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X-Men Legends Review - Page One |
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Ah, the X-Men - the comic books that I secretly read in high school as a self-conscious teenager in the late 80’s, hoping no one would see me enter my local neighborhood comic shop. I was a secret X-Men fanatic, buying everything I could afford that was related to my favorite anti-hero superheroes. They were counter-culture, reluctant heroes, and often distrusted and misunderstood. It’s no wonder that as a typical angst-ridden teenager, the X-Men was my favorite comic book franchise. Flash forward to 2004; after two major blockbuster movies, a series of television cartoons, and several fighting games on different platforms, the X-men have become a big budget franchise. As a long-term fan of the X-Men, what I’ve always wanted is a game that truly gave me all of my favorite heroes in all their glory, each with their own unique powers and abilities. Well, with Activision and Raven’s X-Men Legends, I finally got what I wanted… and more.
The game starts with the player in control of Wolverine, who is probably the most popular and notorious of all X-Men. Wolverine arrives in New York City to investigate a commotion caused by a mutant, only to find that Mystique and Blob of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants have already arrived and abducted the mutant in question. From there on the action hardly stops.
As the game progresses, a total of fifteen mutants will eventually be unlocked and available to your disposal. Lesser known X-Men such as Jubilee can become part of the team, as well as all the more popular heroes from the movies, like Storm and Nightcrawler. The player can have up to four X-Men at a time in the party, but only one can be controlled at a time (per controller). Players can switch between any of the X-Men in their group at any time, which makes it much easier to get a feel for all of them. Using the left trigger key will direct your AI controlled team mates to follow the player-controlled hero, attack a single opponent, or run from combat. This allows a player to compensate for the sometimes less-than-brilliant AI. To make control of your party even easier, there are three different AI levels for each character: Aggressive, Normal, and Defensive. I found that aggressive AI was not always an advantage when I needed to re-group and heal my team before moving on. You’re better off taking direct control of Wolverine in such situations; otherwise he may keep on attacking until he drops with no heed to your calls.
At certain points in the game, it is essential to the success of a mission that a certain X-Man be under the direct control of the player. For example, Iceman may be required to make an ice bridge to allow the crossing of an underground canyon, or Nightcrawler might have to teleport past a force field to further the progress of the group.
Every mutant can learn up to four different mutant skill attacks, and some of the characters such as Gambit can use these powers for both melee and ranged attacks. These mutant powers drain a character’s energy reserves, so you’ll have to rely on regular attacks when you’ve depleted your energy source. Energy regenerates over time, though, and energy packs available throughout the game will quickly rejuvenate your reserves in the heat of combat. Like most other role-playing games, health packs are also available throughout the game, either for purchase from the Morlock Healer or picked up from vanquished opponents, destroyed barrels or boxes, or just lying around the game map.
In addition to mutant power attacks, each mutant can punch, kick, jump, and throw using a combination of buttons on the controller. Various combos can be utilized to increase damage, stun, or even throw your opponents back. Most combinations use only two to four buttons in sequence, and are easy to learn and execute. Tutorials for every hand-to-hand combat combination are available in the X-Men danger room, which can be accessed at the many save points in the game.
Not only does every mutant possess four totally unique abilities that can be used in tandem with melee combat attacks, but certain paired combinations of attacks from two different team members create another third, unique combination move. These combination moves are far more devastating than the two individual attacks. For example, Cyclops’ Optic Blast combined with Iceman’s Freeze Blast combines for an Icy Beam. These special combos give an added element of strategy to an otherwise pretty straightforward role-playing combat game. There is also something of a rock, paper, scissors aspect of game combat, with some opponents being practically impervious to either mental, energy, or physical attacks. For this reason, having characters with only physical skills like Wolverine, Beast, or Colossus can prove to be a sure-fire recipe for failure.
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| Article Details |
| Reviewed X-Men Legends
Reviewer Steve Gonzalez
Published 10/20/04
Pros Great implementation of RPG elements, short learning curve, fast paced action
Cons First person view would have been nice, no pause function |
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