December 15, 2005 - It should be a given that any developer willing to pay top dollar for a high profile game license (Film, TV, Comics) will do the source material justice, not to mention, will give rabid fans enough to sink their teeth into. Unfortunately, as we’ve all seen, this is rarely the case. Yes, the visuals may look very lifelike or the soundtrack will have echoes of something oft-remembered or the neighborhood will seem familiar and such, but nine out of ten times we are disappointed because our expectations of things we seemingly know and love are generally higher than what we are presented with. Rarely are we given a Goldeneye 64 or a Knights of the Old Republic or a Baldur’s Gate and more often than not we are left with Superman 64 or Charlie’s Angels to play (or MTV Celebrity Deathmatch, Fight Club, Bad Boys, Knight Rider, Predator, need I go on?). Thankfully, Activision has taken this dilemma to heart and has produced some of the greatest superhero games of recent memory cementing its status as a company who understands Marvel’s universe/characters and is willing to take chances in bringing them to us in a playable format.

The original X-Men Legends game took many by surprise, me included. Released at a time when Spider-Man 2 was making waves with its fully three-dimensional New York City to swing around in, I half expected X-Men Legends to be more akin to what became of Fantastic Four than what Raven Software created. The top-down beat ‘em up trappings threw me for a loop, but Legends still proved to be one of the greatest games I’d ever had the pleasure of playing; not only because it gave me free reign with the X-Men universe and allowed me to tweak and prod all of my favorite superhero powers, but because it was fun to play, imaginative and bursting at the seams with new ideas. Now, a year later, Raven Software and Activision return to give us a sequel that may look and play similar to Legends, but is actually (and without question) a better game all around.

The first thing to note about Legends II is that it takes a lot of the familiarity of the first game (and also of the series in general) and throws it out the window. From the moment the opening cinematic begins, you know that things are going to be different. Two armed guards stand tall in a blizzard-like setting defending a high security compound. Behind them the screws are starting to buckle and finally fall out of the door. They turn to look as Magneto descends from the heavens and Mystique and Sabretooth emerge from the distance. Havoc ensues as the trio enters the building. Bullets are wasted, guards are thrown about here and there and finally, when all seems hopeless, we see Wolverine, Storm and Cyclops standing in their way. A beat passes and Cyclops asks if this “Is the way?“ A chill runs down the spine of gamers/comic book aficionados everywhere as we realize that the X-Men and the Brotherhood are now working together. And everything from this moment on is pure gaming bliss. Not only can we play as our favorite good-guys, but now, finally, we can play as our favorite evil-doers too.

The game plays exactly like the original Legends; you control one of four mutants at a time (from a top-down perspective) in various environments that have plenty of guards to dispatch, items to smash/collect and experience points to rack up. You can use melee attacks and combos, but the fun comes from unleashing your superpowers unto your enemies. In this iteration, the X-Mansion is no more and you instead have access to five bases scattered around the work out of. In these bases you will have an incredible amount of things to see and do. You can play the trivia game, review missions with Professor Xavier, play Danger Room games/training, buy items and upgrades, swap characters and tweak them as you see fit, review your progress and unlockables in each act (cinematics, concept art, loading screens, comic book covers, Ironman’s armor, etc), talk to various characters and take on missions.