X-Men Legends: Review (PS2 / Xbox / GC)

Whenever you hear the words mutants, or the guy with 3 claws, the first thing that comes to your mind is the X-Men. The world's most beloved evil fighting team that always seems to be trying to save itself and the world around them. There have been many X-Men based video games in the past but most of them are fighting games, and the most recent X-Men: Next Dimension. However this time around we get an action RPG for the X-Men by the game developer Raven Software. The game has a large roster of 15* playable characters, and you choose a four member strike force to take down various missions that contributes to the game's story. Speaking of game's story, it's one of the best X-Men stories I ever..um..played. Anyway the story starts with a kidnapping of mutant, Alison Crestmere by the evil Brotherhood. After Wolverine saves her, she is introduced to the X-Men for the first time. However as the story unfolds, Magneto, the leader of the Brotherhood(as if you didn't know) wants to destroy the Earth unless humans surrender and let Mutants be the ruler of the Earth. Meanwhile mutant-hunting Sentinels are unleashed so that world can be rid of mutants. Alison, who is also better known as Magma is essential to the story since she is the one who saves the Earth at the end. As you might have guess, now you have to stop the Sentinels to save the mutants and defeat Magneto to save the humans. In my opinion this is a great story that truly respects X-Men origins with brand new ideas....Most of the RPGs have you crawling from dungeon to dungeon gaining experience and completing quests. In a sense Legends is like that but with the addition of beat-em-up game elements. For example you have lengthy list of combat maneuvers which you can string together by smashing buttons so that you can deal extra damage. Also in this game you have an energy bar which displays how much of your mutant powers you can use, this is similar mana which is your magic potent in regular RPGs. In the game you can pick and choose 4 playable X-Men to carry out the missions. Each mission vary in length, for example one level might take about 2 hours to complete while another would take about 20 minutes to complete. The game's levels vary and destructible to a satisfying degree. You can pick up various items such as trucks and break walls. Also one of the most fun aspects of the game is that any other 3 friends can join in the game at any time. This is extremely fun if you are into playing with your friends.Your characters level up as you defeat enemies and complete various objectives and you can upgrade your mutant abilities and distribute trait points. The traits are Body:which is your health, Agility: reduces damage you take, Focus: your energy level, Strike: damage you can deal with your attacks. Also you can equip you characters with special equipment that you can purchase or pick-up from fallen enemies which would enhance their traits. All the leveling up and equipping might seem little overwhelming at the beginning so you can use the games auto management capabilities. In terms of presentation game looks pretty OK. The environments and the levels are well designed and the characters are cell-shaded. This makes the characters stand-out a little giving it a comic book feel which is quite nice. Also game has fully-rendered cinematic that look pretty nice. Xbox version of the game looks best and sounds best. The PlayStation 2 version is only 2nd to the Gamecube version with longer loading times. But all 3 platforms look okay where it counts.So all in all with all the leveling up, original missions and the game's lengthy(but well told) story it would take about 20-25 hours for the average gamer to beat the game. Raven software also included lot of extra content such as comic book covers(which are of course hidden until you find them), X-Men/Brotherhood character bios, a trivia which test your knowledge of the X-Men and reward you with extra experience, and Danger Room where you can duke it out against your friends with unlocked characters, so be prepared to spend your ENTIRE weekend on this one.

Story: 9.5

Gameplay:9.0

Graphics/Presentation: 8.5

Overall: 9.0

Review By:

Anton de Silva

05/18/08

* 14 playable characters, but Professor X is playable for one level