By
Jonathan Mills
October 12, 2006 - 18:36
Their are a lot of Comic based games, and to put it bluntly, most of them suck. They suck almost as bad as Movie based games. Why is this? Money...did you even have to ask? Want an example, sure. In my life, I've only played two great Comic games, they were Freedom Force (PC) and City of Heros (PC) - You may find it ironic that neither of these games were based on real Comics, or produced in conjunction with a Movie. Hmm...why don't you just think about that for a second. So what's all this have to do with X-Men Legends II? - well, now their's 3 on my list, and the mold has finally been broken (at least for me).
"X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse — sequel to the best-selling X-Men game ever — introduces the epic storyline of an uneasy alliance between the X-Men and the hated Brotherhood in a fight to reclaim Earth from Apocalypse's grasp. Impressive gameplay enhancements include more than double the superpowers and customization capabilities, the debut of several new playable characters, over 100 diverse types of enemies, and a breathtaking range of exotic and real-world environments — from the Madri Temple to Egypt. For fans loyal or new, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse delivers a bigger, deeper and more epic action/RPG experience."
If you've ever played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, then this game is that - just with the X-Men Theme...end of Review. Alright, yeah, it's more then that, but the basic play mechanics are very similar. You choose four X-men or Brotherhood and complete quests given to you by various characters in the game, this moves the story along, rinse and repeat. As you fight enemy's and complete Quests, you gain experience and Level Up, every time you level up you receive points that can be allocated to various skills to improve them. These skill's vary and are used both in combat, and in the exploration of the world. By finding items, completing Quests, or by other means, you are able to unlock a ton of extra stuff in this game. Everything from playable characters to comics, to artwork, etc.
The graphics are great and the sound, equally so. Of special note is the voice acting, it's fantastic. With Patrick Stewart reprising his role (from the movies) of Professor Xavier.
X-Men Legends II is avilable for the PS2, PSP, Xbox, PC and Gamecube. The only drawbacks in the game for me were somewhat technical ones, so they may or may not apply to all the platforms. I played the PS2 version and the framerate was fine, but after playing similar games like Balder's Gate Dark Alliance 1 & 2, Bards Tale and Champions of Norrath, which all ran at an obvious 60fps, going down a bit took a little time to get use to. Also, the transition between your play screen and the Menu screen is kinda slow, this is especially aggravating to someone like me who is always in and out of it.
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is a really good game, for hardcore gamers like me, we know about it (especially because of the first game, which was also very good) , but what sucks, is that causal gamers have been burned so many times by horrible ass movie based games, and comic based games and friggin comic book movie based games, that a lot of them are going to give this a pass because their fed up with it, and I don't blame them one bit. What sucks even more, is that the one they finally decide not to buy, is the one that's actually good.
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