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I remember playing the action arcade games using the X-Men and watching my favorite character using his or her mutant powers to rip through the mass of opponents. Recent developments in video games have obviously warranted a little change in the focus of X-Men games. While there’s plenty of hack-n-slash style fun to be had in the recently released X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse, the developers have decided to continue with the basic premise of the original X-Men Legends game and expand it. In X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse players are given the ability to control a group of four mutants. Choices are quite varied since the X-Men have joined forces with Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil in order to curb the awesome might of the oldest known mutant, Apocalypse. Players are able to change direct control of the mutants on the team at will as well as setting up conditional orders such as primary power to use and when to use healing potions. This leads to a fairly streamlined gameplay although the AI pathfinding does leave a little to be desired. There were instances when I would have to wait a while for a teammate to catch up with the rest of the gang.

Teamwork is where the major kudos are to be given to the development team of X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse. While the combo situation is a little difficult to get used to because of not controlling the use of other members’ powers, the effects are dramatic and quite useful in your quest to halt Apocalypse’s plans of world domination. Every character on his or her own has something to add to the party overall be it Iceman’s ability to put out damaging fires, Iceman and Magneto’s bridge building, or the common ability to fly. In addition to the individual abilities I found quite a few combinations of abilities to be quite useful, especially the strong characters such as Juggernaut picking up combat oriented characters such as Wolverine and throwing them at groups of enemies with weapons drawn. It is obvious serious work and thought went in the interactivity of characters in X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse.

Each character is given experience for damaging and killing opponents, solving puzzles, and completing Danger Room objectives. This experience is used to level up which in turn gives attribute and skill points. Attribute points determine the basics such as health, energy, defense, and attack damage. Skill points are placed into a unique skill set for each character. In this way players can choose how their characters develop. Developing one skill to the maximum or several skills to tackle several situations is a fun and difficult choice to make. It could change the whole focus of the team players choose to lead. I specifically enjoyed the skill system in X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse. It gave the action-RPG feel to a game which could very easily have turned into an all-out hack-n-slash.

The graphical quality in X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse is superb. Coloring, shading, action, everything leads to a feeling of actually participating in a comic book. The developers didn’t make the mistake of trying to bring the characters and environment to our reality, rather they perfectly brought the player into the Marvel Universe. Battles did tend to get a little confusing if waged in a tight space because of sight angles, but this was infrequent and quickly remedied with translucent walls and other obstacles.

The audio in X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse was about what you might expect. The combats are quick and furious sounding every bit as though superhuman creatures at battling with every resource at their disposal including super powers and technological wonders. The voice acting was adequate although not exactly what I was expecting. It could have been that I had recently watched both X-Men movies before starting to play the game, but several of the voices were… off. For instance Sabertooth did not sound as brutish and feral as I had expected. I know I shouldn’t completely fault the developers for such things, yet I did have expectations which were not quite met.

The environment in X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse is quite well thought-out. Mountainous regions, deep caves, technologically advanced hallways, swamps, and jungles are all beautifully rendered with several interactive yet meaningless objects placed artfully. Enemies are appropriate to their environments including several insect species rampant in the cave systems and armoured sentries guarding hallways. If I have any complaints about the gameplay it would definitely be in the difference in difficulty between the average enemy and the bosses. Being able to destroy dozens of regular enemies without worrying about any character taking much damage definitely makes some of the boss fights, where I had to use several if not all of my health potions, seem almost ridiculous.

Overall X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse is an exceptional game. The teamwork system is extraordinary especially in multiplayer mode. It definitely provides many hours of entertainment and some of the specials are difficult enough to get to that thought does come into play. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys action RPGs or even straight action games.