Improves on the original and gives hardcore and casual fans of X-Men a lot to like.
In a move that's unprecedented in the Marvel universe, the X-Men are facing a villain so powerful that they require the aid of the Brotherhood of Mutants in order to take him down. The main villain in this story is Apocalypse, who is considered one of the strongest mutants in the entire Marvel universe. The game starts off with Magneto, Mystique, and Sabertooth teaming up with Wolverine, Cyclops, and Storm to free the imprisoned Professor Xavier in an extremely well done cutscene. After Xavier is saved, Apocalypse proceeds to destroy Genosha and the game begins. Along the way, Apocalypse kidnaps four mutants, and with the help of a crackpot scientist Mr. Sinister, he plans to extract their powers to make himself even more powerful. One of them happens to be his son, Quicksilver, which is all the motivation he needs to join up with the X-Men to stop Apocalypse.
The game is split up into five acts, which means the first four acts consist of fighting one of the Horsemen, Apocalypse's mutant henchmen, and Apocalypse awaits you in the final act. Along the way, there are many minibosses and enemies that you'll need to get passed to finish each act. While the first X-Men Legends focused on the single mutant Magma, the sequel details the partnership between the Brotherhood of Mutants and the X-Men. While Magma doesn't appear here, plenty of other mutants do, 15 to be exact from the start of the game, and there are three more to unlock later in the game. X-Men Legends contains popular favorites like Wolverine, Magneto, Cyclops, Storm, Juggernaut, and some of the lesser-known mutants like Toad, Bishop, Sunfire, scarlet Witch and others. With 15 mutants to fill out your four man squad, there are thousands of combinations to satisfy any range of tastes in mutants. In addition to the playable mutants, many will join the cast to give advice, offer their services as merchants, and even as story points.
The gameplay is pretty much the same as in the first game. You control a team of four mutants while only directly controlling one of them. Switching between them is easily done with a press of the directional pad. Puzzles require constant adjustments to solve them, such as needing Iceman or Storm to put out fires, or Magneto to build metal bridges to allow passage across gaps. However, most of your time is spent beating up bad guys and collecting items and gaining experience. As your mutants level up, you gain points to apply to stats and to gain and strengthen their mutant powers to get stronger. This can be done manually or automatically, which is up to your taste. These mutant powers are definitely something you want to pay attention to, as there are several kinds of powers, such as melee, boost, projectile, traps, and more. Though the super skills are cool to have and use, they aren't necessary to progress through the game, but they sure do help in those tough situations. The boss fights here are very fun and truly epic, so showing off your skills in an all-out clash out powers just wouldn't be as entertaining.
If having the AI control the other three mutants in your team sounds bad to you, it's not. You can customize the AI by setting parameters for using potions, aggressiveness, and what primary moves to use, and these can be done individually so that you can tailor the settings to maximize each mutant's strength. However, these don't make the AI a genius, but it makes them competent enough so that they don't hurt your team in the process. If you want to ensure the AI can't get in the way, you can try out the co-op mode and have up to three of your friends join you in the quest to stop Apocalypse. As long as you stay together and communicate well, you should have no problems at all with the camera needing to keep everyone onscreen. If anyone in the group gets stuck or lost, just hit one button and they will teleport back to the group to keep things moving along. If none of your friends are around to play, you can head online to get your X-Men fix. The PlayStation 2 version does have some lag, which when coupled with the long load times between levels and when accessing the character menu can bring a halt to the game's flow just when things get going.
The graphics aren't greatly improved over the first game, but the environments are more varied with jungles, factories, Egyptian temples, and even atop of a flying dirigible. While the levels seem huge and complex, they actually loop back together to prevent you from getting lost or stuck with a dead end very often, which is helped by the minimap on the screen. Included in every level are many kinds of destructible goodies for you to destroy, from mushrooms and statues to barrels and boxes. The environments themselves, such as walls and equipment, can be destroyed as well. Besides destroying them for your own fun, objects like furniture and boulders can be thrown at enemies or you can pick up your enemies and throw them into walls or over railings to defeat them. The system can produce plenty of entertaining moments seeing the Juggernaut plow through enemies and toss them about, it's just about what you can come up with to make sure your mutants are the last ones standing. With all of this variety, it's not enough to keep the level from feeling the same the whole way through, with puzzles that aren't overly complex or challenging. It's not a big deal since the game is all about the combat anyway. The models for the characters are fairly nice and detailed as they are cel-shaded to resemble the comics they come from.
The sound is also nice, but has nothing outstanding to add to the game. The music consists of an average orchestral score that sits nicely in the background and kicks up a notch when the tension is high. The sound effects seem muted and only consist of a few of them, meaning the same sounds for footsteps and smashing objects throughout the entire game. The voice acting is well done, though some characters sound a bit silly. Patrick Stewart does a great job as Professor Xavier, but other mutants just sound a little weird.
The only area that could've used some sprucing is the interface, The menus are filled with text and are a little sluggish to move through. It tends to become a chore to check your stats or level up your mutants as the load times are a little too long. The PlayStation 2 version actually has you endure a load screen to check the status of your party, and one to return to the action. It's quite annoying for an RPG, because stats constantly need tweaked and items need equipped as you acquire them.
Overall, X-Men Legends II is a definite improvement from the original game, but what it brings to the table isn't really new or groundbreaking. The gameplay is largely the same, but what is there is pretty good. The enlarged cast of playable mutants and the good story more than make up for any shortcomings. It should take about 25 hours for most people to finish the game, but there are different difficulty settings so that you can experience the game again with a little more challenge, or even to use characters you neglected in the first try. You don't need to have beaten the first game to jump right in here and enjoy the game. Fans of the comic book series, casual or hardcore, should have plenty of fun in X-Men Legends II.