X-Men Legends

[TwistedArachnid]

X-Men Legends is the first game that truly lets you play the role of the X-Men how they should be played, as a team. You choose 4 heroes to tackle missions and stop Magneto from destroying the humans, but he's not the only one with plans. Along the way, you'll face another power. As for mutant customization, you'll earn experience points to by mutant abilities as well as raise your attack power, defense power, agility, and mutant powers. To make your way through the levels, you'll control one of the 4 mutants you pick for each stage, then the rest will follow you around. When things get too much for you, you can call the others from their enemies and do group attacks for more experience points. The graphics are in true comic book fashion, and the story, like The Punisher's, is superb and will keep you guessing. There are quite a few twists that I'll leave you to find. Also know, there are many stories inside of it. One follows the world and battle with Magneto and the other power I mentioned before. Another follows Wolverine and his origins. One follows Cyclops, while another follows a new recruit named Alison. There are others involved too, but don't think it feels rushed, it works them all together nicely, giving a sense of suspense and slowly unravels it all to you.

Graphics: Aren't the realism we're used to, but being based on a comic book, I wouldn't have them any other way. They replicate a comicy feeling very nicely. All the characters follow the Ultimate line and look very nice. 8/10

Story: Like I said before, it's great. Two of the greatist X-scribes wrote the stories involved and it shows. Everything weeves together nicely and keeps you interested. 10/10

Gameplay: This is the fun part, you can hand to hand, use special attacks, like using Beast or Colosus to throw Wolverine into people (going to Wolvie and hitting throw, then aim) or use your mutant attacks. Most of the walls and such are destroyable, so you can plant oponents through walls or charge up a table as Gambit, pick it up, count to about 4 and throw, and watch it explode on them. 9/10

Controls: The controls fit, with healing fighting, you hold a button to bring up a small mutant menu then you hit the button that corresponds with the picture on the menu, it's easier than I make it sound I assure you. The characters control nicely, nad it's easy to switch heroes on the fly. 10/10

Customization: Customizing is a major part of this game. You can unlock abilities like charging for Gambit, healing for Wolverine, or ice gliding for Iceman. You also get to upgrade health, defense, and such. It's simple to use if you've never played a RPG before, but indepth enough for a veteran to use too. 10/10

In my opinion, if you're only going to buy two games this year, buy X-Men Legends and The Punisher. These are definately the best comic book based games I've seen. Bringing in the original writers and focusing on the basics makes all the difference, and it shows.