*This is a review I wrote on an X-men site a few weeks back. I have since finished the game and the review still stands. Enjoy...*


Well I finally got my PC version of X-men Legends II: ROA last night! Now I've only played about an hour or two but here is my official review so far.......


Well after getting my X-game in the mail yesterday and finally ripping open the UPS box I was first disappointed to see they opted for the open cover which is an awesome thing that has been around for a few years and provides insight into the game. But instead of just leaving it they put this **** Velcro on the front so it literally rips your game box in half if you don't open it carefully.

But who cares about the game box right? After loading the three disc PC game I was ready to boot up this monster...or not. The mouse can't be bound to any keys so it took me almost 20 minutes just to get a working formula for my keyboard. After that I was ready to actually get *into* the game......or not… again. Some games Normal actually translates to Hard and Hard translates to Insane so I always try Easy first. Well Easy in this game was an understatement. In an hour I had a team of four lvl 14 mutant immortals. Wait....you can play four mutants? What would I want to do that for? Enemies just fall in front of me before I even attack. Needless to say I've started a Normal game and found it much more of a challenge.

After all of the technicalities let’s get down to the game. First off one of the reasons I got the PC version was for the extra characters, big mistake! Here I'm really looking forward to running around with Wolverine and Sabretooth tearing stuff up right? Well Sabretooth sucks! He walks like a bozo he fights like a moron and his voice over sounds like a drunken tiger. So then since Sabretooth was never written into the game as a playable character, you can walk around with Sabretooth and still have the NPC Sabretooth (and Pyro once you get to him)standing around. You can even talk with yourself!! Then when you talk to other characters (such as Blink) as Sabretooth you sit there and have a conversation about yourself (Sabretooth) like you aren't even there. Example......

As Sabretooth: "Well Sabretooth told us he was trying to save you. But that doesn't sound like him, he would never try to help anyone."

Blink to Sabretooth: "Please don’t talk about Mr. Creed that way."

So yeah if you're a Sabretooth extreme fan maybe you'll enjoy it but I found my self feeling like I was playing a bad Gameshark hack to put party members in that didn't belong. Plus the ultimate sabretooth looks soooo bad. He walks around with a knife in his belt WTF does a bad @$$ with sharp fangs and huge claws need a knife for??!!??

Also they make it a big deal that the flying mutants can fly to *unreachable areas* in the game. So I grab Magneto and fly him over to the little floating semi-island that is *unreachable area* figuring he can handle whatever there is solo. When all of a sudden what's this? All of my party members have magically jumped over the huge space and appeared by my side on that again *unreachable island*

I also don't really like the whole having all of the party members to start with. I mean after about ten minutes I picked the six I would play with and didn't even feel compelled to bother with the rest.

Now to the good parts 8)

The opening cinematic is just amazing pure X-men all the way!

Almost all of the Brotherhood/X-men are voiced by top notch actors. The first game was really unfelt and boring sounding to me, but almost everyone in this one hits the characters right on. I especially enjoyed Wolverine and Cyclops so far.

Yes the character models are still nasty cell shaded crap but the environment is amazing compared to the first one!

The game play is fun but it's kind of hard to get the mutant powers mapped on the keyboard and access them while trying to fight. They really put some time and thought into the characters and how their powers and such affect them. Take Juggernaut for example, he moves pretty slow compared to the rest of the group but when he gets near something watch out, anyone up for some demolishing? For the walls or any destructible thing it takes a quite a few hits from other party members but, with Juggernaut three hits at the most 8)

As you progress through the game it's really awesome to unlock new costumes for each character (AOA, 616 and more)

Also there are lots of different conversations scattered through-out the game that you can initiate by having certain members in your party. Such as a hilarious encounter with Kitty Pryde (Shadow Cat) chewing out Colossus for the rumors of him liking Scarlett witch lol.
So all in all......

The gameplay gets repetitive after awhile, but if you're a X-men fan (like I am) you'll really enjoy the game. I liked it just to see everything I've come to like about the series translated into an RPG, they have lots of little inserts of stuff from the books that will keep and fan always excited about seeing it show up.

Gameplay: 9
Voice-overs: 10
Character Graphics: 6
Environment Graphics: 8
Cinematic Cutscenes: 10
In-game cutscenes (briefing):9 Even though it's bad graphics the actors do so well in portraying the Brotherhood and X-men that it warrants a 9.
Bugs: 2 (Nothing a patch couldn't take care of.)

So I give X-men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (Drum roll)..........

[9.6]

So there you have it. TAKE THAT gaming magazines!!!

*Hope this helps anyone that was thinking about getting the game*
<~Spike~>

400 Viz.