X-Men Legends
Posted October 29, 2004
With X-Men games dating back to the Commodore 64, it’s nice to see a license actually be put to good use, and X-men Legends does exactly that. With a group of characters with as much history, and such a loyal fan base as the X-Men have, it’s a wonder that after some of the shoddy games of the past, that anyone would want to dare to stretch the license to something beyond a 2D fighter, and I am happy to report that what we’ve got here fits the bill as a very fun and very well put together game. However, the game is about as much RPG as the Diablo series is, essentially a fighter with experience points and leveling up embedded into the gameplay, but done very well.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is based around a story that is familiar to the X-Men world, stop Magneto and the Brotherhood. Also interweaved with this main story are a couple of nice touches which take the characters that we all know and love back in time during multiple flashback stages, such as the Wolverine Weapon-X flashback, and the Beast flashback when Juggernaut was on a rampage through the professors mansion trying to get revenge for his brother’s death. The story begins with the X-Men rescuing a young lady, who through intermission type levels trains at the school and eventually becomes the newest member of the X-Men, Magma.
The game makes a great effort at small touches in parts of the game to bring the characters to life, some I’ll touch on in later sections that were a little excessive, but for the most part the small touches made the game a joy to play. One aspect which really made me appreciate the smaller details was while exploring the dormitories in the mansion while using Magma in her non X-Men form. Each of the rooms you entered that was occupied by another team member had some small touch which made the room belong to them, such as Wolverine’s Canadian flag.
As mentioned briefly earlier, the gameplay is very similar in fashion to typical hack-n-slash games such as Diablo and even classic games like Final Fight with the addition of leveling up your character in the way you’d like. With each of the 15 selectable X-Men you can choose how you want them to progress, or you can have the AI select what it thinks is the proper growth method. Each character has a similar basic stat screen, enabling you to upgrade things that impact different areas such as health amount and the rate at which energy returns after depleting it using the individual mutant powers each has. The powers are mostly unique to each character with some common areas such as life extension or as is the case with Cyclops and Storm, a leadership skill which creates bonus experience for all members of the team when this passive skill is upgraded.
As expected, you’ll be able to let some X-Men fly (Storm, Jean Grey, Rogue) and let others get their own specific skills like Iceman’s ice ray and Nightwing’s teleporting. With each level you’ll gain one point for each the common skill areas and the mutant power, some skills take two points to initially make selectable, so always selecting Auto Level Up is not a good option, because it can limit your ability to unlock the more powerful mutant powers.
When embarking on a mission, you can select four X-Men to take with you, enabling you to mix and match the best grouping of powers for each task. This ranges from someone who can build bridges, to someone who has the power to weld metal together. Each of the four characters is playable, but only one is user controlled at any given time. Fortunately you can set the AI of the team when not in your control, so you can set Wolverine on an attack rampage while keeping Jean Grey back in a support role. One great thing that makes X-Men Legends stand out is the co-op multiplayer options. Up to four players can join you through the single player campaign; this makes it a lot of fun to beat the crap out of Sentinels and the Brotherhood.
Other game modes include things that pit your chosen character against others in King of the Hill, Last Man Standing, and Brawl modes, with these options stats are kept and you can try to best yourself at any time.
Graphics:
Graphically speaking, X-Men Legends looks quite nice with the Cel-Shaded format lending quite nicely to the overall theme of the game. The character designs look great, but one thing does get in the way of the graphics more often then not, and that is the camera. Sometimes when slipping through alleys or in a small room, the camera will either zoom out and obscure the team, or will zoom in so close that you cannot see what is around you. Thankfully a map system is used that can help you navigate through the zones.
The X-Men costumes are the new black based costumes for most of the game. However, it’s fun to notice that during the flashbacks, the character models and costumes change to match the time period. For example, Beast in the main portion of the game is the blue furry character we know now, but in his flashback he is the normal looking man who has the same characteristics, and Wolverine wears the classic bright yellow costume.
Each character is well detailed considering the comic look and feel, Iceman is an icy shade of blue and Colossus shines with all his metal glory. On the flipside, because of the comic feel, we don’t get much in the form of dynamic lighting when fights take place; no flashes appear around an item when a beam shoots past it, or when a barrel lights on fire. Oh well, the graphics really work well for the game.
Audio:
One complaint I have for X-Men is that some of the voice work seems really overdone and forced; Rogue’s southern accent really stands out as a thorn for me. Otherwise, the audio is great with quips from the characters when they dole out a nice beating or when they call to a teammate for a hand taking down a tough opponent. A slew of actors have lent their voices to the game, Patrick Stewart takes the role of Professor X, while Lou Diamond Phillips and Ed Asner take on other small roles in the game.
The sound effects and music blend into the game very well and almost go by unnoticed, surely a sign of well done mixes.
Conclusion:
If you are looking for a true RPG that will suck a lot of time up to play, then X-Men is not for you. While the length of the game can somewhat vary based on what you choose to do outside the standard story path (flashbacks, other challenges), there is no true incentive to play through the game a second time other than to use the X-treme costumes. Overall I’d recommend this game to both fans and non-fans of the comics, as this is a great straight up action game that is both a blast in single player mode as well as with friends. One thing you must do though is get the thought of Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine out of your head, because this Wolverine looks nothing like him.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is based around a story that is familiar to the X-Men world, stop Magneto and the Brotherhood. Also interweaved with this main story are a couple of nice touches which take the characters that we all know and love back in time during multiple flashback stages, such as the Wolverine Weapon-X flashback, and the Beast flashback when Juggernaut was on a rampage through the professors mansion trying to get revenge for his brother’s death. The story begins with the X-Men rescuing a young lady, who through intermission type levels trains at the school and eventually becomes the newest member of the X-Men, Magma.
The game makes a great effort at small touches in parts of the game to bring the characters to life, some I’ll touch on in later sections that were a little excessive, but for the most part the small touches made the game a joy to play. One aspect which really made me appreciate the smaller details was while exploring the dormitories in the mansion while using Magma in her non X-Men form. Each of the rooms you entered that was occupied by another team member had some small touch which made the room belong to them, such as Wolverine’s Canadian flag.
As mentioned briefly earlier, the gameplay is very similar in fashion to typical hack-n-slash games such as Diablo and even classic games like Final Fight with the addition of leveling up your character in the way you’d like. With each of the 15 selectable X-Men you can choose how you want them to progress, or you can have the AI select what it thinks is the proper growth method. Each character has a similar basic stat screen, enabling you to upgrade things that impact different areas such as health amount and the rate at which energy returns after depleting it using the individual mutant powers each has. The powers are mostly unique to each character with some common areas such as life extension or as is the case with Cyclops and Storm, a leadership skill which creates bonus experience for all members of the team when this passive skill is upgraded.
As expected, you’ll be able to let some X-Men fly (Storm, Jean Grey, Rogue) and let others get their own specific skills like Iceman’s ice ray and Nightwing’s teleporting. With each level you’ll gain one point for each the common skill areas and the mutant power, some skills take two points to initially make selectable, so always selecting Auto Level Up is not a good option, because it can limit your ability to unlock the more powerful mutant powers.
When embarking on a mission, you can select four X-Men to take with you, enabling you to mix and match the best grouping of powers for each task. This ranges from someone who can build bridges, to someone who has the power to weld metal together. Each of the four characters is playable, but only one is user controlled at any given time. Fortunately you can set the AI of the team when not in your control, so you can set Wolverine on an attack rampage while keeping Jean Grey back in a support role. One great thing that makes X-Men Legends stand out is the co-op multiplayer options. Up to four players can join you through the single player campaign; this makes it a lot of fun to beat the crap out of Sentinels and the Brotherhood.
Other game modes include things that pit your chosen character against others in King of the Hill, Last Man Standing, and Brawl modes, with these options stats are kept and you can try to best yourself at any time.
Graphics:
Graphically speaking, X-Men Legends looks quite nice with the Cel-Shaded format lending quite nicely to the overall theme of the game. The character designs look great, but one thing does get in the way of the graphics more often then not, and that is the camera. Sometimes when slipping through alleys or in a small room, the camera will either zoom out and obscure the team, or will zoom in so close that you cannot see what is around you. Thankfully a map system is used that can help you navigate through the zones.
The X-Men costumes are the new black based costumes for most of the game. However, it’s fun to notice that during the flashbacks, the character models and costumes change to match the time period. For example, Beast in the main portion of the game is the blue furry character we know now, but in his flashback he is the normal looking man who has the same characteristics, and Wolverine wears the classic bright yellow costume.
Each character is well detailed considering the comic look and feel, Iceman is an icy shade of blue and Colossus shines with all his metal glory. On the flipside, because of the comic feel, we don’t get much in the form of dynamic lighting when fights take place; no flashes appear around an item when a beam shoots past it, or when a barrel lights on fire. Oh well, the graphics really work well for the game.
Audio:
One complaint I have for X-Men is that some of the voice work seems really overdone and forced; Rogue’s southern accent really stands out as a thorn for me. Otherwise, the audio is great with quips from the characters when they dole out a nice beating or when they call to a teammate for a hand taking down a tough opponent. A slew of actors have lent their voices to the game, Patrick Stewart takes the role of Professor X, while Lou Diamond Phillips and Ed Asner take on other small roles in the game.
The sound effects and music blend into the game very well and almost go by unnoticed, surely a sign of well done mixes.
Conclusion:
If you are looking for a true RPG that will suck a lot of time up to play, then X-Men is not for you. While the length of the game can somewhat vary based on what you choose to do outside the standard story path (flashbacks, other challenges), there is no true incentive to play through the game a second time other than to use the X-treme costumes. Overall I’d recommend this game to both fans and non-fans of the comics, as this is a great straight up action game that is both a blast in single player mode as well as with friends. One thing you must do though is get the thought of Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine out of your head, because this Wolverine looks nothing like him.