Review
Release Date: 09.21.2004
Platform:
GameCubeDeveloper:
Raven SoftwarePublisher:
Activision, Inc.Reviewed by
Richard Brownell on 10.4.2004
| Review Rating: 8/10 | User Rating: 8/10 |
When GAF learned that an X-Men RPG was in development, we didn't quite know what to think. But after the initial "huh?" faded, we decided it was a good idea. A poll of our readers at the time indicated the same response. It's been a full development lifespan since that announcement and now X-Men Legends has been released for all three major consoles. The initial "RPG" genre has mutated into a brawler with action RPG elements. Regardless of what you want to call it, it is an innovative and excellent approach to the X-Men universe.
X-Men Legends' plot revolves around the X-Men's most oft fought enemy, Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The Brotherhood is up to no good and throughout the game, the X-Men fight the Brotherhood all the while trying to figure out what they are up to. But the overall plot is almost like an excuse for the rest of the game and not in a bad way. Rather than focusing on the plot to save the world, the game's story is told through the perspective of a girl named Alison. It begins with her being rescued by the X-Men and continues through her joining Xavior's school and becoming an X-Man. The story and dialogue shows how the X-Men truly function like a family and it delves into the backstory of a number of the mutants at the school and non-X-men as well.
15 X-Men are playable, though at the start, you only have Wolverine (but who's going to complain there?). As the story progresses, you earn the ability to play as the other X-Men. Being as I am an X-Men fan and not an X-pert, I can't say for sure if this cast of X-Men fits in with a specific time in the comics, though I can say it does not follow the movies at all. The character designs, while not all that great looking, are well done in a modern sense. Those hoping for the older comic looks will be very happy to not have flashback movies, but flashback missions. They are actually some of the most fun to play including Juggernaut's run through the X-Mansion, Wolverine waking up as Mutant X and others as well.
But earning all 15 playable mutants doesn't mean you get 15 of you walking around. Maybe Activision is saving that for the X-Men strategy RPG? Before entering each mission, and at most save points, four X-Men can be chosen to play as. The player controls one at a time, though co-op is available. It's generally a good idea to have X-Men good at melee and some good at ranged attacks. And it's also better for the player to be the one doing melee as the player AI seems equivalent to the IQ of a banana--all the more reason to play co-op. It's also a good idea to try to have Ice Man (my personal favorite anyway) and somebody with an energy attack like Cyclops on hand for various parts of the environment that can be affected by their powers.
The RPG elements come into play with the experience earned as enemies are destroyed. Much like RPGs, the X-Men have stats to upgrade, but being mutants they also have mutant powers to add and upgrade. Each has three normal mutant powers, one incredibly super awesome mutant power, and a number of other places to put their points into such as toughness which raises max hit points. It is wise to plan ahead for developing your mutant. Do you want to improve Storm's flight capability or give her stronger lightning bolts? As the game progresses, you'll find yourself easily creating an uber-character capable of annihilating all in his path. For me, this was Ice Man. With the proper equipment on, his melee attacks all merged with ice, and me using the combo system in perfect form = instant dead bad guys. Some may find this makes the game easy, but the bad guys become quite good at dishing out punishment even if they can't take it. Strategy (and protecting the poor AI X-Men) is in order.
The missions are generally received in a linear order, but there are occasions when a choice is in order. In addition, the flashback missions are obtained when talking to specific X-Men at the X-Mansion. And on top of that, the X-Men universe just wouldn't be complete without the danger room. The danger room is divided into a number of difficulty levels, each of which must be completed before moving on. Each difficulty level has mini-missions with certain objectives to complete them, such as defending a specific mutant or destroying a certain number of enemies. Unfortunately, each danger room mission must be found in the form of a danger room disc. But fetch quest haters are rewarded in that they can purchase the discs that they missed.
In addition to finding the danger room discs, there are plenty of unlockables in the game, from comic books to sketches which can be found in the game, and load screens to cinematics that are automatically available upon being viewed. These are an great treats for X-Men fanatics who like to get as much X-Men loot as possible.
What may not please X-Men fans is the look of the game. Some levels look amazing, though I will avoid spoiling the best of them, but others just feel ho-hum while traversing them. Luckily, the actual level layouts usually keep things interesting enough, but occasionally the irritating X-Men AI will leave your teammates simply sitting in a doorway you would like to go through. What really seems to hold the visuals back is that it seems more complex graphics were dumbed down to make the game look the same on all major consoles. These graphics would be passable on the PlayStation 2, but nothing special. On the Cube, one simply wonders why the presentation isn't kicked up a bit more.
The sound, on the other hand, is a bit better. The music throughout the game can be pretty repetitive, but what is there serves its purpose well. In general, most missions are filled with ambient music until battling enemies at which point harder music plays. This is familiar to just about anybody who has played games on major consoles, as it is becoming the in thing to do for almost all games involving exploration and combat. The voice acting ups the ante with such talent as Tony Jay and Patrick Stewart on board. Sure, Tony Jay doesn't entirely fit Magneto, but he's still Tony Jay and his voice is still awesome. The battle voices (my pet peave in many games) are all well voiced, but could certainly use more variety. An action RPG/brawler with an abundance of hours of playtime should have more than 4-5 battle voice clips per character.
While playing X-Men Legends, I was very pleased to see where the X-Men universe has gone. However, it does have more to go. It could use some graphical refinement, better camera and AI (what game couldn't use those though?), more flashbacks (some of the best missions in the game), etc. And while the limit of four player co-op is understandable, with console gaming moving into the online world, we may as well see all these 15 playable X-Men having a missions requiring all of them to complete. The X-Men universe has a lot of story to tell, so to Activision I say "You've made a good first impression. Now show us what you can really do."
