X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
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First up you must know I am not an X-Men
fan, nor am I
a fan of any comic books, although I have enjoyed some of the
comic book
based movies like Superman, Spiderman and the first X-Men
Movie.
What I am a fan of however is GOOD GAMES which does include the
genre of
Dungeon Crawlers. For example I put in tons of hours playing
Baulders
Gate II for the Xbox, played that one through twice, and back in
the
Dreamcast days I put in hundreds of hours playing Phantasy Star Online.
So that brings us to Activison's Game Preview Event recently
held at the Clift
Hotel in San Francisco. It was there I got my eager mitts on
X-Men
Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse for the Xbox. When I walked into
the room
where all the LCD flatscreen monitors where showing the game the first
thing I
noticed where how crisp and polished the graphics looked. As I
grabbed a
controller and started to make my way through the menus one of the
Activision
reps must saw my tears joy and mentioned to me that the game was
running in
720p. Ah, that explains the wow factor. So who needs an
X360 to
play games in HD?
For those who are interested here is a
quick rundown on the controls:
Left Stick - Character Movement
Right Stick - Camera/View Angle
A - Attack Power
B - Smash Power
X - Use/Boost
Y - Jump/Xtreme
Black - Health
White - Energy
Options included:
Music Volume
Sound FX Volume
Combat Music: On/Off
View Angle: Normal/Steep/Close I found Normal the best for
me. Steep
was nearly straight down.
View Cycle: On/Off - You are able to cycle the Views on the fly
with a click of
the right stick.
View Follow: On/Off - The camera is 'smart' and will try and
give you the best
view.
View Shake: On/Off - If the 'Shake' effect bothers you switch it
off here.
Now for the X-Men fans out there I can tell you will not be
disappointed in
what Raven Studios and Activision have pulled off with this
sequel. As
you may know this time around the X-Men are joined by their arch rivals
Brotherhood to defeat the new kids on the block, Apocalypse. The
story is
quit dense and full of plot twists. Trust between this newly
formed
alliance is never fully realized as neither group is willing to loose
the upper
hand.
As with games of this type the collecting and utilization of
goodies found is
paramount and Raven has given the player plenty of options in this
regard. If you are the type of player that wants to concentrate
on the
action and does not have the time or patients to micro manage your ever
growing
inventory, then you can choose to have the game make the decisions for
you and
give out the best or most appropriate upgrades to your team. If
the
thought of letting the machine
think for you then have no worries as you can
take all the time you want and make every single decision on who gets
what and
when. It's all about having options and this game gives you that
in
spades.
The first level I played through was basically a tutorial with
hint markers
telling you how perform certain actions. If you are going at it
alone you
can switch between the four characters anytime you want. If
the one
you are controlling dies you switch to another and at certain stations you are able to revive you
fallen comrade or switch out his dead carcass for another character
from your
ever growing stable of super heroes. Making my way through this
industrial complex level, I began to notice the lighting effects, like
how a
glow of light follows you, lighting up the near environment around
you.
Now this is done a subtle way that helps create a focus around your
character
and the objects you are investigating or more likely smashing the
living crap
of. Speaking of smashing things, much of the environment
including walls
are destructible and will allow access to hidden areas and such.
The
walls in this one area I was in were dressed
a certain way that told you they were destructible if you laid down
enough
smack on them. Or you can target the desired area and give the
command to
your cohorts to do the dirty work while you sit back and puff away on
your big
boy stogie. Ok, I made that up, there is no cigar smoking in this
game. I was told they are looking into that for the next one.
Now the big selling point for me and my fellow Live gamers is
the inclusion
of Xbox Live play!! Activision listened to the fans and
this time
around added a very robust and smooth playing online experience for up
to 4
players. What I really like about this, is that you can have
players drop
in and out of your game at any time. If they have not gotten to a
certain
level in single player it makes no difference here. They will be
able to
join whoever, whenever. Now, just like when playing on the same
Xbox,
when on Live you won't be able to wander off and go at it alone.
This
game relies heavily on team play and tactics so you are tethered in a
way to
stay close by. Raven started out letting you go out further but
it ruined
the gameplay so they reined it in similar to what you would expect to
see while
playing on a single Xbox. Now with that said playing along with
another
person or three is much more compelling and fun experience that for
certain.
Now I'm sure it has become quite obvious by now I am very
enthusiastic about
this game and even though this is a preview and not a review I bet you
can
guess what game you will see me playing on Live for weeks to come
starting on
the 21st of this month. It's been a while since I have played a
game of
this type online and all I can say it's about damn time.
| 9/10/2005 Eric 'Jetson' Pfoutz |
