Home Page / PS2 / X / X-Men Legends / Review Listing / Review

The popular comic book franchise of the X-Men has been slapped together in numerous video games across several platforms, but none of them ever seemed to really get down a formula that did the characters justice. X-Men Legends is here to change that.

One of the reasons I think X-Men Legends succeeds so well in not only being an enjoyable X-Men game, but an enjoyable game in general, is that is takes a large departure from what we’ve come to expect from our X-Men games. Throughout X-Men’s gaming history, we have a slew of action games, and a couple fighting games. One would think, given the nature of the comic book, that these would be the ideal mediums to bring the X-Men to digital life. X-Men Legends, on the other hand, is an Action-RPG with multiplayer for up to four players, as well as being the single most enjoyable X-Men game to date, bar none.

The plot is simple, but very fitting to the X-Men universe: Magneto is back to his ‘kill all the humans, mutants rule!’ tricks again. The game opens with the Brotherhood of Mutants (Magento’s cronies) attempting to kidnap a newly-labeled mutant. Since this is obviously not being done with kind intentions, the X-Men (Wolverine more specifically) come to the rescue. When X-Men Legends starts off, you have access only to Wolverine, arguably the most popular of the X-Men. This means that while multiplayer is a huge aspect in Legends, it isn’t available right off the bat. This isn’t done to discourage players, but rather to ease them into the gameplay system, and help set up the game.

As you start off as Wolverine in the first level, you will be fighting off riot police with no love loss for Mutants. The level is fairly easy, as it’s meant to get you in the swing of things so it can pummel you later on. Eventually, gamers will meet up with Cyclops, and the game really starts to take form.

As I’ve previously stated, multiplayer is a huge aspect in Legends. This isn’t because the AI is really bad, or anything like that, it’s just simply that the game is a blast to play with friends. The games plug-in and play mechanic lets extra players enter or exit a game whenever they choose, with the games AI picking up where they left off. This not only makes the game far more accessible, it also makes multiplayer so much less of a hassle to start up.

Being an Action-RPG, your X-Men will gain experience as they fight off hordes of enemies. This experience will eventually cause your X-Men to level up, thus allowing you to upgrade their attributes, and develop their mutant skills. This is where X-Men Legends makes the jump from good to great. Each of the games whopping 15 playable X-Men has their own unique list of powers at their disposal, all characteristic of that X-Man (Rogue’s power leeching, Cyclops’ eye beam, Wolverine’s healing factor, etc.) with the small exception that Jubilee can fly (?). Each character gets 4 different attacks, each mapped to an easy to use interface that allows you to use your special moves by holding R2 and pressing the corresponding button. The rest of the powers you’ll get to upgrade are passive skills, like the ability to double jump or fly, gain more health, things of that nature. If the extensive skills list for each X-Men isn’t enough to make you giggle like a fanboy, then the games combo system will.

Not only does each X-Man have his/her own special abilities, these abilities can be used in unison with each other for some seriously lethal results. Every X-Man can combo their powers with any of the other X-Men, making for a seriously wide array of moves to be uncovered. Perfect examples of the excellently thought-out combos include having Jean Grey lift someone with her phychic powers, and having Storm cast a tornado in their direction, causing the character to take all the damage from not only the telekinesis, but the whirlwind, since Jean can move him around with her mind, forcing him into the tornado as it moves around the room. Another sweet example is having a strong character like Rogue or Colossus pick up Wolverine and throw him into an enemy claws-first. There are literally dozens of these combinations to find, and their all as simple to perform as using your powers together strategically.

During the game, you are limited to having 4 X-Men on the field at once. This means that the rest of your X-Men are left in wait, doing nothing. Thankfully, instead of just letting your characters sit and collect dust, making them eventually useless if they aren’t used often enough, the game allows them to earn experience just as the characters in the field do. This means, that even though you might not have used Cyclops in 2 or 3 levels, if you decide to bring him into the fight, he’ll be ready and raring to go. During the game, you can also switch your team of X-Men at every checkpoint, along with visiting Forge to buy new items, and save your game.

As one would expect, as you level up your X-Men’s powers, they become more effective at what they do. Some of the more basic skills (Cyclops’ eye beam, for example) get upgraded after the skill becomes maxed out, giving you access to level up a more advance version of that attack that will, in turn, replace the older one. Once you make it to the ultimate attacks that each character has, you’re talking serious damage. Thankfully though, since Legends is a tough game, you never feel overpowered.

Forge acts as the games only means to buy and sell items. You can visit Forge to sell items you’ve found that are useless, or you can purchase new ones to help make your X-Men more efficient in battle. While buying new armor for your characters won’t change their appearance at all, it still goes a long way to keeping them alive in the games later, tougher levels. You can purchase these items using ‘Tech-bits’, which are dropped from boxes, broken items and enemies. These Tech-bits act as the games currency, allowing you to buy items from Forge.

Other items you’ll find along the way include the more common (and expected) health potions, and energy potions. Health potions do the obvious, and energy potions will restore your energy, which allows you to use your special mutant powers. You can also find armor, power-up items, and Danger Room discs. These discs unlock certain trials in the games fully realized Danger Room. Taking part in these tasks will not only help you learn the basics, and more advance tactics for the game, they also earn you experience and cash, along with items. The Danger Room has tons of challenges in it for the gamer willing to spend the time away from the main game to enjoy it.

Legends carries with it a pretty unique visual style. The characters themselves are modeled after the Ultimate X-Men comic book series, and in an attempt to make the game look like an interactive comic, the developers have gone with a cel-shaded look. Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking: more cel shading. Not to worry, my pessimist friend, as Legends looks nothing like Jet Grind Radio or Wind Waker. Instead, the game has a harder, more styled look to it that really looks awesome on the characters. It isn’t over-done, and it isn’t extreme. The areas you’ll come across not only vary drastically from one another, there’s a whole lot of ‘em. Make no mistake about it: X-Men Legends is a fairly long game, clocking at maybe 20 hours depending on how much time you spend in the mansion leveling your characters in the Danger Room and otherwise exploring everything the game has to offer.

The audio is well rounded for the most part. The voice talents from X-Men Evolution, the cartoon series, have all lent their voice to their in-game counterparts, making for not only excellent voice overs, but fitting voices for each character. The soundtrack, on the other hand, is lacking slightly in that it’s just full of generic rock tunes meant to help convey a sense of fast paced action through the game. During the game, the soundtrack does its job in that it accompanies the on-screen happenings rather well, but it still would have been nicer to hear something with a bit more thought put into it accompany such a good game.

When it all comes down to it, X-Men Legends is one of the best times you can have sitting around with a few friends, laughing and having a good time. Thankfully, a full understanding of X-Men isn’t needed to enjoy the game, which makes it accessible to a much larger user base than if it was for only the hardcore X-Man. Some smooth, fun gameplay, and the infinite fun you can have combining your mutant powers makes for plenty of hours wasted. X-Men fans should jump on this game as soon as possible, as should general Action-RPG fans.