X-Men-
Legends
review by Don't Feed the Dead
Owners of the Xbox system are fully aware that the platform offers little to no selection in the realm of RPG's, this year's Fable and X-Men Legends being the two major title releases for the genre. The latter of the duo offers the "pick up and play" option, an easily adaptable hack and slash RPG of Marvel comic book fame with familiar names and faces for players to relate to.
With the simplicity of X-Men Legends' gameplay taking a quick skim through the manual, I began the lengthy adventure through an environment reminiscent of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. For those of you unfamiliar with the title, the player gets a mainly overhead perspective of the action as your "hero" traverses dungeon like environments while battling through hordes of enemies. Although the environments and characters are nicely detailed, the abilities of the Xbox's graphics engine are hardly used to their fullest. The system is fully capable of handling multiple onscreen enemies and battles are pulled off with virtually no lag what so ever.
As far as the game's storyline is concerned, Activision and Marvel take a different approach from the usual "defeat Magneto" theme to offer a more in depth scenario. The story is told from the perspective of Magma, a New Mutant that has just joined the X-Men team, which is beneficial because the origins of existing members are retold. Previous comic issue scenarios are available to play through Magma's exploration of the X-Mansion offering a nice "throw-back" feel to the game and a more in depth experience for the gamer that could get bored with the linear storyline already in place.
As mentioned earlier, the combat system and gameplay for Legends is very easy to pick up, with a basic 2 button attack being your mainstay for action in the title. Even though button mashing is the gamer's first instinct in this type of game, lenghty combos can be strung together to inflict high amounts of damage and showcase the character's abilities. Which brings me to the character selection of your team. Legends offers a nice bank of heroes to select for your onscreen team of four, many of which become available after defeating the first 3 levels of play. Although the player starts out as Wolverine in the game, more of the team become available for use very early on for those of us who can't stand the Hugh Jackman bandwagon. Personally, I prefer Nightcrawler because he looks so damn cool and can morph into a black fart.
Leveling up in the game is relatively easy, experience points being dispersed to the entire team as you knock the crap outta baddies and complete mission objectives. Experience may also be gained while practicing your skills in the Danger Room of the X-Mansion, offering the player a chance to hone their skills while figuring out which playable character best suits their gaming style. So go ahead and pick Cyclops, you self-righteous dork! The attacks really kick up a notch with your respective character around level 15, when the X-Man's special abilities become available for use. I like this trait and I don't - although it's good to save the big moves for later levels, a progression of the ability would have been more fun to develop as the player gains gaming experience, rather than just dropping it in your lap at a certain point in the game.
Overall, X-Men Legends is a nicely made little Action/ RPG which offers a break from the slew of sports and FPS titles for the Xbox. Although the replay of the game is slightly lower because of the linear storyline, it's fun to be able to pick up the controller and rampage through an environment on the lengthy missions offered in the game. Albeit not the best title for the genre, Legends is strongly recommended for pick up if you're craving a bit of the RPG but don't want to lose your social life spending an eternity on a complex game.
