Within a one year timeline after the release of the surprising hit, X-Men Legends in 2004, X-Men Legends II, Rise of Apocalypse hit stores across North America in 2005. Clearly by now, X-Men Legends is slowly starting to establish itself as a popular action rpg series. With super hero rpg games all but none existent, you can see why comic book fans just seem to gobble up X-Men Legends as if they were eating McDonalds french fries. This time around, expectation would be higher for X-Men Legends II, as the game now carries a hint of success from the first X-Men Legends. Let us review what changes has been made and what changes hasn't been made.
STORY
The Age of Apocalypse
This is your mission briefing.
The story doesn't take long to jump right into the thick of things as the story start off with the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants rescuing Professor Xavier from captivity in a prison outpost in Genosha. Here the Professor informed both parties that two mutants by the name of Quicksilver and Polaris have been abducted by a mutant name Apocalypse. Apocalypse has declared war on the world and one of his first act was invading Genosha, a stronghold under Magneto and the Brotherhood command. Apparently base on the introduction and the following information afterwards, we learned that Magneto and the Brotherhood failed to defend Genosha from Apocalypse. Due to the fact that Apocalypse is too powerful for both the X-Men and Brotherhood to handle alone, the two groups had put aside their differences in an attempt to stop Apocalypse. Their current objectives are to find out why Apocalypse is abducting certain mutants and to stop Apocalypse armies from causing total destruction of the world. This requires traveling around to various locations in hopes of stopping Apocalypse top men known as the Four Horsemen and to destroy the factory that is producing his armies.
Now unlike the previous game where even though there's a lack of an in-depth storyline, at least there was a story that was there to play out like a short X-Men tv episode. Here it's totally different. Any story scenes or cut scenes are now done in a Mission Briefing scene where you can access these scenes
from the mission computer. These Mission Briefing scenes all pretty much played out the same as one another. You have a scene where Professor Xavier explaining the objective of the mission then you have the X-Men and the Brotherhood taking jabs at each other while he's explaining the mission. After awhile you can kind of get the picture of the same thing going over and over again to find the Mission Briefing scenes to be pointless. In fact it's so pointless that all Mission Briefing scenes are considered an option. You don't even have to view a Mission Briefing scene at all to go from one mission after the next one. The game totally takes out any possible way of having story scenes in this game. It's just basically one mission after the other. You know it's going to be a problem if the only story scenes you have in the game are mission briefing scenes outside of the CG sequences. The entire story of Rise of Apocalypse could have been told in 20 minutes top. That's how poorly the story has become. The story doesn't even provide us with any attempt as to explain how Apocalypse came to power, how he manage to capture Professor Xavier or how the X-Men and Brotherhood came together. It's just one mission objectives after the next. At the end of each chapter you get a small CG sequence as to what's going on and what may happen next. And it's up to the gamers to try and connect the dots together to figure out what the overall story is about. In the game, you can't seem to connect yourself with the story at all because it's all just pure gameplay for this rpg game. It's a shame too because with all the voice actors involved, you expect to see a much better developed story overall. This is a step backward in the wrong direction.
Score 6/10
CHARACTERS
X-Men and Brotherhood United
Total cast of playable characters now hit an all
time new with 18 playable characters. 15 characters are default characters while
3 characters are hidden secret characters you can unlock. Most of the X-Men and
Brotherhood of Evil mutants made their return here from the first game as well
as some new X-Men and Brotherhood making their first appearances in the series.
This time around you now have a chance to play as a Brotherhood member. The game
no longer just center around one character like it was done with the Magma character
story line in X-Men Legends so there's no single character that is at the focal
point of anything. At this point in the game, there's hardly any character development
of any of these characters at all. You can interact with some of the characters
and ask them to tell a bit of themselves but that's it. This is not a driven story
rpg game and since it is a sequel to the first game and the fact that the game
is base on the X-Men comic book, the game developers sort of expect gamers to
already know about these characters without having to spend too much time going
into a history background of each character. Looking at that logic, it makes sense.
This is an X-Men rpg game and most people that are going to play this game will
be X-Men or at the very least comic book fans so they should know a bit about
these characters prior to playing this game. At the very least you should at least
know most of these characters from the first game where introduction to these
X-Men were properly made better. You shouldn't be playing this game if you haven't
played the first X-Men game or even know anything about the X-Men as is. So a
person can see why the game developers may decide not to spend too much time with
developing a background history for these characters because it was already done
in the first game. These characters do have some very nice voice actors helping
bring these characters to life on your tv screen.
Score: 8/10
GRAPHICS
Got too much muscle, bub.
Graphics have been improve a little bit but not by much. It's mostly the same look as before. The game still sports that cel-shading look with dull colors used in the game. The background environments are still the same and really there were no problem with the background environments as like before, the problem with the graphics is still basically from the character designs. The movements of these characters are still that of ragged dolls just standing there with bodies, hands, and heads weaving back and forth like puppets without their strings attached. Characters faces and body are done a bit better but still lack that overall detailed texture. The good news is that the characters no longer sport that giant size black outline to them that make them look like cardboard or even giant size hands. Oh the black outline and big hands are still there but it's not as bad as before. The CG movie sequences in the game are have been redone to have character models looking more realistic than what was presented to us in the first game. In addition, the CG movie sequences are far more entertaining to watch as well. The downsides are there's still not enough CG sequences, the CG are still too fuzzy and not as sharp and clear as you would expect, and the characters designs in CG are all too muscle bound that these characters look like they are on steroids. Graphics were improved, just not by much to be worth giving it an extra point of grading than what was given in the first game.
Score: 7/10
MUSIC
Wanna dance with me?
Fundamentally the music is the same in terms of the themes played in this game as what was played in the first game. However the musical scores are much better this time around. Most of the musical themes centers around battle and dungeon themes but unlike the previous X-Men game, the scores for these themes sound much better and actually can influence the flow of the game. By the time you hit Act IV or Chapter IV in the game, you start to see and feel the music influencing the importance of the mission you are currently undertaking. At this point you start to feel that this isn't just a game but an X-Men television episode that you are taking part in. And this is all due to having the right musical scores playing at certain parts of the game. This was all missing in the first X-Men game. Another great part of the game is the exceptional voice acting done by some of today's Hollywood actors such as Patrick Stewart and Lou Diamond Phillips. If you look at the ending credits, you'll be pleasantly surprise to see which Hollywood actors are doing voices for which characters in the game.
Score: 8/10
GAMEPLAY
Xtreme Powers
Xtreme Combo Time
Game Information
Genre: Action/Online Rpg
Publisher: Activision
Disc:1 DVD Disc
Memory:335 KB
Players: 1-4 Players
Mode
Analog Control:Yes
Vibration Function:Yes
Network Adapter:Yes
Rating: Teen
Release: September 2005
If you played X-Men Legends then don't even bother to read the instruction book for X-Men Legends II. The gameplay is basically the same. It's just a bit more of everything, more mutants, more skills, and more areas. The dynamics of the gameplay is the same which is base on completing mission objectives by exploring dungeons and defeating bosses. The flow of the game has been change though to allow for a faster pace. Gone are the War Room and the need to activate a mission. Mission objectives are activated simply by talking to a character at HQ or by entering a dungeon. New missions objectives are also activated once previous mission objectives have been completed. You have the option of activating a Mission Briefing prior to heading out on the mission to get a small cutscene on what the mission is about but it's not really necessary. Once you enter a dungeon, you'll encounter a character who will explain to you what you need to do to complete the mission objective. After that, just fight your way through the dungeon to the point where you need to go. Sometimes the game will require you to use a particular mutant power in order to complete a mission objective but that's not too hard to do. As before you have a 4 mutant member party but can only control one of them. The other 3 mutants will be control by the AI but you have to option of flipping to another mutant to control at any time. The gameplay is still simple as before and very easy to get into. There are a couple of new features but for the most part, all the features that were presented in the first X-Men Legend game make their return here pretty much intact and unchanged.
Xtraction Points: Xtraction Points are basically set up the same, however some changes were made to them. There are now basically only three functions of an Xtraction Point, saving your game, reviving dead members, and teleporting to other Xtraction Points. Teleporting is a new feature introduced in this game and it's a good one. Allowing you to go to various levels of a dungeon in a short time or going back to the level of that dungeon from HQ. Call Allies/Combos: In one player mode, you can only control one party member in the team while the other three are being controlled by the AI. The AI does a decent job in controlling those other party members, however sometimes the need arises when you are getting gang up or getting your ass kicked in that you need to call your other teammates to help you beat up the target you are currently engaging in. This is where Call Allies comes in. With a press of the L2 button, your allies come running to you and attack the target you are attacking. This in turn allows you to gang up on one target. The Call Allies is also useful for doing combo attacks. Comb attacks occurs when two party members attack the same target at the same time delivering a special combo attack that gives off stronger damage and extra experience points. Combo attack can just be two party members doing physical attack or two party members using their mutant power attack at a target at the same time. Since combo attacks require attacking the same target, the Call Allies is most useful in these situations. Combo attacks aren't hard to learn or master at all. Most of the time you probably get combo attacks off randomly when Calling Allies to your side while fighting your enemies then by actually setting up a combo attack yourself. The game is just too fast pace to actually sit there and try to set up a combo that you want. Attributes Points: Each mutant has certain base attributes to them that you can access through the Character Menu. However the game is design in a way that you can customize a mutant attributes. Each time a mutant level up, he or she will gain 4 attribute points. You can then allocate these points to any of the mutant attributes, Strike, Speed, Body, and Focus. This way you can grow or groom each mutant differently in terms of their weakness and strengths. Skills: Skills work much in the same way as attributes points. However instead of allocating points to your mutant physical attributes, you are allocating your points to their special mutant skills. Each mutant has their own unique set of mutant's powers that they can master. To grow their mutant power to a higher level of mastering or to even unlock stronger mutant powers, you need to allocate skill points to a mutant skill. The cost of how many skill points are require to upgrade a mutant power varies as well as what level is required for you to be able to unlock a particular mutant power. Each time a mutant level up, you get 4 skill points to work with. You now have more skills introduce for each mutant in this game than in the first game. Skills are broken up into three categories in this sequel. They are offensive skills, boost skills, and passive skills. Xtreme Powers: Those xtreme mutant power attack are back again. Once a mutant reaches level 15, they will have access to their Xtreme Power Attack. Of course before you can use and unleash your Xtreme Power, you need to collect at least 4 Xtreme Tokens in dungeons. Tokens can be dropped or found from dead enemies. A nice change is that each mutant now has two different Xtreme Power Attacks instead of just one in this game. Team Bonus: This is actually a nice new feature. Hidden team bonuses can be unlocked base on the mutant team set up that you use. While you can use whatever mutants you want on your team, you can get some good bonuses for the overall team if you put certain mutants together as a team or even by using the right skins on your mutants. Example of bonuses includes 15% more HP to all party members on the team, 15% more experience points rewarded for party members on the team or even 100% attack power increase for all party members. Online Play: This is probably the most noticeable new feature in this game, the ability to play online with other players. Online play is broken down into two modes, Campaign and Danger Room. Danger Room is basically just you sparring with other players online. Campaign is where you play the story game online instead of offline. You would start the story game online like you would as if you were playing offline, however while you play the story game online, other players around the globe can join in on your story game by playing one of the characters that you aren't controlling. But since it is your story game because you are hosting the story game from your save file, you have basically full control of the game and the other players are basically riding along with you, playing the other mutant characters but they won't have control of anything other than the mutant that they are controlling. You also need to keep this in mind as well if you are the one that decides to join someone else's campaign game. You have no control over someone else's campaign game other than just riding along and helping kill enemies for them. You have no contact with any of the other online players. Online play is there but it's held to a very limited feature with no way to contact the other online players.
Even though the gameplay is pretty much the unchanged as before, it's still very fun. And having fun is what it's all about. I still get a kick on bashing enemies and using mutant powers at my disposal. The introduction of online play isn't as great as it seem once you get by the surface of it. There are two problems with online play, the first problem is that it's too limited with no contact with other online players. The second problem is that you'll find that you won't see anyone playing online at all during most hours. Even though X-Men Legends II has online capability, people pretty much still play the game as a none online game and truth be told, the game was design for none online gameplay so that's where most of the players will be playing, offline. So don't be surprise if you log on online and find out that you're the only person there. And it will probably be like that for a long time as the game get's older. The last problem you'll notice is that this game has some major lag issue while you are playing the game. This is quite unusual to see in an offline game where you are bashing at the bad guys when all of a sudden things are moving at a very slow pace due to lags of having so many enemies around you. But that's just minor stuff, the major stuff is there's a freezing bug that you will start to encounter as you near the end of the game. This freezing bug can be minor or it can literally destroy all the progress you made in the game but totally wiping your save file to the point where every time you try to load the save file up, it would freeze. I can say this for a fact as I've lost 39 hours of gameplay due to my save file not loading up at all because of the freezing bug. This bug seems to occur when you have too many stuff in your inventory. Lag and freezing can be a minor thing or a major thing depending on which way lady luck is shining on you. But in general gameplay is bigger and in a smaller way better than before in the first X-Men game. There's no doubt at all that you'll have a good time with this game. It's just too bad the story isn't as interesting as the gameplay.
Score: 8/10
EXTRAS/REPLAY
Mighty Avengers assemble!
You should be very familiar with the extras available in this game as like with everything else, it's a repeat on what was presented in the first X-Men game. Danger Room Discs, Sketch Books, Comic Books, and Trivia Questions all made their return in this game.
With Trivia Questions, each question you answer correctly will reward you with extra experience points. A good way to earn some extra experience for your fighters.
Finding each Sketch Book will unlock original concept arts of the game you can view at the Review Screen Menu. . Comic Books work in the same way as Sketch Books, find them to unlock comic cover artworks of each X-Men in the game.
The Danger Room Discs are still the heart of the extras as each disc will unlock a danger room course for you to play and gain some good items and experience points.
A new added bonus in the game is a mini side quest to unlock a hidden secret character that you can have join your party. Of course there are two other hidden secret character to unlock but they don't really involve exploring or accessing any bonus dungeons.
Outside the game, there's a Danger Room menu that you can spare in with a few friends or with just the CPU. You don't get any experience points or any items that will affect your story in-game progress but the Danger Room option is a nice way to pass the time or to learn how to control each various mutant better. This is the same kind of Danger Room menu option that you saw in the first X-Men game.
You have the option to replay the game with all the characters you unlock and items you have in your first game through a new game. This time around when you decide to replay the game again, the Hard mode is unlock and you have the option of playing in Hard mode instead. It's the same as what was presented to us but a bit more. And we are always happy to see a bit more.
Score: 9/10
Affectively, X-Men Legends II isn't really any different than X-Men Legends. The gameplay is pretty much the same as well as the graphics and music. You just have more skills, more xtreme powers, and more mutants to play with than before. The only new change is the added co-op online play capability but that's held to a very limited usage. If you love X-Men Legends then you'll love this game as the two are pretty much identical. There's no real major improvement in the sequel from the first game.
The only problem that may arise is that if the gameplay continues to maintain its status quo for future new X-Men Legends sequels than the series will become stale very quickly. But that's all in the future. For the now, X-Men Legends II will live up to the hype and same expectation that its predecessor has established for those X-Men Legends rpg fans out there. And that is the game is still fun to play.
