Level Up: X-men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse

Once again I am here to celebrate Canada Day with an X-men game. Last year I talked about X-men Legends, so it only makes sense that this year I review it’s sequel. However, before I start on that, I want to comment on something I said in the first year of Level Up. Since this is a game again published by Activision, I want to talk about how Activision was my favorite gaming company. There WAS a time where I thought they were doing great (for most of the 6th generation in fact). However, there was a noticable change during the last generation. They used to release a variety of games, but it started slowing down and X-men Destiny seemed to killed it. I’m not exaggerating when I say I can’t remember the last e-mail sent that wasn’t about a shooter or Skylanders game. They did just release the Deadpool game and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is set to come out, but it seems like big exceptions to their normal “shooters n guns” releases, rather than the mixed bag I think it used to be. Regardless, here’s one of their games that was part of a great series they published (with developers Raven Software and SuperVillain Studios): X-men Legends 2 - Rise of Apocalypse, available for the PS2, GameCube and PC, but I’ll be playing it on the Microsoft xBox.

The gameplay is quite similar to the last game. For those of you that need a refresher or haven’t listened to that one, here’s a recap. The game is basically an action-RPG where you use parties of four people and fight brawler style with each player able to actively control one person. You have your basic light and heavy attacks, and you can use mutant powers by pressing the R button and pressing one of the main buttons (this uses energy though). You gain experience with each person you fight and, once you level up, you can allocate points to make your character stronger. You can also equip items to them to help their stats and you cary a number of health and energy potions you can use at any time. You also collect money, which can be used to buy equipment or potion, as well as revive fallen x-men (otherwise, they stay down, but still gain experience). Caught up? Good, because there isn’t that much changed between games. Most of the mechanics have been balanced out though, and there are more mutants and abilities allowing for more variation.

In the last game, the X-men had faced off against Magneto, and though he’s their main villain, another game where he basically just went “I’m trying to destroy the world again” would have been kind of lame. This time, the main villain is Apocalypse, who decided that the “Age of Apocalypse” is at hand and starts kidnapping mutants for unknown reasons. However this time you don’t just get to play as the X-men, but also as members of the brotherhood, as they are trying to save their members and stop Apocalypse from enslaving all of mutant kind too.

This is played out rather well. The game starts out partially in medias res, so it immediately intrigues you to see Magneto and Wolverine working to free Professor X, and you’ll want to figure out what is going on. That being said, the ending is not all that satisfying, as it basically boils down to a fight, and then “back to the status quo!”

X-men Legends 2 is, in a way, a very typical sequel video game. It pretty much uses the same game play mechanics, the same characters, a continuation of the story, etc... but offers more of it. In a way, I can’t praise it much, because it only really did what was expected from it and didn’t take many risks. On the other hand, it IS still better than the last game, and the story shows significant improvement with the new direction they decided to take. The graphics aren’t noticeably better though (still fine... from a distance) and the voice acting has it’s ups and downs (though Josh Keaton playing  Cyclops is  BIG up!). Basically, what I’m getting at is, if you liked the last game, you’ll like this one too, but if weren’t a fan of it, this one won’t win you over either. I give X-men Legends 2 for the xBox 8.5 levels out of 10.