X-Men: Legends

It was like being dipped in the mutant waters of pop-culture nirvana. The vibrancy, the challenge and the joy of X-Men has come alive thanks to Activision and Raven Software, which have teamed up for the console platformer, X-Men: Legends.

There have been other Marvel Comics-based games before, and other comic superhero games, but X-Men: Legends will stand out as an example of taking a franchise and presenting it very well.

Now, to answer some questions – yes, the game is very linear in design, and yes, there is a lot of fighting against an almost continuous onslaught of foes. This is, after all, an X-Men game, which means a classic battle against the government who is trying to control and/or detain all mutants, a hostile society, and the Brotherhood of Mutants, which is not given mutant-kind a good name as it tries to wipe out the inferior normal humans to make room for the evolved humans – which are mutants.

Thrust into this formula are the X-Men, the brainchild of Professor Charles Xavier, a mutant who has created a nest of those who believe in freedom for all, not just a select few.

The game starts simply enough – RVN World News breaks into a report on the growing mutant problem to detail a situation in which a young girl is accused of being a mutant and the situation has reached incredible proportions. The young girl, Alison Crestmere, has been grabbed by the Brotherhood’s Blob, and there is a wake of destruction leading to where he has taken her.

The first on the scene is Wolverine – attitude and ability combining to make a warrior that you don’t (as Jean Grey explains) want to have as an enemy. Wolverine takes off and during the opening scenes the scope of the game plays out.

The Brotherhood has some classic bad guys, like Mystique, Pyro and Magento (to name a few), and there are boss battles along the way.

Wolverine follows the trail of Blob into a subway, where a couple of Brother thugs are waiting for him. The X-Man knocks the first back and down, then grabs the second by the head and throws him across the room. The thug falls off the subway platform and onto the tracks, just as a subway comes rumbling through. He ain’t coming back.

Before people start getting all wild about that, this game does allow gamers to throw bad guys around, and into or through objects, but there is no blood. The bad guys, once their hit points are exhausted just fall down and don’t get up. They do occasionally drop items which may be of some use – like health potions or potions to recover mutant powers or the coin of the game. The latter is important in reviving fallen team members, or to use to buy equipment from Forge.

The equipment aspect of this game is enjoyable. You can buy or find any equip items which may amplify certain elements of the X-Men’s abilities. And this hints at the bigger overlay, which is the essential element of the role-playing aspect of Legends.

After you rescue Alison, you are allowed to roam the halls of the Mutant Academy. You can discover trivia games, a Danger Room (where you can cull experience from learning elements of the game play), a library with X-Men comic book covers (which you must find), artwork and the like. You will also get your first team mission. You can take up to four X-Men with you on any mission, and you can use extraction points to save the game, or trade out team members. One – like Bobby Drake (or Iceman) – may be good up to a certain stage of the mission, and then you may want to trade him for a different X-Men member with a different skill set. That is perfectly fine. As the characters progress and accrue experience points, they can level. You can assign points to certain aspects of their overall character, like striking or agility. You can also set the team AI. But you get points to spend in developing certain aspects of your character’s personality. For Cyclops, it may be on different beam attacks, or his leadership skills; for Wolverine, you can build up claw attacks, or invest heavily in feral rage; for Rogue, perhaps you want her flight to cost less in mutant power and allow for aerial attacks, or maybe you want to improve that element where she can steal powers.

Each mutant comes with a different array of skills available, and players can level them as they see fit.

The game’s multiplayer elements are also very unique. Each of the missions is team based, and up to four players can jump into a mission at any moment and take over one of the team members. It is instant cooperative play. And should someone leave, control over all team members reverts to the remaining players. You have a leader, which is player controlled, and the rest of the team, which is AI controlled. A stab of the D-pad allows you to change from one character to another.

Why is that important? Because some mutants have resistances to certain attacks and if you are controlling the wrong X-Man, you may be in for a very long fight. Early in the game, Wolverine and Cyclops battle The Blob. The Blob is resistant to physical attacks, meaning that if you wish to win, you had better use Cyclops as your main, avoid the rushes of Blob and blast him into submission.

The game itself almost looks cel-shaded, but it isn’t. Because the backgrounds are so lush, a black outline surrounds the game’s characters (player controlled and NPC alike) to allow them to pop from the background. The result is a game that leaps off the screen, and is an amazing visual treat.

Patrick Stewart voices Professor X, and the musical score, sound effects and other dialogue is quite good.

There are a total of 15 X-Men you can unlock and play within the game, as well as level. The teams do fight as a cohesive unit, and really takes the whole genre of team-based combat to an exciting new level. The game also allows players to learn about and perhaps appreciate other, lesser-well-known members of the team. Nightcrawler can teleport around the room and pop in behind someone to deliver a well-timed blow, or – later on – he can grab someone and teleport into another room. Rogue can pick up Wolverine and use him as a thrown missile – the fastball special. Colossus, Psylocke, Storm, Beast and others all add personality, dynamic combat skills and visual entertainment to the mix.

X-Men: Legends does justice to the Marvel Comics legacy, and will give players a very entertaining gaming experience. This game is absolutely enjoyable.