Although games get better with each passing generation, some gaming stereotypes remain. An example of this is the âbad comic-based game.â X-Men games have been part of that stereotype as well, unfortunately, but my favorite X-Men game has always been Konamiâs arcade game from the early nineties.
X-Men Legends takes the type of simple fun (multiplayer beat-em-up with access to special powers for each X-Man) found in the old arcade game and puts it into an updated graphical shell along with RPG elements. As a result, Legends can be very enjoyable, though its limited storyline, lack of character balance, and repetitive gameplay may eventually turn off some players during its 15-25 hour game length. Importantly, though, Legends is just as accessible to the casual player/X-Men fan as it is to the hardcore one.
While youâll start off the game as Wolverine, youâll be able to use other X-men as you progress through the game. All of the characters that become available are fairly prominent X-Men, so thereâs a good chance that one of your favorites is playable. Youâll also meet up with unplayable X-Universe characters who make cameo appearance in the story. Once youâve unlocked enough characters to do so, you can load up your party with up to four people, specifically controlling one at all times. Switching between characters in your party is easy, however, and a great feature is that friends can play with you at any time, controlling the other members of the party. Your control over the other team members is limited to asking them to help you with a specific foe or telling them to follow you with the use of the left trigger, but this is never a real problem.
In the early parts of the game, youâll rely on melee combat because your X-Menâs powers wonât be well developed. Special powers work similar to magic in typical RPGs, so you can only use them so many times before you run out of the gameâs equivalent to mana points. Combat, while enjoyable at first, is pretty repetitive. The game isnât very challenging (and there are no difficulty levels), and youâll find yourself basically button mashing to get through the game, even after youâve unlocked powers.
Thereâs a reasonably well-written story for Legends, but I didnât think it fit the scale thatâs normally expected in an RPG- instead itâs the kind of story youâd want in a normal action game. As a result, the motivation to find out what happens next in the story is minimal. Also, by the time you develop each charactersâ powers, playing with most characters is fairly boring, unless youâre a huge fan of every character in the game.
The story is a fairly typical X-Men one revolving around the struggles between humans and mutants. Magneto, a powerful mutant who can control magnetism, seeks to control the human race, many members of which irrationally fear and seek to destroy mutants. Professor X and the X-Men (and the player) fight for the other side, believing that humanity and mutants can learn to live in peace and acceptance of one another.
Youâll be able to unlock and develop special moves, upgrade attributes, and change items for all your characters, and while there are many options for customization, overall, thereâs a feeling of superficiality to them. This is most likely a result from the uneven balance of power among the characters. While you may like certain characters, there are definitely stronger characters and much weaker ones. Jean Grey is easily the best character in the game, and characters that rely heavily on melee combat (Wolverine, Beast, and Colossus) rather than special powers are generally less effective, especially late in the game. In my opinion, many of the powers just arenât very exciting in combat, so I never became deeply interested in using them. The game does put some focus on getting you to (some characters are needed for specific puzzles) use all of your characters, but this isnât done very well.
I tended to stick to a set team for all situations, unless I wanted to try someone for my own personal interest, because it was obvious that certain characters were not good (or fun) to play with.
What distinguishes Legends is the amount of detail in the game world. In between missions, youâll spend time at the X-Menâs mansion, where youâll be able to chat with various X-Men, walk around the grounds, and also read up on the various characters. I really liked this aspect, as you can quickly become fairly informed about the X-Men universe. Even the gameâs cutscenes do a good job of introducing the material to the X-Men newbie while not being annoying to the more knowledgeable fan. Youâll find unlockables such as magazine covers and artwork during missions that can then be viewed once you return to the mansion. You can even play X-Men trivia for experience points!
Aside from the main storyline, various characters will have flashback episodes in which youâll get to play as that character to see the story play out. For example, one episode is Wolverineâs escape from the Weapon X facility. These side stories really help the player get a better feel for some of the characters.
The Danger Room, a training area for the X-Men in the comics, is a major part of the game as well. While the Danger Room initially starts off as a tutorial, youâll continue unlocking bonus missions as you progress in the game, so youâll always want to return to the Danger Room between missions. A nice bonus is that the experience you get from training also gives you âreal worldâ game world benefits- you can use Danger Room missions to develop your characters and earn special items.
The respect the game holds for the source material is plainly evident, and this extra attention is what ultimately makes Legends a fun experience despite its gameplay flaws.
Visually, Legends is defined by its use of cel-shading, but the results arenât impressive While itâs a great graphical feature, Iâm not so sure that cel-shading should be in every comic-based game. Iâm not even sure it makes Legends look âstraight from the comicsâ as itâs intended to. The visuals in Legends are colorful, but the character models lack detail, and everything else is underwhelming. Frame-rate stuttering is common, though it has little affect on gameplay.
Patrick Stewart reprises his Professor X role from the X-Men movies here, and unsurprisingly, delivers a fine performance. The voice acting quality for the other characters vary, however, and some accents just donât sound right. Then again, perhaps Iâm biased because I tend to expect/hope that the characters sound as they did in the X-Men Animated Series from the early nineties. The gameâs sound effects and music are solid, but as with the graphics, I donât feel they particularly stand out as strengths.
I spent a lot of time in Legends leveling up in preparation for missions- this is a fairly common RPG practice, but it actually worsened the game experience for me. In the end I probably spent 30 hrs over the game, with the last 10 being fairly boring because the X-Men were too strong. I would advise, then, skipping extra training and leveling, so that the game doesnât wear itself thin.
Overall, I think the game is worth a purchase, whether youâre a hardcore X-Men fan or relative newbie, but if you need a deeper RPG experience, I would suggest skipping out. Itâs a great way to burn time, but itâs not an incredibly engaging experience. In a lot of ways it feels somewhat average, but I think that most people will enjoy the gameâs detailed representation of the X-Men universe.
(originally published in GamersInfo.net)
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