bit-tech Shopping: Activision X-Men Legends (GC)

• Action/Adventure
• Role Playing Games (RPG)

Rating: 8

Time with product: 35 Days

Strengths: very strong gameplay. really fun to build up your characters. really fun multiplayer.

Weaknesses: graphics were a little weak. no ability to play some danger room missions outside of the game. no ability to set details (time limit) when you are in danger room with friends.

Summary: Overall this is a very good multiplayer game of x-men. very similar to gauntlet games, but it stands as a better single player game than gauntlet was. i highly recommend this game, and the only problem with it was the repetitive environments.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Weeks

Strengths: 4 Player Action, Destructable Eviorments, Long Game

Weaknesses: Bad AI On Allies, No Online Play

Summary: X-Men Legends is a dungeon crawler type hack & Slash game much like the popular Diablo series on PC or more recently Champions of Norrath or Baldur's Gate on the Playstation 2. When you start out X-Men Legends you will be able to play as one X-Man but as you play though the game you will eventually be able to play as 15 different X-Men characters to which you can have a team of four characters out at once in a team of four to which you can switch between when playing the single player mode. They also did a really good job of keeping the story authetic to the X-Men universe which can be good for X-Men fans & others not familliar with the X-Men universe as they can learn about it while playing though the game if they like. As with other hack & slash games the combat is fairly simple but alot of fun & as you play though X-Men Legends it actaully gets better as you go on and get more powerful and can do more devastating attacks. I would highly recommend X-Men Legends to fans of dungeon crawlers & to anyone interested to at least give it a rental as this would be a good game to introduce gamers to hack & slash games since it takes place in the X-Men universe and is very well done.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2 Days

Strengths: Multiplayer

Weaknesses: AI

Summary: Great fun multiplayer game. The RPG style is interesting as well. Its a good game to get now since it's cheap. It can be an easy game to beat.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 4 Days

Strengths: Good graphics. Multiplayer capable.

Weaknesses: AI sometimes lacks.

Summary: Very fun arcade style superhero game. Adds RPG elements with level-ups and skill trees. Not overly difficult. The AI lacks some I, but it's not too bad. It's a real good deal for under $20.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths:

Weaknesses: Reliance on AI when not in multiplayer mode.

Summary: I enjoyed this game quite a bit. My one major problem with the game was the way it breaks immersion for me at times. All of the destructible items give you stuff (energy, health, stat boost items, tech bits) but I quickly found myself walking around smashing everything in sight to get the stuff. It seems very unheroic to smash up the city just to get a few tech bits. I enjoyed the random collectibles scattered throughout the game (X-Men comic book covers, etc.) as well as the other cool stuff in the Mansion (ability to view cut-scenes, X-Men trivia game, etc.) The rendering of the Mansion, and the random bits of characterization (Colosus' painting for example) are awesome! While I dislike relying on AI (I can't often get together with friends to play) the game did allow for a great deal of AI customization which I found helpful. The ability to quickly and easily switch between characters is also a great plus. The control scheme takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do it is relatively easy to use. The camera was OK (I am very greatful that split-screen was not the way the designers went with this) but I would have preferred the option of an over-the-shoulder camera angle in single player mode. Overall I found X-Men Legends to be very well animated and fun to play.