X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

(CAUTION: Contains Spoilers)

I'll be frank: This is a totally biased review. I'm so in love with this series that even X-Men Legend's linear format (which meant that you had to search through every single area or risk missing that all-important qualifying exam "Danger Room Disc") didn't really phase me. However, I'll try my best to make this look like it's somewhat balanced.

The most interesting inprovement from the first Legends to this one is fairly predictable for most gamers. That's right, they pumped up the graphics. And while better graphics are a good thing, It really doesn't matter to me at this point.

However, the sound quality does impress me somewhat. In the first game, you'd have a really loud line followed by an almost muted line. In "II" it corrected that mistake... but I'm not sure the voice actors themselves are in any way better. For instance, every time I hear Iceman say ANYTHING, I remember all the hours I spent listening to Tidus whine on FFX. I realize it's the same guy but... couldn't he have toned down the whineyness for "Rise of Apocalypse"?

The storyline is... pretty mediocre. For the comic-ignorant populace I guess it's pretty interesting, but for us 1337 comic geeks, It's just a rehash of about a dozen Apocalypse tales all in one shiney package. And not the cool parts, like Wolverine becoming Death, NOOOOOOO.... the rediculously overdone parts, like (SPOILER ALERT) Dark Beast, Archangel and Sinister betraying Apocalypse (SPOILER END)

It's almost enough to make me break down into tears.

On the plus side though, with II you get a more fleshed out team, sacrificing horrible characters like Emma Frost (Cleavage aside perverts, she sucked as a playable character) for cool characters like Magneto, Bishop, and Toad (No, seriously, I kick serious butt with Toad in II), while keeping good ones like Iceman and Colossus. I'm slightly dissapointed that they chose drunk-boy Iron-Man as a secret characterover some cooler character like Captain America, but I'll take what I can get.

I won't delve into music too much, since it didn't really change in a noticeable fashion, but I thought I'd mention it just to get music-freaks off my back.

As for the boss fights... much better, in my opinion. Not because you have to actually think ((Oh please, like they'd put in that kind of time)) or even in spite of it... but this time around, the bosses don't steal your Super-attack coins ((No, seriously, that actually happened to me in the first one)). Yay us

And finally, a big horah to Activision for fixing the evil linearness this time around. May it never return

4 star(s) out of 5

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