PS2 X-Men Legends 2: ROA review:
4 stars (Great Improvements in the game) - When videogame sequels are released, gamers often wonder how it contrasts the original in the series. After numerous hours of game play with the first X-men Legends game and careful review of X-men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, gamers are going to get the same mutant bashing, level destroying fun of the first game with a considerable amount of improvements.
Compared to the first X-men legends game, the second in the series has many upgrades. First of all, the unexpected alliance of the X-men and Brotherhood members allows players to assume the role of not only the goody, goody X-men characters we all love, but also the malicious members who make up the brotherhood. Mutants such as Magneto, Juggernaut, Scarlet Witch, Sunfire, and Toad are suiting up to stop the evil that perils them.
In addition to adding some powerful new characters - and weeding out the weaker ones - Each character has a much larger array of skill up grades. In fact, more than double the amount of usable skills can be found for each character, as well as more passive skills, resulting in more ways to customize each of your mutants.
The introduction of acts in this installment is a huge improvement. Unlike the first game where players are forced to follow the storyline unable to return to the areas they have previously visited, Rise of Apocalypse takes players through five acts, which can be revisited at any time. This also allows there to be more hidden areas and items to be found, since players can revisit any area. New secret objects include data discs (increases the number of potions held) and tech stations (increases one of a characters four primary statistics), along with the old secret findables danger room discs, comic books, and sketchbooks.
The environments have improved and players are taken from the land of Genosha, to New York City, and even through the great pyramids in Egypt. In each of these lands players can find an abundance of new enemy baddies and bosses to test their new Mutant powers.
Overall this game has improved greatly. Every aspect from the characters, their abilities, the environments, enemies, and secrets has been upgraded. This game is a great installment to the X-men Legends series and is worthy of a place in any adventure lover's playstation.
5 stars (love the xmen) - JUST AS GREAT AS THE FIRST ONE, THE STORYLINE IS MORE INVOLVED. THE BEST THING IS THAT YOU CAN PLAY AS THE BROTHERHOOD LIKE JUGGERNAUT AND MAGNETO. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS GAME FOR ALL THOSE WHO LOVE COMICS.
4 stars (Excellent sequel, some very minor problems) - X-Men Legends was a breath of new life for those of us sick and tired of waiting for a decent adventure game starring everyone's favourite cast of mutants. It was fast, fun, big and challenging, and contained more in-references and playable characters than you could shake a stick at.
X-Men Legends 2: ROA takes that formula and tweaks it somewhat, meaning that this is a sequel that essentially delivers more of the same addictive gameplay, bucketloads more of the same straight-from-the-comic-book atmosphere, and a few minor improvements and disimprovements over the original.
The plot is expansive and kind of perfunctory: Apocalypse is back and now the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (the baddies from the original game) must now side with the X-Men to remove the threat of immediate worldwide annihilation. This cunning stunt allows you to have a cast of sixteen selectable muties from the get-go, and this is a pretty even blend of both X-Men and BOEM characters alike. Some are strong from the beginning and only get more powerful as they level up (the ubiquitous Wolverine, Jean Grey, Colossus), some of the new characters are excellent too (Scarlet Witch, Bishop, Juggernaut and Sunfire), and some of the characters from the first game that you might not have used as much because of their clunkiness have been improved out of all order - for me, this was Rogue and Gambit, now (thanks to some serious design improvements) a formidable team.
There are still some dud characters, though, and these come in the shape of Magneto and Toad. Shame, but what can you do? You don't *have to* use them, so it's not all bad.
The only drawback about all of this is the fact that a huge, huge portion of the Marvel cast roster (and even that from the first game, which was by no means exhaustive!) is missing, and while newbies like the really excellent Scarlet Witch and Sunfire more than hold their own, you can't help but miss the presence of the more usable chatacters from X-Men Legends, such as Beast, Psylocke and Magma.
A nice touch, though, is if you assemble a team of heroes with matching secondary costumes (e.g. Age of Apocalypse), you automatically get a stat increase. Similarly, it's now much easier to distribute the stat points, with an Auto option that does the calculation for you, allowing you to focus in on the gameplay. Another HUGE improvement is the economic system of the game, Tech Bits are now in far more plentiful supply and items are relatively cheaper.
There are some drawbacks: The items system is still as rotten as ever, if you pick up too many things it's back to the Base to unload some in the Hero stash boxes (think Biohazard). But since this box is not bottomless, you need to sell the weaker items to Forge, too. This doesn't sound so bad in theory but it does break up the action pretty badly, and since the rare items are so very useful you do need to keep a close eye on what you're selling, equipping and moving about.
Basic gameplay remains pretty much the same, if overall a little easier than in X-Men Legends. It's fast, fun and very satisfying, and while there are some glitches here and there, the plentiful amount of Save points throughout means you never really spend too much time backtracking.
Maps are a pain; there's no way of viewing one overall map without loading up a Map sub-screen, so you do get lost sometimes. Similarly, loading times (as before) remain a second or so too long mid-mission, making leveling up and shuffling things about a bit more of a chore than it needs to be.
Graphics are much improved, though, with more detailed and colourful powers, costumes, enemies and stunning backdrops than before.
All in all, a sequel very worthy of its great predecessor, X-Men Legends 2 deserves a place on the shelf of all action-adventure game fans. Recommended. |
