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X-Men Legends (Xbox)

By: Vince "Moesha" Massa
Date: Friday, September 24, 2004

Activision and Raven software have just made another batch of geeks happy. This time they have shown the love to comic book geeks with the release of X-Men: Legends for the Gamecube, PS/2 and Xbox. Players can dive head first into the X-Men universe they have only been able to visit through comic books and movies until now. Combining RPG elements like character development and inventory management with mutant-powered combat, Legends promises something for everyone. As you can probably tell from reading my preview earlier this month you had probably better put on your raincoats folks, because I'm gonna gush over this one.

Do you fancy a fireball or some chainlightning? Decide for once, my battery is low.

I must admit I was looking forward to winter sports.

For this review, my son (who is five) and I played the Xbox version, but up to four players can lead a team of mutants through the story that was created by Raven and former Marvel comic book writers. As a long time comic book fan myself, I have had to suffer though other games that have been based on comic licenses that just plain suck because the game creators did not 'get' what the characters or franchise were all about. Not so with Legends. From the graphical styling that stays true to comic books, to the story that is worthy of an issue of X-Men comics, Raven has paid attention to the details and shown respect to the franchise while keeping the game exciting and enjoyable.

The game follows our superheroes as they investigate The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants plot to kidnap a young girl who has just come into mutant powers of lava control (her X-Men title is Magma for fans of the comic book). As players fight and puzzle their way through locations like New York, the frigid north, and familiar places like the X-Mansion and the Danger Room, your characters gain experience from the enemies they fight. Once they gain enough experience to reach a new level, you can then use points to raise stats and buy new skills or attacks to customize your team in the way you best see fit. Items that are dropped can be used to outfit your team providing better protection or boosting their skills and stats.

The villains you encounter (super or otherwise) have strengths and weaknesses that you can exploit using the different powers that your X-Men have. When battling The Blob, I found that blasts from Cyclops' visor were more effective than sending in Wolverine to slice and dice him. The game does a good job of balancing so that no team member feels more important than another, and that's quite a trick since you will be able to use over a dozen X-Men by the time you are done. Since your team is limited to four at a time, X-Men who are sitting a round out, gain 75% of any experience earned. This helps to curtail any huge level differences between less used team members.

X-Men: Legends supports up to four players at the same time on the same screen, each controlling a member of your four-man team. Players can come and go anytime from the game as they please. Characters that are not under player control can be switched to with a touch of the D pad. This allows players to take control of the mutant whose powers would best deal with the villain at hand and keeps the action coming at high speed.

As I briefly touched on earlier, the graphics are top notch. Characters are very well animated and are outlined in thick black that suggests cell shading (but it isn't, so quit saying that it is.) The environments and backgrounds are richly detailed and populated with plenty of destructible items. Trash cans, park benches and even enemies can be thrown at the bad guys. Bottles that restore mutant power and health, tech bits (used as money) and inventory items are often hidden inside boxes or lockers so there is a reason for turning your team of super heroes into a wild bunch of vandals. Finally, the game's rendered cut scenes are very well done and are good enough to watch over and over.

As you progress through the game, you will find items that unlock bonus content: comic books that add bonuses to team members, Danger Room training discs to train you on different combat techniques and concept art pages that give you a glimpse into the making of the game. All of these items can be accessed at different points in the X-Mansion. To access the comic book covers, just head over to the library. To review the cut scenes and concept art, head to the media room and access the big screen TV. It's a nice way to integrate the extra content without breaking the immersion of the game.

Gimme that gun, you could get hurt you know.

I hope you're a fan of astrology, here comes Jupiter! *punch*

The Danger Room training discs are more than just a gee whiz feature. The discs can be used to train you on combat techniques but they also help your team gain extra experience and levels. While playing the game with my son, we encountered an area where our X-Men keep getting overwhelmed. After failing our mission a second time, we jumped into the Danger Rooms, ran through a few training sessions (gaining a level for our team in the process) and then tackled the troublesome area again. This time we were on an even footing with the thugs and were able to finish the mission.

All in all X-Men: Legends is very good. There are a few drawbacks I must mention. First, multiplayer is limited to a single Console. This is both good and bad. It makes Legends an excellent party game. Get a group of people in the same room with a sofa, an Xbox and four controllers and you are good to go. However, with Microsoft pushing Xbox Live on every title including single player games, it's a bit odd that there is no support for it here.

Also, while I cannot stand games that split the screen for multiplayer support, keeping all the characters on the screen at the same time does rarely lead to getting stuck. My son and I were fighting Pyro deep inside the HAARP facility. As we were jumping shooting, punching and dodging around trying to keep our last two mutants alive, he took Wolverine and headed for the stairs towards Pyro while I was retreating for a lone freestanding computer for cover. Somehow, we both got stuck. He was stuck between the stairs and the railing, and me behind the computer. Regardless of how much we jumped, dodged or tried to maneuver, we were stuck on the outermost edges of the screen. Luckily the feature to add and remove players saved us as I turned over control of Cyclops to the computer for a moment. As the screen centered on the lone single player in the game, Wolverine, Cyclops was able to free himself from his trap. I rejoined the game and we went on from there. While I have only seen this happen once in all the time we have played, it is an annoyance that comes with the single screen, multiplayer scenario.

Other than those trivial issues, this is a great game. X-Men: Legends is a game that anyone can enjoy. Comic book fans will love the attention to detail that has been paid to their long-time mutant heroes. Gamers will love the action, graphics, the RPG elements of customizing their team and the ability to sit down and fight bad guys with your friends.

X-Men: Legends is a worthy addition to anyone's game library.