Photo gallery: X-Men LegendsThere's not much that hasn't been done with the X-Men licence, from simple eight-bit platform games to elaborate Street Fighter-style combat games. X-Men Legends chooses not to walk down those well-trodden paths, offering instead a combat-centric RPG in the mould of games like Champions Of Norrath and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. In those terms, it's a remarkably successful title with a lot to offer both casual and long-term X-Men fans, although it's not without its flaws.
With a cast as large as the X-Men have, it's tough to choose a central character, and in this case developers Raven Software have taken the unusual step of choosing a relatively minor mutant to act as the crux of the game's story -- Magma. Those of you who are casual fans might be wondering who Magma is; to put a lot of continuity into one sentence, she's a young mutant (originally part of the New Mutants team) with the power to fire blasts of magma and cause minor earthquakes and the like. Long-term fans may be a tad annoyed at how fast and loose the game plays with Magma's origin, but they'll be more than satisfied elsewhere with the number of nods to existing continuity, as well as the large roster of X-Men you can choose to play as.
Initially, however, you'll start out as Wolverine, hot on the heels of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who've kidnapped a young mutant (that'd be Magma for those paying attention). What starts off as a simple one-player game quickly expands up to four players, and, in a neat touch, you can add or subtract human players at any time; any players not represented will be covered by the game's AI engine, which does a competent job of handling the mutants you're not controlling. It's not four-player all the way through, however, as you'll often be dropped into missions with fewer mutants on tap, meaning that some players may have to twiddle their thumbs while they wait for the next all-in mission. Naturally enough, kidnapping Magma is just the start of the brotherhood's evil plans, which quickly scale up (in the best hokey comic-book fashion) to threaten the fate of the entire world. You could insert a maniacal "Bwahahaha!" here, if it'll help you get the tone down right.
While games like Champions of Norrath and the two Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance titles go all out on the RPG side, X-Men Legends is best described as a light RPG with a heavy combat focus. As you play through, you earn experience and levels which can be used to upgrade primary stats as well as mutant powers, with all the points earned shared among your X-Men, making it all but impossible to leave any character behind in the power and levels stakes. It's light on this side, however, as every single upgrade is combat-focused, and there's the option to just automatically upgrade your characters if the RPG side doesn't interest you -- and that just leaves more time for the combat.
Combat is key in X-Men legends, because every mission basically boils down to the same core criteria. There will be a number of collection/destruction/travel objectives, marked on your onscreen compass so they're easy to find, and a large number of enemy characters in-between you and them. Just in case it wasn't clear, the enemy characters don't want you making it to your objectives, which is when all the nasty pushing and shoving begins. Or, in the case of the X-Men, the slicing, zapping and telekinetic shoving. Each character can perform some basic melee combat moves (and here clearly Wolverine has an edge with a healing factor and adamantium claws) including combat juggles, slams and stun moves. Beyond that, the game's take on the magic attacks usually found in this kind of RPG are naturally enough mutant powers -- Cyclops can use his optic blasts, Rogue can fly and steal powers, and so on. The non-melee, projectile-centric characters (such as Cyclops and Iceman) are at something of a disadvantage in many combat situations, as they're limited by the amount of mutant power left to them, while the melee characters can just wade into the fight. Having said that, the game is exceptionally generous with both healing and mutant power power-ups, although for some strange reason your entire team can only carry ten of each at any time.
X-Men Legends uses an interesting mix of cel-shaded characters on polygonal backgrounds, and while in short camera views this looks great, depending on how many characters are on screen (and critically, which ones they are) it can become a bit of a button mashing mess while you figure out where you are. Other than that minor complaint -- given the game's free and easy attitude to health, you're unlikely to die from it -- X-Men Legends is a great looking game, with a unique take on both the X-Men and many of their classic enemies. It doesn't fare quite as well on the audio side, chiefly because there's so much plot to get through, and no way for the game to know which characters you're going to pick to go into each mission. The developer's solution to this is to use a lot of text subtitles; it's effective but means that a certain amount of in-game ambience is simply lost.
If you're a fan either of the X-Men or of the style of RPG that X-Men Legends so successfully apes, you won't go far wrong picking up X-Men Legends. It comes with a small array of multiplayer modes and a highly compelling main multiplayer quest -- and these things are always more fun with extra human players -- and it's a title with solid longevity.
4%
1%
