X-Men Legends

Reviewer Chi Phan	Story	8/10
	Characters	8/10
	Graphics	7/10
	Music	6/10
	Gameplay	8/10
	Extras	9/10
	Final Score	7.7/10

As a boy growing up, I always love Marvel Comic book super heroes. X-Men may not be my favorite Marvel super heroes but they are a part of the Marvel Universe that I so loved. The one thing I've always notice as a new video game player growing up in the video game world is that super hero video games were always made into the action fighting genre. Case in point: Spider-Man, Marvel Super Heroes, and the numerous X-Men games introduced in the last few years. They are all action fighting games. I never understood why game developers automatically assume super hero games should be made into action games. Still when word first came out of a possible X-Men game that isn't an action game but an rpg game, I was thrilled at the possible aspect of a first super hero rpg game ever. From rumor to fact, we now get to give an in-depth look at X-Men Legends.

The Return of Magneto Attack of the Sentinels As soon as you press that New Game button, the adventure of the X-Men begins right away. We are feature to a mini CG movie cut scene featuring a newscast from a reporter reporting the escalating violence between humans and mutants, giving us an insight to a world of human vs. mutants due to fear and prejudice of beings that are different than those that are normal humans. In one of these violence hot spot is New York City. From here the story starts off with you, the player, controlling Wolverine. A mutant girl name Alison has lost control of her powers and caused destruction in a New York neighborhood. The police force has been sent in to secure her. However even as New York finests work their way to arrest the girl, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are in the area to try and capture the girl for their own purpose. What do they want with the girl is unknown but Wolverine isn't going to let them get their evil hands on her. After the ensuing battle with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the X-Men took Alison back to their mansion. At the mansion, Alison begins to learn more about the world of mutants and her mutant powers. Charles Xaviar, the founder of the X-Men offers Alison membership into the X-Men. Alison accepts the offer into the X-Men and adapts Magma as her codename. In the meantime, events outside the mansion have unfolded with the Brotherhood of the Evil Mutants attacking a submarine that was secretly holding their leader Magneto captive. The newly freed Magneto plots a new war of mutants vs. humans right away by delivering a threat to the world leaders that if they don't meet his demands, he will destroy the world by sending asteroids down onto earth while mutants that are his followers will be safe on his base above earth. This latest threat from Magneto has given the leader of the nations no choice but to revive the Sentinels program, a program where giant robots are created and design for the sole purpose of finding and detaining mutants. The X-Men are in a race against time as they must fight off and destroy the Sentinels before any mutants fall into harm from the Sentinels and at the same time must search for Magneto and stop his evil plans. The story is written very well and plays out just like an animated comic book. I like how the writers of this story are able to write in Alison introduction into the X-Men as a way to introduce us to the X-Men and the X-Universe as well. The story does a very good job in explaining the mutants vs. human wars, the Sentinels program, and the history of the X-Men dating back to their early years. This story really tries to stay on path of the comic book history to keep loyal X-Men comic book fans happy but yet at the same time ensuring that non X-Men fans would understand the basic plotlines in the X-Universe. Overall the story presents itself as a good 30 minutes CG TV show complete with voice acting. Not as in-depth as one would hope but well enough for an introduction story piece to a possible series in the making.

X-Men are ready for action This game features an all star casts from the X-Universe, spotlighting the X-Men to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They try to fit in as many characters as possible for this debut game. You're looking at over 15 playable X-Men and villains in this game. That's a lot of special feature characters. When you have this many main and supporting characters, character developments are going to be left to a minimum simply because there isn't enough of a time frame to develop everyone properly. The game center more on the developing of the Magma (Alison) character then any other character since that character is the center piece of the story. However, playing as Magma during the game, you will interact with other X-Men and talk to them. These one on one conversation with each of the X-Men will reveal a bit of their origin, where they are from, and what mutant powers they have. In other words you are getting a mini biography of the X-Men themselves just by talking to them. The same also applies to other characters such villains in the game. Talking to various X-Men will give you information on the villains that you are about to face. What also set these characters apart from one another are their unique personalities that are brought to life by the use of voice actors. You will be pleasantly surprise by the actors behind the voices in itself. The balance of characters feature in this game is also done in a way that each character is equal to one another. You be finding yourself switching in and out between different X-Men quite a bit as each X-Men has certain powers and uniqueness that fits getting the job done when stomping on the bad guys. In my professional opinion, the game developers did an excellent job between balancing out all of the many characters presented in the game and giving us just enough of an origin on these characters that even non X-Men fans will understand the X-Universe.

This ain't looking good, bub. X-Men Legends isn't very legendary when it comes to the graphics. Not sure how the call was made by the game developers but choosing cel-shading isn't the way to go here. I assume they went with cel-shading in hope of capturing that cartoon look. If that's the purpose of the cel-shading then I suppose they did accomplish that cartoon look. However it costs them the expense of having a great looking game. The game looks very 2-D like and not 3-D at all. The background environment is done in a sense that you don't have too much problem with the designs and colors used. The problem of the graphics comes mainly with the character designs and their animated movements. All the characters have big black outline to them which makes them look like cardboard in a 2-D world and not a 3-D world. There's no attention to detail when these characters were made. Their faces and body lack any real detail texture that makes them realistic at all. You could barely tell if these characters have noses or mouths. Their hands are like hands that belong to the Green Giant, too big for their bodies. During story cut scenes these characters seem to be ragged dolls just standing there with bodies, hands, and heads weaving back and forth like puppets without their strings attached. There don't seem to be anything that makes these characters look life like at all. The CG cut scenes aren't very good too. The CG look out of focus and too soft when you look at it closely. Some CG look kind of fuzzy to gamers. When people look at CG scenes, they want to see sharpness and crystal clear images with rich detailed CG texture. Not fuzzy and out of focus CGs. But it's not all bad. While CG and story cut scenes are less to be desire, the in game graphics are good enough for you to enjoy playing this game. I suppose the reason for this is that these characters are on the move most of the time with action coming in all direction. Seeing mutants powers being unleashed with bodies flying everywhere takes away the focus on the badly designs of the X-Men characters in a close up view. And let's face it; unleashing X-treme powers is still cool to watch no matter how many times you've seen it. Final word, cel-shading is the wrong way to go in this game.

It's quiet in here.. I have to admit that I'm hard press to describe the music. I guess like with the graphics, the music isn't very appealing. One of the problem is that this game is design as more of a mission base game then a driven story rpg game. With this in mind, there aren't a whole lot of story sequence where there's a lot of drama involve to have a strong musical score present. Most of the musical scores are dungeons and battle themes. You can even say character musical themes are present as well. But in terms of overall musical presence, you don't notice it too much. At the very least nothing that grabs your attention anyways. The battle or dungeon tunes aren't really super hot but good enough to enjoy it while you are playing the game. There's no main musical X-Men theme. It would be cool if they added in the 90s cartoon main theme in the game as the main theme. They should add at least a musical score that help gamers identify with the game. A game with good music always has at least one musical tune where gamers can hear and say, "Hey, I know where that music is from." I doubt anyone will be able to recognize the music in this game outside of playing it. The sound effects are good. Whether it be broken glasses, footsteps, barrels being thrown, or even the effects of the enemies or your X-Men speaking their little catch phases during battles. But this game definitely needs a bigger and stronger musical presence.

Help me fellow X-men! X-treme super powers! Game Information    Genre: Action Rpg    Publisher: Activision    Disc: 1 DVD Disc    Memory: 335 KB    Players: 1-4 Player Mode    Analog Control: Yes    Vibration Function: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: September 2004 X-Men Legends is a multi-player action rpg game. Up to 4 players can play this game simultaneously. However the game is still base on one player game mode as a default. The difficulty of the game also increases with the number of players playing this game. The gameplay is base on completion of each mission that is available to progress the story deeper. A team of 4 X-Men is available for you to take on each mission; however you are able to change your X-Men members in your team during the missions if the need arises. You are also not limited to just controlling one particular X-Man at all times. Out of the 4 X-Men in your team, you can only control one at all times and the AI will control the other 3 members. But you can switch your control to a different X-Man at any time if you so wish and the AI will take over the control of the X-Man you no longer wish to control. The game is pretty straight forward in terms of what to do and where to go. You enter the War Room inside the X-Mansion and activate a mission. From here you get a mini story cut scene detailing the current events and where you are going. Then you are transported to a dungeon where your objectives will be updated in the Option menu. Complete your objectives to advance to the next area of the dungeon or to complete the mission. Traveling through a dungeon is like a maze but you have an over head map that you can display to show you where the exit is incase you get lost. Enemies will be roaming about and will attack you on sight. When attacked by the surrounding enemies, just punch, kick, or use your mutant powers to deal with them as you make your way toward the exit. Usually at the end of the mission there will be a boss fight. Defeat the boss and you get transported back to the X-Mansion where you can take a break and save your game, or talk to the X-Men roaming around, or check out any new extras feature that have been unlock since your last time wandering around the X-Mansion. Outside of the X-Mansion, there's no real other place that you can freely roam and explore since this game is a straight forward mission base rpg game unlike your traditional explore the world rpg game. Some unique key features to note though for this game. Xtraction Points: This is one of the most important feature in the game. Xtraction Points are located in certain areas of a dungeon and in the basement of the X-Mansion. Xtraction Points is your only means of saving a game, reviving any dead X-Men, accessing Forge's Workshop or Healer's Den to buy or sell equipments and items, changing team members, and accessing the Danger Room. Call Allies/Combos: In one player mode, you can only control one X-Men in the team while the other three are being controlled by the AI. The AI does a decent job in controlling those other X-Men, 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 X-Men 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 X-Men doing physical attack or two X-Men 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 X-Men 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 an X-Man attributes. Each time an X-Men level up, he or she will gain 2 attribute points. You can then allocate these points to any of the X-Men 4 attributes, Strike, Agility, Body, and Focus. This way you can grow or groom each X-Men differently in terms of their weakness and toughness. Skill Points: Skill points works much in the same way as attributes points. However instead of allocating points to your X-Men physical attributes, you are allocating your points to their special mutant attacks or skill attacks. Each X-Man has their own unique set of mutant's powers and attack. To grow their mutant power to higher level or to even unlock stronger mutant power attacks, you need to allocate skill points to a set of mutant skills. 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 attack. Xtreme Powers: Ah yes, there are mutant power attacks and there are super mutant power attacks. The super mutant power attacks are known as Xtreme Power Attacks. Once an X-Man 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 the dungeons. Tokens can be dropped or found from dead enemies. No matter how many times I see it and use it, I always love getting off an Xtreme Power attack. It's just so Xtremely cool. Outside of those key features, the game is pretty basic and easy. But it is also very fun and face pace. How can you not have a good time controlling your favorite X-Man and beating up Magneto and his goons of followers. The drawback is that it can be pretty short in terms of overall gameplay time. I think you can finish this game under 30 hours. It's much more fun to have your friends play with you controlling the other X-Men in the team but alas, I'm a lonely person with no friends to play X-Men Legends with. LOL. I would give it a much higher score if the gameplay was longer and deeper in terms of features. This isn't an epic rpg game by any means.

Score: 8/10

Danger Room madness Surprisingly this game has a lot of extra features that you can do in the game and out of the game. In the game most of these extras include collecting certain things to unlock special features available. Danger Room Disc: This is the main meat of the extras in terms of in-game extras. There are 43 danger room disc scattered in different areas of each mission. Each disc represent a danger room course. These discs are going to be your main source for a place to level your characters up as well as get rare hidden accessories for your characters. The danger room course can also be a great source of money and healing items too. If you find you're having a hard time in the game then it's best to hit the danger room as soon as possible. 43 courses can give a lot of extra experience points and items. Comic Books: 13 comic books are scattered in the game. Each comic book represents a permanent stats boost to an X-Man. So you can bet finding the entire comic book collection is a good idea. Sketch Books: A little less important than the comic books and danger room discs are the sketch books. Sketch books can be found in various missions in the game. Each sketch book is a hidden concept art of the game that you can view in Colossus Room. Find the entire collection and you will be able to unlock even more concept artworks. Another extra feature is an outside of the in-game is an option available called the Danger Room. This Danger Room option is a bit different than the Danger Room that is present in the in-game one. This one offers the options to spar with other players in various different modes or against the CPU. The two main modes that you will use in this option is Sparring - allow you to complete against the CPU in a race against the clock. And Skirmish - allow you to complete against other players in various combat games. Skirmish itself can be broken down to 4 different modes. You'll have to find out those modes yourself. It's possible to replay this game again in a New Game+ mode. Once you finished the game, you are allowed to make a Clear Game Save data. When you start a new game, new available costumes are unlocked for your X-Men to wear as well as your accessories being carried over. However that is the only new benefit for replaying this game again other than you enjoying it the first time and want to try and build up other X-Men characters that you weren't able to try out in the first game. They could've added in some better incentive other than unlocking some costumes and bringing your accessories over. Still I have to admit that overall in a short game like this one, the extras definitely help give a boost in longer gaming time, especially all those Danger Room discs.

In a summary, X-Men Legends is a good super hero rpg game. It may not be as big or in-depth as your traditional rpg game, but it does have the most important quality that most rpgers look for in an rpg game, the fun factor. I really had a good time playing this game. Who doesn't love playing your favorite X-Men and using his or her mutant powers to fight against evil mutants and Sentinels? It might have taken a long time for a super hero video game to finally cross over from the action fighting genre to the role playing genre but it was worth the wait. X-Men Legends is a good indication that super hero video games can be made into a good rpg. With that in mind, here's hoping that in the future, there will be more super hero rpg games. Personally I would love to see a Spider-Man rpg game. Don't you? Final Score: 7.7/10