When I sat down to start playing X-Men: Legends the theme song from the old Saturday morning cartoon kept running through my head. The game had been billed as an action-RPG. As a fan of comic books I was hoping that the video game industry had finally realized that one of the keys to the X-Men's popularity was the good stories that they originated in, an action-RPG seemed the perfect format for the popular mutants. The story is an original one, not an adaptation from the comics. However the game does a very good job of including a large number of X-Men to play and a good variety of their villains to fight against. The story revolves around a new mutant named Magma whom the villainous Brotherhood of Mutants is trying to kidnap. The story then broadens into a plot where the threat becomes epic and global, just like any good superhero story.
The game's graphics do not disappoint in the least. The game's designers saw fit to keep their game closer to its comics roots and use more cartoon/comic-y cell shaded graphics rather than make them hyper-realistic. The game also uses the comic books' bright costumes rather than the black leather of the recent films. The game can be viewed in a close, behind-the-head 3rd person view that really shows off the graphics, a wider angled view or a view directly from above. The game's controls and UI are easy and quick to learn. Because the game is played, with the exception of a few single-character missions, in a team of four the player is allowed to change from his chosen team at will by simply tapping the d-pad button that corresponds to their desired character's position on the omnipresent character display. One of the RPG features of the game I enjoyed is the ability to level up your characters' skills and powers in the way you choose and equip them with various bonus-giving items.
X-Men: Legends transports your characters to a number of interesting and bizarre locals. The designers did their best to make each area fresh and unique and they succeed for the most part. Halfway through the game some of the environments start to seem similar. Within each individual environment there is more repetition, however, this is for a good reason. The game's environments are highly interactive. Most of the set pieces can be either destroyed in the hopes of getting items or used as projectiles to toss at enemies. Making this interactivity even more fun is the fact that some characters with super strength can pick up and toss larger objects (like a snow mobile) that other characters can't.
When it comes to the combat there are strong and fast punches/kicks and the alternate, energy consuming mutant power attacks that are (mostly) individual to each character. The one problem with offering a large range of characters to choose from is that some of their powers, though they seem original translate to the game in similar ways. For example: Iceman throws Shard of Ice while Gambit tosses explosively charged cards. While they sound different they are both similar ranged attacks. The designers did a good job of keeping the attacks graphically different but beyond that it breaks down into ranged fighters and melee fighters. Each character does however, possess their own style and the variety allows the player to choose their favorites without sacrificing the needed benefits of another character. In addition to being able to choose from four characters during the game save points (called extraction points) you are allowed you to change your team or resurrect a fallen teammate.
Being an RPG necessitates leveling up and since the game's levels don't supply infinite random encounters (except in one area I will address later) the game resolves this problem with the Danger Room. In the comic books the Danger Room is where the X-Men train and hone their skills. In X-Men: Legends it is no different. Whenever you reach an extraction point or when you are between missions in the X-Mansion, you have the option of going to the Danger Room. The illusory battles in the Danger Room give experience and items that you keep. Also, if you neglect a character for most of the game he won't remain level 1 when you decide you want to play him at the end of the game. X-Men: Legends keeps the characters you do not play just below the average level of the other characters.
When it comes to extras and multiplayer X-Men: Legends delivers. In addition to leveling, the Danger Room is available from the main menu to use for multi-player fighting-game-style battle. In addition to the Danger Room friends can pick up a controller at will and join in as one of your other characters. This aspect is a fun feature in the conventionally one-player action-RPG genre. Another small extra is the alternate costumes that can be earned to use in the Danger Room. These costumes represent the variety of different costumes the mutant super-team has worn through the years.
Unfortunately this otherwise excellent game is not without tarnish. The environments have some minor glitches. In a few locations characters are able to run up sheer vertical surfaces. In other areas characters walk partway into solid walls. Items also sometimes fall through solid walls. Initially I just ignored these glitches as minor things that were simply a lack of polish. However, I haven't finished the game yet. Normally I would never write a review without first finishing the game, but this is a special case. Nearing the end of the game, (I'd devoted a good 20 hours to the game) in a battle that seemed perfectly designed to do some leveling because of re-spawning enemies the game began to freeze. After a few freezes when I went to restart my game I found that my game save file had been erased. The characters I had unlocked remained available to play in the danger room multi-player area. Initially I was reluctant to pin this misfortune on a glitch. However, my copy of the game was new and unscratched and my system has never given me problems before. After a little investigation I found a couple friends who had the game freeze on them as well though their memory cards remained unscathed. Perhaps the freezing was due to the absurdly large amount of items that littered the floor in the area with re-spawning enemies, perhaps not.
All in all X-Men: Legends is an excellent RPG. It is fun and offers good single and multi-player options. The great variety of characters should appeal to X-Men fans and unfamiliar new-comers alike. The game is a must own for any X-Men fan and I'd recommend it to any fan of either RPGs or action games. However players should be aware that the game does have a couple glitches and though I found them extremely frustrating the glitches didn't diminish the fun I had playing during the majority of time when the game functioned properly.
