X-Men Legends II: Wayback Wednesday Vol. 29, Part 2

Don’t fix what isn’t broken. We’ve all heard it, and some games would do well to heed this adage. X-Men Legends 1 was an entertaining, fast-paced game, mixing action, RPG, and hack-and-slash into one engaging mix. There was a lot to like for fans of the cartoon and comic books, but even those who had no prior experience with X-Men were greeted with straightforward tutorials and a gentle learning curve. For those who have played the first, it's easy to jump right into the second game, X-Men Legends 2: Rise of the Apocalypse.

The first game was visually appealing with the cel-shaded graphics and a style that looked like a comic book coming to life. The second game doesn’t do much to improve on the visuals, perhaps because the release date for both games was so close together, with 2 being announced shortly after the first game’s release. The same issue I had with 1 shows up in 2; it is easy to lose your player-controlled character in a sea of enemies and other general chaos going on. Objects in the environment can be destroyed, sometimes for items, which is neat but also adds to the busyness. Aside from a few late-game bosses, which admittedly looked impressive, most bosses and all enemies, outside of sentinels, were not imposing. The environments are average-looking and in the last quarter of the game, downright repetitive as room after room looks the same.

There are around 20 playable characters, which is a ton considering only 4 can be brought into battle at a time. While I appreciated the wide array of choices, I tended to stick with the same 4 and just let them get super strong. I had my tank in Wolverine, Storm was my flyer, Cyclops my long-distance “sniper” with his beam, and Iceman, who remained almost solely for his ability to make bridges and put out fires. I didn’t feel the need to use anyone else, outside of Magneto for his mental abilities at a few specific junctures. The game never really forces your hand in using a wider variety of characters, so I was content to use the same half dozen or so. However, the option exists to mix and match your team at any time using the many extraction points (known as Xtraction Points in the game).

The Danger Room includes optional levels that most closely resemble the optional levels in Final Fantasy: Crisis Core, but even then, they are quite different from each other. They appeared in the first game and, functionally, are the same in 2. There is a survival mode where your 4 chosen characters need to avoid getting demolished by a horde of strong enemies for 3 minutes, and defend and protect, where you either need to protect a weakened character or protect important objects. There are plenty of character-specific levels, but unless you spend time leveling everyone up, some will prove to be too tough, and thus I only completed about 6. There are many other types of levels as well, and they can be accessed by either finding discs lying around levels or purchasing from Forge. Levels increase in difficulty as you move through the six ranks, from freshman to sophomore, junior, senior, X-man, and Legend. Although being so similar, I didn’t feel as compelled to complete the Danger Room levels in this game, compared with the first. The Danger Room is an intriguing addition to X-Men Legends 1 and 2 because it allows players to better develop skills and practice specific gameplay mechanics, mainly combos, where two characters strike one enemy at the same time. Plain and simple, Danger Room or main game, beating up on baddies is fun.

Like the first game, each level-up provides characters with points to assign to stats and skills, so building each character and your team in general is very customizable. Equipment management continues to be a headache and is one of the enhancements over the first X-Men Legends that could have easily been made but wasn’t. Drops are frequent, which, in itself, isn’t a huge deal, but you can only hold 20 items at a time, so making constant trips to sell old stuff is a must. Items can also be stored in the hero stash, but that also has an item limit. So being inundated with countless dropped items is a blessing and a curse, but mostly annoying.

In a surprise twist, those familiar with the comics will see the X-Men joining up with the Brotherhood to defeat a far greater evil, Apocalypse, who at times was not just formidable, but seemed indestructible and invincible in the comics and cartoon. Growing up as a child, watching the four-part mini-series to end season 4 of the cartoon, I could not fathom how he could be beaten until the very end of the last episode. He is a little less remarkable and awe-inspiring in the game, but still makes an excellent antagonist and seems, at times, omnipresent, especially in the late game. A lot of the game is chasing Apocalypse around the globe, foiling his schemes, and slowing him down, and the requirements to progress through various levels were creative.

The voice acting is at first solid and respectable but gets tedious with time as the same lines are repeated regularly. It’s a perfect example of less being more that not just X-Men Legends could follow, but many RPGs as voice acting has quickly become more common post-2000. Other than the habitual use of the same lines, the quality of the voice acting is top-notch. The characters sound as I remember them and truly shine during the spectacular cutscenes. Music adds to the ambiance, Egypt in particular, giving off a mysterious, out-of-this-world feel.

Similar to the first game, there is a central hub between levels. In X-Men Legends 2, this hub changes several times throughout the game depending on current missions and location and serves as a safe haven away from enemies where various tasks can be completed, like talking to other members of the team, buying, selling, storing excess items, trying the danger room, partaking in a trivia game, and viewing the comic books you collected. I preferred the X-Mansion in the first game, but this serves its purpose too, replacing the more traditional towns found in most RPGs.

X-Men Legends is a short game that doesn’t overstay its welcome, clocking in at just under 16 hours for me. It is good, simple fun that doesn’t require too much thought, outside of being sure not to get lost in some of the labyrinths. While not a massive improvement over 1, X-Men Legends 2 takes the formula from its predecessor and runs with it, sometimes forgetting to iron out some flaws from the 1st. Just the same, for fans of the first, this is an obvious choice. As a standalone game, it is still worthwhile. The shortcomings can easily be overlooked, and in the end, this is an enjoyable action-packed game.