sunfire, Juggernaut and Magneto. On the Xbox version of the title, there are fifteen characters that are immediately playable with the ability to unlock an additional three if other objectives are completed. The game is broken into five acts that are bound by cut scenes to help push the story along. Each act has subchapters that are packed full of Marvel Universe characters and history. For example, the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury shows up in act four to help the cause. The bosses at the end of each act are entertaining enough but typically a bruiser like Wolverine or Juggernaut will make short work of them. The sequel now supports the use Xbox Live! in multiplayer to add more life to the title. The downside to either the local or Xbox Live! multiplayer action is how the camera zooms out to include all the human controlled players on the screen at the same time. Between the main storyline and the Danger Room exercises, the game takes over twenty hours to complete on normal difficulty.
The look and feel of the game has not changed since the original title, which provides a comfort zone for returning gamers to the series. The camera and mini-map can be adjusted to a certain degree and are non-intrusive to the gameplay as a whole. The characters are still cell-shaded and the environments still maintain a more realistic look that forces the characters and the action to really stand out. The Danger Room and the trivia game have returned to polish and increase the characters’ skills while allow gamers to garner additional experience points based on their X-Men and Marvel Universe knowledge. The mutant store also makes a return with the ability to buy and sell various attribute increasing belts, armor and accessories that are often dropped by defeated enemies.
The gameplay hasn’t changed since the original title as you still command a party of four characters but are directly controlling only one at a time. Again, the A.I. of the team characters can be adjusted according to the gamer’s preference in the form of what is used for the primary attack, the healing threshold and the level of aggressiveness. Depending on how the teams are built, various team bonuses are applied. For example, if a team is built with the Juggernaut, Colossus, Wolverine and Rogue the team bonus of 20 energy points is given per knockout. The sequel allows you to change costumes on the characters right off the bat, unlike its predecessor where you had to wait until the game was completed to unlock that feature. In addition, in the third act the ability to change into the Age of Apocalypse (AoA) costumes for all the characters is unlocked. This not only gives comic book fans some visual love it also endows an additional team bonus if all four characters switch to the AoA costumes. The title tries to entice gamers to use the various characters at their disposal to manipulate the environment in various clearly denoted locations. For example, when presented with crossing a chasm to acquire a homing beacon, the gamer could use Iceman to create a bridge or use Sunfire to fly over the chasm. The game is generous in allowing fallen comrades to rejoin the ranks at a reasonable cost to your tech bits, currency that is acquired in the game. In addition, the ability to get back to the home base is even easier than before with an on-demand portal provided by Blink. Once the Blink portal has been used it takes five minutes until the option can be used again. There are still various standard save locations scattered through out the game. The title still uses a light RPG method of increasing statistics as well as adding and increasing mutant powers as levels are acquired. In this sequel, the gamer can choose to allow the title to make the statistic selections as levels are acquired to allow more focus on the action or leave the statistics selections on manual. Additional mutant powers skills have been added since the original game and again they differ for each character according to their mutation. As the character and their mutant powers progress in levels the visuals and damage they inflict become more spectacular.
The controls haven’t changed since the original and for new gamers the learning curve is almost instant. The various combos that include standard and powered attacks have returned as have the Xtreme Power attacks. Each character has a different feel accordingly, for example the Juggernaut is slow but powerful with Nightcrawler is nimble and quick. The combat system offers a range of standard and powered attacks as well as combo attacks if coordinated with your teammates. Unlike the original title, a better sense of timing is required to execute some of the combos in the sequel. However, the results are typically worth the effort in working out the proper timing.
The overall music and sound effects for the game are of standard fare with nothing that really adds or detracts from the game. The voice talent however is rather uninspiring and feels forced aside from Patrick Stewart’s work in providing the voice for Professor X. The various repeated banter during in game play does become wearisome after a few hours into the game, especially from Juggernaut or Magento.
In conclusion, this game is worth the time and money as it provides the right balance of action and longevity to earn its place in your gaming library. However, if you haven’t played the original I would recommend picking it up as it’s being sold for twenty dollars or less. Hopefully, Raven will update the look of the game for X-Men Legends III, aside from that they should keep the formula the same and the sequels coming.
The Good
The rich storyline chucked full of Marvel/X-Men history and characters.
The cutscenes.
The action.
Short load times.
Length of the game.
The Bad
Voiceovers, Professor X aside.
The Ugly
Multiple loading between areas/acts.
Score: http://www.evilavatar.com/images/icons/e4.jpg
4 EvilEyes out of 5.
MSRP: $49.99
http://www.evilavatar.com/images/thumbs/xmemaoa.jpg