Xmen: Legends (XBox)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 23, 2004, 1:04 pm

This new Xmen game was officially released Tuesday. I'm always skeptical of games adapted from comics but this one has been fun to play so far.

My attention span is severely lacking when it comes to console games so they have to be excellent to keep me playing. I ended up playing XMen Legends a few hours last night so that's a good sign.

1. The controls are very well set up. It's easy to switch attacks or mutant attacks or switch between team members.

2. There's quite a bit of character building you can do as you level your Xmen up. Multiple powers and abilities that you can use your XP points to develop.

3. There are 13 Xmen you can play altogether and you can play 4 on screen at once using the directional keypad to quickly switch between them (with autopilot mode for the three you're not controlling) and you can also change the 4 active XMen (if you have others available on the mission).

4. The missions are against all named, popular Xmen villains...I took down Mystique and the Blob on my initial mission before making it to Xaviers Mansion.

5. The voice acting is pretty good. Xavier sounds great, the others aren't too bad.

The game eases you into it with a start off mission to rescue Alison (newbie mutant) from the Brotherhood. Blob has taken her...Wolverine chases the Blob through New York and there's plenty of tips to help you learn the controls during the mission. After the initial mission success, you're taken to Xaviers mansion...in the game, you sort of play the role of the new mutant Alison who controls the earth (lava, transformation into rock beast thingy, etc). You then are free to explore Xaviers mansion and the basement with all the secret Xmen stuff like the dangeroom etc.

This game is very well polished with the comic geek in mind with nice loading splash screens and comics you can find along missions to view at Xaviers mansion later along with sketch art, intro movies etc. It looks great in widescreen HD.

So far I've only played Wolverine and Cylops although I started a mission with Beast, Rogue, Wolverine and Jean Grey before checking out Star Wars Battlefront a bit.

This game is worth checking out if you like action/rpg with some well polished depth and extra things to do like practice in the danger room, etc. The combination of 13 mutants eventually at your disposal with 5 or 6 separate powers to level up along with secondary powers and normal ability stats to increase, and items to buy from Forge and lots of recognizable villains makes this game a winner so far for me.

I don't know how long the game is but is appears like it's going to take quite awhile to finish as there's plenty of leveling up to do for each character.

TheDarkreigns · Post by **TheDarkreigns** » September 23, 2004, 2:17 pm

I've been reading reviews like that on tons websites...I'm thinking of picking it up but I might just rent it first and test it out just in case.

Fable is the first game I bought without even testing in a long time....don't get me wrong I think it's a good game but I don't think it was worth what I spent on it.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 23, 2004, 2:34 pm

TheDarkreigns wrote:I've been reading reviews like that on tons websites...I'm thinking of picking it up but I might just rent it first and test it out just in case.

Fable is the first game I bought without even testing in a long time....don't get me wrong I think it's a good game but I don't think it was worth what I spent on it.

Yes, I'd recommend renting it first. Gameplay opinions are extremely subjective.

Farrel · Post by **Farrel** » September 25, 2004, 5:09 am

Played this for a few (unexpected) hours with my roomates this past evening. The controls and birds-eye view may take a few mins to get used to, and you have to try and adjust to the comic book look, but overall its not bad. Once you get the hang of things, its easy to get the "I have to keep playing" momentum going. I found myself only wanting to play as Wolverine. The others were alright, but just ripping into the "insurgents" with his Logan-like dialogue made it all the more sweeter.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 25, 2004, 4:31 pm

Farrel wrote:Played this for a few (unexpected) hours with my roomates this past evening. The controls and birds-eye view may take a few mins to get used to, and you have to try and adjust to the comic book look, but overall its not bad. Once you get the hang of things, its easy to get the "I have to keep playing" momentum going. I found myself only wanting to play as Wolverine. The others were alright, but just ripping into the "insurgents" with his Logan-like dialogue made it all the more sweeter.

Yeah, it seems easier to play a melee type and let the others do their thing on autopilot. Haven't had the chance to play much but all i've been doing so far is increasing Wolverines claw damage. I need to change the heal option to auto. Cylcops is such a wuss, he kicks the bucket if not autohealed constantly in large battles. I don't see what Jean Grey sees in him!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 29, 2004, 2:40 pm

This game kicks serious ass.

Huge props to Raven for putting this game together. Here's what makes it so good:

-14 playable mutants with very customizable abilities.
-leveling up all the way past 50+ while continuing to improve abilities.
-lot of enhancement items to equip in armor, power and ability slots.
-The ability to choose between the multiple characters with many ways to solve the challenges on the missions.
-lots of crap thats movable, throwable, destroyable in the game. Rogue picking up a snowmobile and throwing it...or picking up Wolverine and throwing him at the enemy rocks. (fastball special)
-Power Combos for bonus damage (two mutants use their abilities at once, etc)
-Being able to use Nightcrawler's teleportation skill without ruining the game. It's perfect.
-Deep deep storyline with the creators knowing the entire history of the XMen and taking advantage of that with flashback missions complete with original costumes of the uncanny xmen and also the original xmen. Battling the Sentinels in NewYork in a flashback is aweseome...also a flashback of Wolverine escaping Alkali Lake after being injected with the metal.
-Lots of training in the danger room and leveling up there if you need to.
-Free roaming ability in Xavier Mansion and the ability to play Xmen trivia for XP, see artwork, comic covers, unlock costumes, access databases on mutant and villain bios.
-Missions are flexible with Xtraction points where you can change out your team. Although the primary 4 you take on missions get the most XP, the other playable mutants slowly level up even if not played so you can used them without a ton of level difference.
-AI for the 3 mutants you're not playing is great and you can set which ability for the AI to primarily use. It's also very quick and easy to switch between the 4 mutants on screen if you need to use a special ability or make an Ice Bridge with Bobby for example or Fly across something with Storm.

I haven't gotten anywhere near the end, but I understand after you win, you can go to the danger room and select any "atmosphere" from your previous missions and also play as the bad guys against the xmen.

This game kicks serious ass with great potential for replayability with 14 mutants to mess around with. If you win and start over, you do have to start at level 1 again which sucks in a way but makes sense since the enemy levels are set for the sequence you level up in the game.

Great game in the tradition of something like Baldurs Gate with the added huge resources of the entire history of the xmen.

I'm currently using Storm, Jean Grey, Magma (although Iceman would work in this slot as well), and Wolverine.

Storm has an area effect whirlwind ability that is great crowd control while Jean Grey has a nasty psionic scream which combines for a powerful AE combo and then Wolverine and Magma have big time mellee attacks to mop up. Magma is also a good utility player for making laval bridges, etc (She's an Iceman dupe basically but is the main character you follow around as she's introduced to the xmen in the storyline so I decided to stick with her..plus she kicks ass in lavaform) I bring Nightcrawler along on certain missions that have lots of power fields that you can't get by without Nighcrawler...or it would be much harder to by going another route. I've used Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee and Beast as well. Storm or Cyclops is good to have on your team for the leadership bonus Xp or combo damage abilites.

This is the first game I've seen that handled superhero powers in a great way. The game is amazingly balanced considering the diversity in powers between the mutants. There is a good deal of voiceover work as well that is all high quality with some of the mutants actually having the actors from the movie (Xavier being one)

If you've been looking for a good game based on a comicbook like I have for many years, this is one to check out.

Farrel · Post by **Farrel** » September 29, 2004, 6:42 pm

Ive been meaning to write a follow-up to my inital post. Since Winnow has everything pretty much covered, Ill just state that this is possibly the best comic-book-based game Ive ever played.

10/10 for X-Men fans.
8/10 for the rest.

Sabek · Post by **Sabek** » September 30, 2004, 9:21 am

Picked this up last night and played through the first two missions. Would have to agree with what Winnow and the others have said. Definitely a great game.

I really enjoyed the flashbacks to story lines from the old Xmen comics, and seeing them in their old unis during the flashbacks.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » October 1, 2004, 2:18 pm

theres 15 characters acutally, 2 are unlockable, and you can level up to 99

noel · Post by **noel** » October 1, 2004, 2:21 pm

Strag, who are the two unlockables?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » October 1, 2004, 4:12 pm

The last few you get (playable) are Psylock and Professor X.

I'm kind of bummed Illyana (Magik) isn't playable. She makes an appearance with her brother though.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » October 7, 2004, 2:28 am

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » October 10, 2004, 4:35 am

Whoever did testing on this game was a lazy ass. You die to random pathing crap a lot and the balance is way off. Jean Grey, for example, could probably solo the entire game once she gets her AE psychic attack up high enough. My gf and I call it the Snuffatron. Someone should have done the math and realized that that attack costs less energy and when fully titted out deals nearly twice the damage per target of every other top AE attack in the game. It also goes through walls, which make all the protection Dangeroom missions a joke when you have the Snuffatron on hand. No grunt has managed to survive a single Snuffatron and the Psi resistant enemies get a ton of penalties to their attacks while they wait for the second Snuffatron that will surely kill them. And as if that were not enough, because her TK damage bonus stacks with her psychic mele, she is actually more damaging in mele than anyone else too. And on top of that, her TK attack even in its basic level one form can toss enemies over cliffs or even just into each other for massive damage. Even Sentinals quake in fear as her ariel mele is the best in the game and she can demolish them despite their psi resistance. I have fun playing her, but they went a little over board with her powers.

Beast's AE kick is fairly ridiculous too. Basically, a lot of characters can take power boosts for their mele and that damage dwarfs what anyone using a zappy power can manage (except of course Jean Grey, Ms Assrape incarnite) and in fact the only reason to take a zappy power is either because you are capable of welding/making platforms (read Storm, Iceman) or you are a one trick pony with no mele boosting powers (read Jubilee, Penisclops). So what this means is that the most damaging mele characters are, in order of dps: Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Magma, Iceman, Wolverine, Rogue, Psyloch, Colosus, and so on from there. Obviously Emma Frost tearing Wolverine a new asshole in a fistfight would not fit into the Marvel concept too well.

Those bitches aside, this is a first rate game, especially when played in multiplayer on a wide screen. It is probably the best action RPG out there at the moment.

Characters, in order of preference:

Jean Grey- Only time you wouldn't use her is if you were not allowed or were expecting all sentinals. She is so far above the other characters in power that you will wonder how they manage to take a piss without her direct assistance.

Beast- When you build your AE carnage team, this is the guy to take. Dont bother with pinball, his little helecopter kick is the second best AE in the game.

Magma- Ignore all of her ranged attacks, they suck dick. Just max out her lava form and all of her mele bonuses and watch her pound the crap out of everything in sight.

Storm- Maxed out chain lightning and tornado make her the only blaster worth playing. Whenever I need a welder, shes on the team.

Wolverine- His single target claw super makes him really good against bosses and the fact that he regenerates lets you be stingy on heal potions in certain missions. My gf insists on playing him constantly, but imo Beast is better because of his AE kick and acrobatics.

Emma Frost- With her psi mele and maxed out diamond body bonuses, she can lay the smack down. Her confuse power is semi useful, but basically she is a hand to hand monster. Her only problems are that she has no other uses (no AE damage and no weld/bridge ability) and shes pretty weak against mental resistant enemies. Basically, don't use her on the sentinal missions.

Psyloch- No AE, but her single target and multi target attacks are pretty damn good when leveled up, which they will be by the time you get her. Like Emma, she sucks against psi resistant enemies (which Jean Greys even half damage snuffatron overpowers). Unlike Emma, she cannot take a prolonged beating.

Nightcrawler- This is a guy you put in when fighting things that one shot people, like sentinals. His save my buddy power and TP my pals ability are incredibly useful in those situations. Don't bother with more than the basic single target TP attack. Get his AE TP furry and all the critical hit boosters maxed out and let the computer play him. Basically, he is a situational character, but really pivitol in those instances.

Rogue- She does pretty descent hand to hand damage once you max out might. Her defensive buff is the second best of its kind. While she has no AE to speak of, her power drain attack fucks mosts bosses right in the ass. Her ariel mele is pretty powerful as well. Finally, she can lift the heaviest things in the game which comes in handy in certain spots.

Jubilee- Her little exploder things are nasty when maxed out. Unfortunately, she has sucky defense and is only really useful when making an AE team. Also, until she gets high enough to at least max out her main attack, shes not useful, so leave her ass on the bench sponging XP until about 26 or so.

Iceman- He does descent mele, when powered up. He also has descent defense and a nice ranged attack. Unfortunately, he is not the best at anything, so the only time you will ever use him is when you need bridges and you are not using Jean Grey. This happens exactly twice.

Now, the bottom three:

Collosus- What a piece of shit. His basic hand to hand attacks are worse than everyone higher on this list except Jubilee. His only means of dishing out damage is his basic power punch, which does great damage...... the three times you can do it before he drains his pathetic energy bar dry. His AE is pathetic and his defensive power, while strong, pretty much ties up his energy to maintain. They really should have given this guy the Might power.

Penisclopse- Not only does this character have the most annoying voice acting, but he is a one dimensional slave to his energy bar. I am convinced that the reason they made a mission with him as a mandatory character is that no one would ever play him, otherwise. His single target eyebeam, when maxed out, does less damage than the Snuffatron. Once you are out of energy, you are left with single digit damage punches and the worst defensive power in the game. He is useful in only one circumstance: When you are fighting Sentinals and you need a spare welder in case Storm and/or Magma croak.

Gambit- Rock bottom piece of shit. None of his powers fit together well, because of how basic attacks alternate between staff and punch/kick hits. His ranged attacks are the absolute worst in the game and he has no defense to speak of. You will only use him for his Danger Room challange and when rubbing your nuts against a cheese grater is not enough agony for you.

Sample teams-

Single Target Beatdown Team- Wolverine, Rogue, Emma Frost, Magma
(useful early in the game and against mixed enemies)

AE Carnage team- Jean Grey, Jubilee, Beast, Storm
(Use against hoards of pukes or survival/protect missions)

I hate myself Team- Penisclops, Collosus, Gambit, Iceman
(use when you want to laugh at how fast you got your ass kicked)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » October 10, 2004, 5:18 am

Jean Grey could solo the game if she had the power to weld. Storm is the only one that can solo the game due to her having all the powers needed for the unique welding type challenges, flying, moving objects etc.

There's no doubt Jean is overpowered but you can always just not take her on the team to make it more challenging. Magma is similar to Iceman but I prefer Magmas lavaform over Iceman.

I know what you mean about the pathing..it's most apparent when a team member gets bumped off the side of a bridge.

This is a first rate game even with the small issues.

77 Stragi? Sheesh! I haven't had the chance to play much with the beta test going on. I'm looking forward to finishing this game soon though.

Sheryl · Post by **Sheryl** » October 10, 2004, 9:22 am

i am so fucking pissed at how pussy gambit is. for whatever wacko reason, he used to be my favorite character, so i was like HELL YES GAMBIT. but after continuously being owned by sentinals i said fuck this shit and switched to storm, who is a blast so far.

there are a lot of characters who don't suck and the game is a lot of fun.

just avoid gambit at all costs. and cyclops, who is a total wanker.

also, yelling at the tv helps when your dumbass teammates are blocking a doorway and/or shove you off a bridge when the camera angle auto-rotates.