X-Men Legends
The next step in gaming evolution or a mutated monstrosity?
Tags: X-Men Legends Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Ludwig on Dec 2nd, 2004
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| X-Men Legends (title page) | 1 - 4 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Role-Playing (Action) | No | ||
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Apart from saving the world from untold peril and thwarting diabolical madmen with bizarre accents, superheroes hold a very important place in modern society as role models. With their fantastic feats and selfless acts, they can impart upstanding moral values and strengthen self-confidence within us all, making us better human beings and leading us to a utopia of peaceful coexistence with our fellow man.
Yeah, right.
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The real reason people still read comic books and flock to movie adaptations of their favorite super powered sagas is because of the extraordinarily cool abilities that these fictional fighters possess. Who hasn’t yearned for a unique and inexplicable power to call their own? Who hasn’t wished for the ability to reach the TV remote from the couch? Who hasn’t hoped to neutralize the larynx of that person who keeps talking during a movie? X-Ray breath? Lukewarm vision? The ability to levitate hamburgers and other fast foods? How about the power to control all manner of paperclips on Tuesdays? These are the very useful and life affirming powers that permeate everyone’s desires, desires that come one step closer to being fulfilled by spending time with characters like Professor Xavier and his team of motley mutants. X-men Legends places you in control of this elite group of has-been humans and allows you to experience a life with spectacular superpowers.
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It’s not nearly as exciting as you might think. In the opening moments of the game, you assume the role of an ill-tempered Wolverine prowling the streets of New York City. Right, you’ve got the rapid healing ability, the animalistic senses, the adamantium skeleton and the deadly blades coming out of your hands. You’re a bona fide superhero and it’s time to become involved in an adventure of unparalleled excitement and intrigue! It’s time to…wander the streets, smash trashcans and chop up park benches? If that strikes you as a wasted opportunity for mutant mayhem, you’ll be further disappointed when you start running into some of the game’s enemies, many of which require the same amount of finesse and skill to defeat as those devious cans of garbage.
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Throughout most of the game, you’ll find yourself performing three main tasks, all of which sound terribly exciting in theory but seriously suffer in execution. The first is that of forming and taking command of a team of four X-men (out of 15 total available) and venturing out on dangerous missions. The D-pad allows you to set the lead character that’s directly controlled by you and followed by three AI-controlled teammates. It’s a setup that has proven to be very successful in many role-playing games, though this is definitely not one of them. The game plainly points out that there’s no “AI” in “team”, as you’ll constantly have to baby-sit your fellow freaks and make sure that they don’t do anything unbelievably stupid. The general lack of on-screen information is partly to blame here, with the game neglecting to display the health and energy bars of any character besides the one you’re currently controlling, making it especially difficult to effectively manage some of the weaker X-men. It’s possible to set limits at which teammates will use potions, but this often creates situations where your limited number of restorative drinks get used too often (the hypochondriac mutant) or only until it’s too late (the suicidal mutant). A greater degree of control in this aspect would have greatly decreased frustration, as every dead mutant requires an annoying trek to the last save point in order to be revived.
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When they’re not keeling over in pain, your team of legendary X-men is getting lost, often with catastrophic consequences. The path finding capability of the AI is usually good enough to keep the team together, but should you do anything as outrageous as say, jump over an obstacle, they’ll suddenly become confused and fall behind, leaving you to momentarily fend for yourself. Of even more concern is the tendency of some characters to casually stroll over a cliff and plunge to their doom when you’re not looking. Really, if Magneto knew that the uncanny X-men could be defeated by simply luring them to the vicinity of a reasonably deep hole, the world would be in serious trouble. Luckily and unluckily, only us gamers know the secret and are forced to deal with the game’s inadequate AI.
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Being an action RPG with an overhead perspective, it should come as no surprise that the second thing you’ll be doing for most of the game is fighting off hordes and hordes of despicable enemies. From the hygienically challenged Morlocks to the sinister Sentinels, the majority of the comic’s villains is represented in the game and will attempt to thwart your X-men at every opportunity. By executing melee attacks, consisting of either a normal blow or a clearing assault, you’re able to string together a decent variety of combos, juggle opponents for extra aerial damage or throw them into the nearest wall. Pulling the right trigger will display a mutant powers menu with each of the controller’s face buttons corresponding to one of your unique abilities. Some powers such as Cyclops’ optic beams inflict heavy damage whilst others like Iceman’s cold blast will cause enemy movement to slow down. It’s usually pretty intuitive when it comes to determining what type of damage is inflicted and which status ailments might occur with specific powers.
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The control scheme in X-men Legends actually works very well and makes activating mutant powers and dishing out the pain extremely effortless. Aside from utilizing your own abilities, a pull of the left trigger will also force the rest of your team to target your current assailant with one of their unique mutant attacks, resulting in a specialized combo (proclaimed by a guy who excitedly yells “COMBO!” during gameplay), as well as additional damage and experience points. Forming these combos lends the combat a little more depth, though it is sadly squandered by enemies that rarely require any such exotic actions to be defeated and instead mindlessly rush you in droves. Consequently, the battles quickly deteriorate into chaotic and unashamedly frantic button mashing sessions, requiring very little skill or even thought on your part. The game also feels a little unbalanced, with some of the mutants seeming to be much more powerful and useful than others. Even the Sentinels, gigantic robots capable of firing deathbeams from their palms, feel like slight nuisances as long as you have Iceman in your team and never stop hitting the attack button.
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Though some might enjoy the action-packed anarchy every time they confront a group of enemies, the simplicity quickly turns to mind-numbing repetition. Even the game’s cooperative mode feels lackluster, simply because rather than an increase in fun, it merely provides an increase in button mashing. Coupled with rather uninspired level design, the game actually manages to take a concept revolving around a team of heroes with superpowers and makes it rather boring. One section in particular has your team running around a seemingly endless number of identical sewer areas (sewers should be outright banned from videogames by now) and fighting the same enemies over and over again. It eventually feels like you’ve been sucked into a cruel temporal loop, with your only hope resting with the arrival of Jean-Luc Picard and a phaser blast to the head.
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Patrick Stewart does provide some help here, thanks to the fact that his commendable voice talent has been acquired for the role of Professor X. Doing justice to both the game and the long line of X-men comics, the game’s storyline and characters work well with the source material and are sure to satisfy hardcore and casual fans alike. This brings us to the third main activity in X-men Legends, namely that of leveling up and maintaining your team of mutant miscreants. You’ll gain points with each rise in level and are given the opportunity to spend them on a great deal of powers and status enhancements. Though it’s not a very deep system, the game does a great job of translating all the feats present on the pages of the comics into tangible gameplay actions. It really makes the shallow combat seem even worse when one considers all the other, more interesting ways the X-men’s cool abilities could have been integrated into a game.
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Having successfully transplanted their various techniques from the comics, the game also makes an attempt at bringing the Marvel-ous artwork into a 3d world. It is a thoroughly failed attempt. In a strange alternative to straightforward cel-shading, each of the character models is simply given a black outline, thus giving them a pseudo-cartoony look and the inability to blend very well with the visually unremarkable environments. They aren’t very detailed either, as the shockingly bad in-engine cutscenes are quick to reveal. With blocky appendages that make it seem like the X-men are all wearing colorful oven mittens and mouths that never move (apparently everyone’s a telepath now), it becomes very clear that the character models seen from the normal top-down perspective are not fit for up-close scrutiny.
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Ignoring such inspection for the moment, one can easily get swept away by the idea of a role-playing game revolving around the mighty X-men and their globetrotting exploits. With a well established cast of characters and a bevy of unbelievably cool superpowers, it seems like Marvel’s magnificent mutants are perfectly suited for one of gaming’s grandest genres. Unfortunately, one needs to realize that there’s a great deal of work involved when moving from a great idea to a great game. With its main downfall being the hopelessly shallow and monotonous combat, X-Men Legends is not a great game. Raven Software boldly attempts to work with the vast amounts of potential inherent in the franchise but it’s ultimately too much to handle and most of it slips through their fingers. It’s time to pick up the pieces and try again.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Great incorporation of the X-men’s superpowers + Simple and effective control scheme + Patrick Stewart is Professor X. |
6.8 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Repetitive and shallow combat - AI teammates often behave like mutant morons - Graphical style doesn’t really work |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Unless you’re gifted (or cursed) with the extraordinary ability to enjoy utterly brainless combat, X-men Legends is sure to disappoint you. | |
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Tags: X-Men Legends
Posted by Ludwig on Dec 2nd, 2004 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
