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X-Men Legends II Review
12 out of 12
Activision's second action RPG starring the X-Men offers some decent fun and a nice storyline.
Date: Thursday, October 20, 2005
Author: 'Captain' Gordon Edward

Each character has a unique move set, but brawlers generally have similar style moves. Some moves like flying are used on too many characters, which made them feel less unique. What I did like is how different moves would activate obstacles or eliminate impassable areas and allow your team to pass. If there was a missing gap you could use Iceman’s powers to create an ice bridge, Jean Grey’s power to create a psychic bridge, or even Magneto’s powers to create a metallic bridge.

There is a danger room, which will help you gain some experience, and earn special weapons. If you complete special challenges for each of the characters you will unlock unique items for them that will dramatically increase their power. Some of the challenges -- like protecting people -- can be extremely difficult, while the others can be completed easily even on the most difficult setting.

Another fantastic touch was character specific interactions. Depending on the characters you had on the team, they may interact specially with the main characters including enemies. In the first act you will face off against Lady Deathstrike, and if you have Wolverine on your team, she will blame him for events that befell her father, and how it is her honour to try and kill him.

What really made this game shine was the fact that you could have up to four players on the screen at a time. This made it easy for you to create combos, or co-ordinate attacks. What I had hoped was that the group would be able to split up, rather than stay on the same screen, but none the less it was still a very positive game experience. You may find each other fighting over which characters to use, but that was half the fun.

Also you could enter the Danger Room from the main screen, and battle to the death. This felt unbalanced, as they were all pre-made characters suited to what the character was ultimately best at. It would have been nice if you could level them up before battle instead. An interesting idea would be if they allowed you to create your own characters.

Another thing that I did not like was that they took the main character from the first game completely out of the second one. The following characters have been removed from game-play: Beast, Emma Frost, Jubilee, Magma, and Psylocke. This is rather upsetting, as I hoped that with each game they would continue to just add more and more characters. Hopefully next game they will have a bunch of new playable heroes, including Alpha Flight.

A nice touch was the bonus teams. If you put specific characters on a team, they would receive a strategic boost. If you put Gambit, Rouge, Jean Grey, and Cyclops on a team you will have created the “Double Date” team. With this team you will get 20 health points recharged after each enemy defeated and that means you will keep on killing long after your enemies are dead. Of course there are many teams, so this encourages people to try out different character combinations.

All and all, if you enjoyed the first game, you are going to enjoy this second one. If you have not played the first one, but are interested in this one, do pick it up as it is well worth the price. You will find destroying environments very satisfying, as well as the enemies. The storyline is fantastic and true to the Marvel world. Captain Gordon gives this game a B+.

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