Until the recent City of Heroes, Spider-Man 2, and Freedom Force, games based on comic book characters have often been resoundingly dull and in many cases abysmal gaming experiences. With the success of the X-Men movies fans were waiting with baited breath for X-Men Legends despite a less than enthusiastic response for the Wolverines Revenge title.
Eschewing the traditional hunt, blast, and bash action formula X-Men Legends uses the RPG formula that thanks to the recent hit Knights of the Old Republic, gamers learned that this genre was not limited to swordplay and Orcs and with a bit of effort the sky was the limit for what gamers could do.
The game sets players as a new Mutants, Magma, who decides to join the X-Men after a series of run ins with some evil mutants. The story is complete with flashbacks and while it does take some liberties with established lore, it does not deviate enough to raise Wolverines fur.
Players select characters to take on various missions with a team of four X-men at your disposal; you can control one player and let the A.I. control the rest. You also have the option to use additional controllers to allow your friends to play along with you as they can take control of team members.
While there will be few complaints with the action in the game, when X-Men Legends reverts to RPG format there are some bumps in the road. While you can update accessories and powers, but character selection is largely based on individual taste, as specific characters are not always needed for missions making whomever you select capable of completing the tasks at hand.
Sound wise, X-men Legends music suffers from bland tunes that tend to repeat themselves during action sequences. That being said the sound effects are crisp and convey the action well. The impact sounds are well defined and set the action up well.
Patrick Stewart provides the voice for Professor X, but voice work is to few and far between for my taste, as more would have really helped the game stand out.
Thankfully the game is saved by solid graphics as the cell-shaded characters are rendered in amazing detail and complete the transformation from page to screen very well.
It will take the average players 15-25 hours to complete the game and aside from some player vs. player battles there is not much replay value in the game. Still despite the flaws, the game should satisfy X-Men fans if they are not to picky and are willing to sit back and immerse themselves in the game.
3.5 Stars out of 5
