Pros: Better replay value; improved game options; online play; more powers(at least superficially); fun gameplay
Cons: Glitches; disappointing character choices; glitches; platform-specific characters; glitches; repetitive or useless powers; glitches
The Bottom Line: More of an expansion pack than a sequel, X-men Legends 2 offers more of everything from the original: characters, bosses, powers, and glitches
nil293's Full Review: X-Men: Legends 2 for PlayStation 2
I was a little surprised to learn about 1 year ago that Activision was releasing a sequel to its successful X-Men Legends. Of course, a sequel made sense, but it was set to be released only a year after the first. I was immediately worried that a rushed game might be done poorly or with bugs; one year is not much time for development of a polished product. So did Activision rise to meet the challenge? Read on, gentle mutant...
PLOT and STORY 6/10
X-Men Legends 2 (XML2) is based on the Age of Apocalypse saga (AoA), a storyline from the comics in the mid-90s. In short, AoA played out what would have happened if Charles Xavier had been assassinated 20 years before the present. IMO, the AoA plot was one of the best X-men comic series in the past 20 years.
The XML2 video game takes the entire AoA storyline (probably about 40 comics), and shrinkwraps it into a much tighter time frame and chops out the entire alternate-reality aspect. In short, it feels like a bastardized, cliff-notes version of the original AoA plot. Consequently it seems a little cluttered, under-developed, and rushed at times. Apocalypse attacks NYC, from seemingly out of no-where, and the X-men and Brotherhood team up to defeat him and his entire infrastructure.
The AoA setting does lend itself nicely to the game in at least two respects: costumes and villains. The art and style in AoA were terrific, and virtually every single character gets some cool AoA threads. Apocalypse and his Horsemen make terrific bosses, and AoA henchmen are great fodder for the game.
Regardless, I generally don't play these kind of games for plot anyway. The end result tends to be the same: you're going to have some new allies, and you're going to face some new baddies in a different setting. After all, the characters are what make X-men great.
XML2 gives you 18 playable characters, up from 15 in XML1. Three new X-men. Sounds rather ho hum for a "sequel," especially with a cast as numerous and colorful as the X-men. But four of the 18 are Brotherhood mutants (Magneto and his henchmen), one of them is another X-men villain, and another is a Marvel character who, while extremely popular, has virtually nothing to do with the X-men. So there are actually 12 true X-men. As two of those 12 are new, Activision actually dropped five X-men from the XML1 roster: Magma, Beast, Psylocke, Jubilee, and Emma Frost. Also, Angel still is not playable. Granted these were not the most popular characters, either in XML1 or in general, but their omissions are sure to disappoint many.
I have nothing against playing as the Brotherhood mutants per se, but I would MUCH rather play as X-men. On top of that, the selection of Brotherhood characters is a bit peculiar (how many hardcore Toad fans are out there?). I'm being overly picky, but X-men fans have very strong attachments to their favorite characters. Although I do love both of the two new X-men, the choice of characters was otherwise overall disappointing.
Finally, to add insult to injury, several of my favorite characters (ie Colossus) were butchered through poor design. Watching TOAD take out enemies twice as fast as Colossus makes my head hurt.
GAMEPLAY 7/10
X-men Legends is an action RPG. For those who have never played XML1 or similar games such as the PS2 version of Baldur's Gate, the heart of an action RPG is a real-time beat 'em up, but the characters still level up and the player can still manage the details of this leveling as well as equipment use.
As the the character levels up, you can choose to learn new skills or improve existing ones. Activision boldly advertised that each character now has 10 active powers or skills, over twice as many as in XML1. This is great, except that I can only think of about two X-men who deserve to have 10 unique abilities. Consequently, most of the X-men have several useless powers or skills that make no sense. For example, virtually every character has an area of effect energy-blast attack, even several tank characters. Many characters have a completely useless Block move.
And several of the new powers are simply old ones from XML1 that have been split into two. For example, in XML1 Iceman had a boost ability that enhanced defense and attack for allies. In XML2, its been broken out into two separate powers. So it takes twice as much energy and twice as much time to get the same effect. It just seems somewhat uncreative and generic at times, like they cut corners to aim for quantity instead of quality.
The characters can now be brought up to Level 99. With a skill point awarded at each level, this seems like a ton of points to allocate among your abilities. But most of the skills' progress has likewise been dragged out and slowed down. What used to take 1 point in a particular ability in XML1 now takes 3-5 points in XML2 to achieve the same effectiveness. Occasionally, there are even skills ladders that only have an actual improvement every 5 points or so. They basically expanded the length of gameplay more by stretching the old system rather than by adding new content.
The controls are generally the same as in XML1. You use [X] and [O] to execute basic melee attacks and melee combos. Melee in XML2 still have not been improved from XML1; impacts from hitting your enemy still feel weightless and mushy. [T] lets you jump, and fly, for those who can fly, though they removed the ability to carry allies. Finally [Square] executes a grab or throw move.
The game now let's you bring 1 to 4 characters into battle, so you can even try to solo through the game. Of course, busting baddies as a team is half the fun of any X-men game. Just as in XML1, you can switch freely between the four different characters in combat. The AI of your other allies seems much improved from XML1. They don't seem to run off cliffs very often and they very rarely block your way.
As with XML1, you can hook up to four controllers to have an X-party. XML2 ups the ante with online support, although in all honesty I haven't tried this at all.
Most of the stages are again standard beat-em-up run-thrus, but the boss fights have generally been improved in both scope and variety. The puzzles seem toned down this time and more diversely solved so it's not as crucial that you bring a particular character with you.
REPLAY 8/10
Activision made numerous changes to improve replayability in XML2.
Perhaps the most crucial one was the ability to go back to previous stages whenever you want. Secondly, you start with ALL characters at the beginning of the game. No more unlocking, save for three hidden characters after you beat the game once.
Thirdly, you CAN carry over your developed characters into a new game after winning. To complement this feature, you can also select a higher difficulty level.
GRAPHICS and SOUND 7/10
XML2's graphics are marginally better than XML1, which is to say they are fairly good and work well in a comic-book environment. As in XML1, the mutant attacks look and sound beautiful with lots of flash, bang, pop, whiz, and boom. Background sets are generally nicely done with plenty of stuff to smash, blow up, and throw.
Voice acting is pretty good again. Besides the playable characters, Activision added a horde of new NPC characters that fans will recognize. Depending on who's on your team, dialogue may sometimes vary.
TECHNICAL FIDELITY 4/10
Load times have been marginally improved from XML1. This is about the only good point here. There seem to be MORE bugs in XML2 than in XML1. The game will freeze, crash, glitch, and leave you hanging. To me, this demonstrates a rushed development with lazy testing by Activision. The engine was never stable to begin with and they never bothered to patch the holes with XML2.
The bugs are bad enough to be severely distracting and detracting from the overall experience. Check other gaming databases (ie gamefaqs) for a list of known bugs and how to avoid them. I was aware of all known bugs and still got hit by a lot of them. IMO, you should not have to play a game in a specific manner to avoid crashes and glitches. If you bought a new car, you would be pretty annoyed if you had to avoid using the glove compartment, left turn signal, and cruise control. To me, this is a pretty blatant black eye for the game and Activision.
Furthermore, numerous non-fatal glitches heavily affect gameplay, making some characters godly unbalanced and completely frustrating the abilities of several other characters.
OVERALL 6/10
The final straw for me was when I found out the PC version has two exclusive characters, and the PSP version has two exclusive characters. I am COMPLETELY against platform specific features that have nothing to do with platform limitations or abilities. It's quite obvious that the new characters were developed at the same time as the rest of the game. They could have been included in ALL versions; Activision simply chose not to include them in the PS2 version in order to try to milk sales of the other versions.
Everyone is free to make a buck. That is the whole point of America. But some companies make it readily apparent where their priorities lie. As I play through a flawed, slapped together game, I can't help but picture a company focused more on its accountants, deadlines, and profit margins. If they had included ALL characters for ALL platforms and had spent more time in programming and testing, I would rate this game higher. I don't think anyone would have minded waiting another 3-6 months for XML2's release.
All in all, I must concede that I have been hard on the game. Heightened expectations and immense satisfaction with XML1 may have gotten the better of me. IMO, the game basically amounts to a decent expansion pack to XML1. Now that it's available for $20, I would nevertheless recommend it for anyone who enjoyed the first.
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