X-Men Legends

"Great cast of characters yet the game could have been better"

The world's greatest and most famous mutants have done it again. By brining out a game less than impressive once again. It's an irony to be honest. I love the X-Men (and almost all Marvel superheroes and stories) plus growing up with uncles and a father who loved Marvel even before I was born you would expect that the word's greatest mutants deserve better. I mean Spider-Man did so much better I don't see how this title like any other X-Men titles could be less than impressive as always.

Now don't get me wrong. The gameplay concept isn't something that doesn't appeal to me (I prefer Baldur's Gate 2 more) and what more having my favorite super heroes in action this time around how could it go wrong? Problem is that it just did. Although the game is basically the same (with a few twists to make it different) as those like Baldur's Gate and the recent Brotherhood of Steel (Fallout) on the PS2 but for some reasons they have just manage to make this should-have-been ultimate title less appealing compared to the other titles of the same game concept.

Gameplay: Now lets be honest here. By far it is actually awesome. Different characters with different attributes, skills and usages. Characters actually feel and play differently (what not especially with the large cast of characters) but soon the game gets a little too plain. Awesome is the 4 Member/Party system but even when set to aggressive they don't seem to make the gameplay any different. It's like no matter what you will be the one doing all the dirty work and they just assist a little. I would have expected that the support characters would give more of an X-Men feel but it turns out the AI doesn't really help out much. Overtime you would find out that the skills ech characters have are more or less same in a certain way.

Story: This is probably the largest downfall of them game. I was actually going to skip the story part but it seemed inescapable. It is rather interesting and stays more or less true like the normal X-Men cartoon series (which I so love) so it couldn't be any fault there but for some odd reasons voice actors and everything else actually makes it less-appealing! I can come clean and tell you that I've completed Baldur's Gate 2 and BoS Fallout and this title oddly enough doesn't pull me into the series! I don't know how but they manage to do it. Infact I am contemplating not to continue with the game! Something that has never happened in BoS or BG2. Well I didn't complete BG1 and haven't even started on Champions of Norath (due to lack of time) but why am I complaining about this game?

- The hype of the game before it came out.

- For some reasons the screen shots seem to look better. Maybe it's because it isn't moving.

- X-Men! OMG by far one of the best superheroes I've ever loved since young and they manage to make a game out of them being not attractive! What not I hardly even know the background of BG or Fallout and they make a title I've known even more than the rest (in this type of genre gameplay) and it's less attractive and enjoyable!

The question why? Now that is what I seriously want to find out. The greatest saving grace the title has is that you actually get to know more about the X-Men (in the Mansion) and having a huge load of X-Men related cast/characters/storyline easily gives this game 4/10 (the other 2/10 came from gameplay being innovative yet just borderline fun).

Graphics: One of the worse display of cel-shading I have ever seen. The PS2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cel-shading outshines this game's cel-shading on so many levels that it isn't funny. Infact I have sen better display of cel-shaded games and would still make this game look like a last minute job. True that most of the time you'll be looking at your characters overhead but when upclose it's just terrible. Probably if they used 3D for the game it might have been better or 2D nut sadly enough the cel-shading in this title is rather a waste.

Music/Sound: The background music isn't something to go drooling about in my book. I've heard better from other various games but from games within this genre, it is rather plain and as usual (games from this genre) the music is just average. The voice in this game just isn't up to standard in my opinion. I would have so love if they actually used the voice actors that did the X-Men cartoon during the 90's. Okay seeing as that is not possible the voice for certain characters just doesn't add up either. They seem less appealing compared to the voice for the characters in other X-Men titles (if any at all) or X-Men related titles (even X-Mens from those Capcom titles were way better). To add salt to injury some of the sound effects are rather weird or not in place. Wouldn't know how to describe in-depth but hitting sounds and such at certain times just doesn't seem right or over time, just not the kind of sound that actually grabs your attention.

Overall: Rent or borrow this game and give yourself a trial before actually buying this game. Alot of people actually like this game hidden with the fact that they are using the reason of the X-Men to actually play this game. Problem is for me it just isn't quite enough. I mean they could pull a Spider-Man in so many ways but they didn't and ended up using a formula that has already been used by other games and feels more reharsh then new to that extend. Now either the X-Men series of games are just fillers and there to sell their names I cannot find any other reason to actually buy another X-Men game other than the fact that I love the X-Men so much but it breaks my heart to see so many times that no matter what genre the X-Men games turn to they always come out not good. I would say those made by Capcom where great/better than any other X-men titles I have ever seen but you can't compete a VS Fighting game to every single category video games have to offer right?

This game overall is a let down to me. Even bigger because the X-Men are related to it. What are the few things that could have actually made the game better than it currently is.

- Storyline could do more tune up in trying to bring the players back for more rather than just expecting the expected or such.

- Graphics should be considered and properly planned before being put into implementation.

- Support AI could have been better. Also having the option for your support characters to actually run around and scout and such would be much more fun then the whole bunch of people walking together. I mean you could actually give out commands in real time (spread out/scout, stay together etc etc) to give the game a little age.

- Voice actors. Get better voice actors that actually fit the characters even more to give them a more original life to them suiting the X-Men cast of heroes and villains.

There is still room for improvement and I hope that if any, future installments would have clear up these mentioned problems first before anything else.

Score 6/10 (score would have been 5/10 if not for considering the gameplay)

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/22/04