Dan Reviews X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse!
So I know that you are all looking forward to the next part of my Marvel vs. DC, but not today. Don't worry, be happy, we'll get back to it right after this.
This kind of even fits in, but not really.
For those of you who didn't know, I just got back from a week off. A week which was spent almost entirely playing X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse. Now I haven't quite finished it yet, more due to my own stupid mistakes and poor saving on my part than length of the game, so this is not a full review. Though it does seem to be longer then I thought it would be for this type of game.
There are five acts, each with about 5-6 stages per act that I have seen. Gameplay is almost exactly the same as the first, which is fine, you can jump right into the action. There is still a Danger Room for you to hone your skills in, but I have really just been using that to level up my unused characters. And characters? Well there are a few. The idea is that the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and the X-Men have to team up to stop Apocalypse from taking over the world, so you get everyone right from the start: Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Iceman, Rouge, Nightcrawler, Sunfire, Colossus, Juggernaut, Magneto, Toad, and Scarlet Witch. So it starts you off in fine style, with Deadpool, Iron Man, and Professor X making up the unlockables.
As you progress you also get some very nice costumes for your mutants. After starting with the Ultimate costumes I was relieved when I saw Giant Size X-Men #1 costumes as well as their Astonishing X-Men and new Uncanny outfits. On the third act you get the much desired Age of Apocalypse costumes. Not so much desired for their looks, though this Iceman is a badass, AoA costumes give your characters +100% to their attack rating. Other combinations include Femme Fatale (4 women), New X-Men (any four from GSX #1), and Old School (Prof X, Mags, Cyke, and Bobby).
An aside, if you didn't know who those last four were, you shouldn't be playing this game.
Now I stuck with the AoA costumes for obvious reasons, but also for the fact that the story IS Age of Apocalypse Ultimate style. While not set in the AoA, Ultimate, or "regular" universe, it is a good blend of the three. In the first act Apocalypse takes out Magneto's mutant paradise of Genosa and your job is rescue survivors and stop the first Horseman, Abyss. The second act is set in the Savage Land where you stop Mikhail Rasputin, the second Horseman, from stealing the advanced weather control tech that keeps the Savage Land going. In the third act you must destroy the Infinite processing facility where Mr. Sinister grows Apocalypse's soldiers, and a nuclear facility called the Core where they get all their power.
These installations are guarded by the third Horseman, Holocaust, and the Sugarman respectively. Sugarman is the one from AoA though, so that's a little confusing. Right now I am at the start of the fourth act, in which I have to destroy the newly completed Atlantic sea wall defenses just like in AoA. Ultimate Nick Fury just showed up with a bunch of Sentinels and SHIELD agents to help out, but of course the Sentinels get co-opted by Bastion almost as soon as they show, so that didn't really help at all. But I'll tell ya, those SHIELD agents are a bunch of tough SOB's. Four or five of them can take out a Sentinel faster then Wolverine. And that's fast!
With a few major improvements over the first, more characters and easier character management, this game is an incredible amount of fun for any X-Men fan. Watch out for the trivia game in the home base too, it's not too tough if you're a long time fan, but even I missed a couple. Apparently I can't tell you exactly which issue of Uncanny Juggernaut made his first appearance in, or what year it was. I shall now go and hang my head in shame.
This kind of even fits in, but not really.
For those of you who didn't know, I just got back from a week off. A week which was spent almost entirely playing X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse. Now I haven't quite finished it yet, more due to my own stupid mistakes and poor saving on my part than length of the game, so this is not a full review. Though it does seem to be longer then I thought it would be for this type of game.
There are five acts, each with about 5-6 stages per act that I have seen. Gameplay is almost exactly the same as the first, which is fine, you can jump right into the action. There is still a Danger Room for you to hone your skills in, but I have really just been using that to level up my unused characters. And characters? Well there are a few. The idea is that the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and the X-Men have to team up to stop Apocalypse from taking over the world, so you get everyone right from the start: Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Iceman, Rouge, Nightcrawler, Sunfire, Colossus, Juggernaut, Magneto, Toad, and Scarlet Witch. So it starts you off in fine style, with Deadpool, Iron Man, and Professor X making up the unlockables.
As you progress you also get some very nice costumes for your mutants. After starting with the Ultimate costumes I was relieved when I saw Giant Size X-Men #1 costumes as well as their Astonishing X-Men and new Uncanny outfits. On the third act you get the much desired Age of Apocalypse costumes. Not so much desired for their looks, though this Iceman is a badass, AoA costumes give your characters +100% to their attack rating. Other combinations include Femme Fatale (4 women), New X-Men (any four from GSX #1), and Old School (Prof X, Mags, Cyke, and Bobby).
An aside, if you didn't know who those last four were, you shouldn't be playing this game.
Now I stuck with the AoA costumes for obvious reasons, but also for the fact that the story IS Age of Apocalypse Ultimate style. While not set in the AoA, Ultimate, or "regular" universe, it is a good blend of the three. In the first act Apocalypse takes out Magneto's mutant paradise of Genosa and your job is rescue survivors and stop the first Horseman, Abyss. The second act is set in the Savage Land where you stop Mikhail Rasputin, the second Horseman, from stealing the advanced weather control tech that keeps the Savage Land going. In the third act you must destroy the Infinite processing facility where Mr. Sinister grows Apocalypse's soldiers, and a nuclear facility called the Core where they get all their power.
These installations are guarded by the third Horseman, Holocaust, and the Sugarman respectively. Sugarman is the one from AoA though, so that's a little confusing. Right now I am at the start of the fourth act, in which I have to destroy the newly completed Atlantic sea wall defenses just like in AoA. Ultimate Nick Fury just showed up with a bunch of Sentinels and SHIELD agents to help out, but of course the Sentinels get co-opted by Bastion almost as soon as they show, so that didn't really help at all. But I'll tell ya, those SHIELD agents are a bunch of tough SOB's. Four or five of them can take out a Sentinel faster then Wolverine. And that's fast!
With a few major improvements over the first, more characters and easier character management, this game is an incredible amount of fun for any X-Men fan. Watch out for the trivia game in the home base too, it's not too tough if you're a long time fan, but even I missed a couple. Apparently I can't tell you exactly which issue of Uncanny Juggernaut made his first appearance in, or what year it was. I shall now go and hang my head in shame.
posted by Star Clipper at Tuesday, February 28, 2006
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