X-Men Legends Review (Xbox)
The cornerstone of team-up superhero games, X-Men Legends still holds up today as one of the greatest superhero games ever made.
Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: 21st September 2004 (NA), 22nd October 2004 (EU), 27th January 2005 (Japan)
Platforms: Xbox, PS2, GameCube, N-Gage.
Superhero games have had a long history going as far back as 1979, rather appropriately with Superman released on the Atari 2600 which served as a tie-in to the ‘78 Christopher Reeve film. Since then we have had a plethora of superhero games. Some have been incredible and some have been… better off less spoken of. X-Men Legends, however, deserves to be spoken more about and praised highly.
In the early 2000’s, X-Men saw a huge surge in popularity. On July 2000, the first live action X-Men film was released and its sequel X2 followed in May 2003. Marvel had started publishing its Ultimate universe line of comics with Ultimate X-Men published in Februrary 2001 written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Adam Kubert. Grant Morrison was writing New X-Men with art by Frank Quitely in the main Marvel universe published May 2001. The main series of X-Men was going through its Ages of Apocalypse event in 2000. And on TV, X-Men Evolution aired from November 2000 to October 2003 after 4 seasons.
In video games, X-Men Mutant Academy was released on July 2000 on the PlayStation and GameBoy Colour, a 2.5D fighting game that had two sequels following it; Mutant Academy 2 on PlayStation (which is so nicely done) released in September 2001 and Next Dimension on the PS2 released October/November 2002. The GBC also saw two other games released on it; Mutant Wars and Reign of Apocalypse released November 2000 and September/October 2001 respectively.
The X-Men were everywhere in every possible medium. They were flourishing probably bigger than they had ever done. So, how could they possibly do something even better with Marvel’s mutants?
Raven Software (long before they became CoD tech support and were a functioning games development studio) were known for developing PC games having developed the astounding Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast and its sequel Jedi Academy in the early 2000’s. They wanted to expand into console game development and settled on an X-Men RPG for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. Their main goal for the game was to be able to control a team, as is faithful to the X-Men comics. Initially they developed it as a Final Fantasy-type with turn-based combat but felt it took away from playing as the characters fully and utilising their mutant powers. After some experimenting with different game styles, it developed into a dungeon crawler-type with single player or four player co-op gameplay with different classes for each mutant. Raven Software had cracked the formula that would create the perfect video game archetype for superhero team-ups to come, becoming the strong foundation of which future Marvel team-up games would be built upon and still be carried on with up until Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, 15 years later.
As a result of this, Raven Software created the best superhero game at that point. X-Men legends is a phenominal game that still holds up incredibly well today, not just as a superhero game but as a game entirely. Their focus on controlling a team built with a diverse set of characters with different power types and varying gameplay styles created a versatile way for you to play. And it makes everything different on every playthrough. I mean, sure, there are some instances where you could repeat the same decisions you made on a previous playthrough, such as how you level up your heroes or what team you want to stick with, but personally I found that on every playthrough I played around with other characters more and got better at using them, I got smarter at levelling my X-Men up and cleverer at using gear items to equip to what hero.
In X-Men Legends, the story follows Alison Crestmere, a young mutant with the ability to control volcanic activity. After being abducted by the anti-mutant Genetic Research and Security Organisation and an encounter with Mystique, Blob and the Brotherhood of Mutants, Alison is rescued by Cyclops and Wolverine. They take her back to the X-Mansion and help train her to use her powers. As the story progresses, Alison continues to train with the X-Men, eventually adopting the name Magma, and becoming a fully playable character on your team. Meanwhile, General William Kincaid plans to create mutant hunting Sentinels while the Brotherhood of Mutants breaks out Magneto (voiced by the incomparable Tony Jay) from his imprisonment on the U.S.S. Arbiter who himself plans to retreat to Asteroid M, blanket the Earth in darkness with asteroids and hold those oppressors over mutantkind and the world hostage until his demands are met; that of all anti-mutant organisations terminated, Genosha made a soverign nation, and William Kincaid handed over to Magneto to stand trial under mutant law. Elsewhere, the Shadow King imprisons Illyana Rasputin’s (Magik) mind in the astral plane prompting Professor X, Jean Grey and Emma Frost to save her.
While the characters look like their Ultimate universe counterparts, the game isn’t set in that Marvel universe at all. X-Men Legends draws on from the Ultimate universe, the original comics and even the 2000 film, the X-Basement’s design is taken straight from it. In fact the X-Men Legends games has its own designated universe within the Marvel multiverse - Earth-7964.
Throughout you end up going to varying recognisable locations within the X-Men lore; Weapon X facility, the Morlock Caverns, Asteroid M and of course around the X-Mansion and in the Danger Room.
Your initial playable mutants are Iceman, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm and Rogue, eventually unlocking Magma once her training is complete, Jubilee, Beast, Nightcrawler, Gambit, Emma Frost, Colossus and Psylocke. Professor X is playable while in the Astral Plane and you can unlock Magneto after completing the game but he’s only usable in vs mode (don’t worry, they both become main playable characters in the next game). Completing the game also unlocks a slew of unlockable costumes for each character to change into on a consecutive playthrough.
Playing as every character is an absolute joy and each one stands on their own wonderfully as complete powerhouses. Even those with similar abilities (Rogue and Colossus being tank bruisers and Jean and Emma being telepaths) they still stand apart from each other because of their unique powers. You can level up as high as level 40 and by that point you will have leveled up your favourite mutants to become damn near unstoppable. Though I don’t think you can level up everything completely, so you have to be a little careful and selective on how you want your mutants to be and what you want to concentrate on. I leveled up Storm’s electric bolt attack completely to a legendary attack and it became, I think, the most powerful move in the game knocking everyone out in one hit. Jean’s powers make her appropriately the most devastatingly powerful telekinetic in the game along with her phoenix powers. Wolverine is an absolute savage who shreds everything in his path. Cyclops devastates all with his heat vision— I mean concussive eye blasts from the punch dimension while bolstering the team’s stats.
No matter which character you pick out of the 14 available, you’re going to have a really good time controlling them. Once you get them all unlocked you can pick and choose all of your favourites and stick with that until the very end if you really wanted, but guaranteed you’re going to try out every character at least once. That was a deliberate design choice by Raven. Sometimes you don’t have a choice either, such as character specific missions in the Danger Room or flashback missions. Some missions Jean is locked out for one reason or another due to plot and you have to play as Professor X, Jean and Emma in the Astral Plane (until later on due to A Thing).
Each character has 4 different powers to use - two main attack powers ranging from melee, radial or projectile, a support power, and an xtreme power. Some powers can be used in combination with other character’s powers granting a combo stat resulting in more damage and extra exp in defeating an enemy. Using the R trigger with the face buttons uses your mutant powers. Your main attacks are light and heavy attacks with a grab for enemies or objects. You can combo attacks with a triple hit, knockback, pop up, trip and stun. The D-pad switches which of your four heroes you’re controlling and L trigger calls your allies for aid. Black button uses a health pack and White uses an energy pack to restore energy for your mutant powers.
There’s varying enemy types from your bruisers to projectile throwers and, of course, Sentinels to dismantle. As you go on, enemies can be resistant to certain types of attack such as energy, physical and mental resistances, sometimes resistant to two types at once. So, if you’re using Jean and going up against an enemy who’s mentally resistant or Juggernaut who has multiple resistances you’re going to have a tricky time, unless you use a character who can exploit what they’re not resistant to, clearly.
The main hub of the game is the X-Mansion. As Alison you have complete freedom to roam about inside and out. There’s the top floor with the dorms giving you access into each X-Man’s room to nosey around and interact with, bottom floor with all the classrooms and recrooms, the X-Basement below accessed through the main elevator or one of the various secret elevators, and an outside area with a giant swimming pool and courts.
Throughout the game you can find concept art you can view in Colossus’s room that serve as his artwork, almost, giving more function to his room. You can also find Danger Room discs throughout each level. These unlock Danger Room scenarios under 6 tiers - Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, X-Man and Legend. Completing each one rewards experience, gear and stat points. Naturally each tier gets harder and harder and each has specific missions for each hero which rewards hero specific gear upon completion. You can also play flashback missions through conversations, such as Wolverine fighting through the Weapon X facility, the new X-Men facing off against the original Sentinels, or when the original X-Men fought Juggernaut in the X-Mansion, complete with original costumes.
I found by the time you get to the Morlock caverns the difficult seems to spike a little sharply and then again a little in the Sentinel flashback mission and then during final battle against Master Mold, but other than those instances the whole game is fairly paced and challenging for how quick you level up your heroes and progress. You’re rarely in short supply of health and energy packs so if you’re caught in a difficult battle and end up using all of your packs you’re sure to pick up enough in the next room to replenish all you lost. Even if you’re short on levels and experience you can grind through the Danger Room levels to make sure you’re really strong enough to face Master Mold in the end.
As simply laid out as this game is, there is so much going on for it with so much to do. By the time I complete it I end up spending around 24-26 hours of gameplay on it. One thing I wish was a feature, though glad it is in Rise of Apocalypse, is while you can start a new game with unlocked costumes you can’t play through with fully levelled up heroes. You have to start all over again from level 1. Which isn’t bad, it’s playing through the game as designed and it’s no different to any Final Fantasy game, but I think it would’ve been so satisfying to go through the game a second or third time, knowing exactly what to do and how to do it and zapping your way through the game with Storm’s legendary electric bolt.
X-Men Legends set the precedent and laid out the groundwork on what works best in a superhero team-up game. It is the seminal work that started off a superhero game genre that was carried on in its sequel Rise of Apocalypse, perfected even further in Marvel Ultimate Alliance and continued on today in UA3. It is a finely crafted game that respects and builds upon the X-Men universe and discovered something new to do with superheroes that is thoroughly enjoyable. It is a game type that should have been exploited even further in other games, for example especially in a Justice League game. I mean, can you imagine a Justice League game that plays like X-Men Legends or Ultimate Alliance? A horde of DC’s finest heroes (and villains too why not) to play with in a team of four going up against its incredible cast of villains. The DC universe is engrossingly rich to exploit for that. Choose Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Flash in a team to beat up Brainiac, Parasite, Joker, Captain Cold, Ares etc. Why did Warner Bros. never make a game where you could create a whole team of DC heroes like that and the Justice League to stop an invading threat from Darkseid? And all the other DC universe villains making things difficult too. Hell, why not loosely adapt Crisis on Infinite Earths for it? Injustice League? Blackest Night? That is a hugely missed opportunity and they have the perfect gameplay style to use to do it! There was a Justice League game a little like it but it just didn’t work. That is my dream game but unfortunately only Marvel has utilised the dungeon crawler RPG gameplay for superheroes. And there’s nothing stopping Warner Bros. from doing it either…
But X-Men Legends is a fantastic game through and through. Incredible characters, gameplay, levels, design, sound and music. Thoroughly enjoyable to play solo or co-op; its co-op especially is so much fun if you’re playing with three others— each one just pick your favourite mutant and go for it. Some might find it a touch aged, but there’s nothing wrong with this game to still play today.
Where to buy:
Amazon: £6.15 - £20/ $8 - $70
Ebay: £4.50 - £15/ $3.75 - $200
CeX: £1- £10