Discuss it in Talkback!

Earlier this week, Activision invited us to their Southern California offices to show a nearly-finished build of their unique comic book RPG, X-Men Legends. Although it still isn’t all that pretty, the core gameplay definitely won us over.

To get past the bad news, let’s talk graphics first. The art style is drawn from the Ultimate X-Men series, which takes a little time to adjust to if you haven’t kept up with the franchise. In particular, Wolverine’s got a funky new short haircut that I really don’t care for, but you’ll either get used to it or learn to ignore it after a while. During gameplay, X-Men Legends is presented in a cel-shaded style, but unlike notable front runners like Zelda and Tales of Symphonia, X-Men Legends suffers greatly from low polygon counts, blurry textures, and black lines that are simply too thick for their own good. Looking back on the early shots without borders, it seems that adding the lines may have only served to point out the flaws in the models, perhaps even causing them to look simpler than they truly are.

The game does run at a steady thirty frames per second, but without any option for progressive scan in the GameCube and PS2 versions. Finally, it should come as no surprise to GameCube owners that the opening FMV sequence is obviously quite compressed, which is hard to miss with the Xbox version on a nearby screen for comparison. If anything should be made clear though, you’d be a fool to pass up X-Men Legends based on graphics alone, especially if you’re a fan of the characters in any form.

The game has been touted as an RPG, and it does feature standard genre trademarks like a developed storyline, experience levels, and stat-boosting armor and accessories. However, the bulk of the game plays out more like a brawler, complete with combo moves and throws. You take charge of one character and usually have three other characters in tow that can be controlled either by the AI or by another player, and you can switch to any of the open AI characters at any time by pressing a direction on the cross pad. The A button is used for quick attacks. B is for more powerful “smash” attacks. Pressing Y once jumps, and pressing it twice allows some characters to fly, and Y plus B can be used for a jump attack. Pressing A and B in various sequences will allow you to pull off specific combos that serve as leg sweeps or uppercuts or more complex moves. You can also perform throws with the X button, picking up and lobbing one opponent at another, or tossing various items like trash cans at approaching enemies.

By holding the R button, you can view your character’s mutant abilities, which are displayed as a set of icons that correspond to the four face buttons. You can then perform the move by pushing the corresponding button while holding R, which can be done rather quickly once you become more familiar with each character. Each character has unique powers, but from what we saw, powers mapped to A and B are typically offensive; powers mapped to X give stat boosts to your party; and Y is reserved for Extreme moves which appear later in the game. Extreme moves require you to pick up “X” icons dropped by enemies or found inside items along the way, and once you fill up one mark on your meter, you can pull off an Extreme move. The few we saw unleashed powerful attacks against enemies across the screen.

Mutant powers are also called upon outside of battles. Special points mark spots where you’ll need to use a mutant’s special abilities to get by, but what you actually need to do may vary depending on who you have in your current group. The same gap may be crossed a number of different ways. Storm might fly people across. Nightcrawler might use his teleporting skills, or Iceman may just create a frozen bridge.

Plus, in addition to the various melee combos, you can also combine mutant attacks if two of the X-Men use their powers simultaneously. In single player, this is made easier with the L button which calls your allies to your side or prompts them to attack the current enemy. When the AI character begins its move, you can link in your own special move.

You don’t have to play alone, though. Like Crystal Chronicles or Zelda: Four Swords, X-Men Legends is designed with four-player gameplay in mind. Unlike either of those games however, Legends allows players to jump in and play at will simply by walking up and plugging in another controller. The AI will seamlessly hand over a character to that person and will just as seamlessly take control of a mutant if a player pulls out. So there’s no need to restart a level if someone has to leave or if a new player wants to join in. And according to our representative at Activision, this hot-swap feature is only included in the GameCube version.

One of the high points of the game is the highly destructible level design. I mentioned being able to toss trash cans at enemies earlier, but a large number of items throughout the game can be smashed to bits, sometimes revealing healing items, armor, or accessories. There are park benches, barrels, rooftop air-conditioning units, patio chairs, outer layers of some walls – all kinds of items can be smashed to pieces, often to your advantage. At one point, while playing as Gambit, I tossed a guy towards an explosive barrel, and quickly threw a hand of mutant-flavored playing cards at it just in time for it to explode as he was getting up. Not to mention that sometimes it’s fun to just randomly pick up desk lamps and smash them against the wall.

By this point you’re probably wondering how the term RPG fits into all this. Well, as you might expect, defeating enemies gives you experience, and gaining enough experience points will allow you to level up. When you go to the character details screen, there are three pages: one for stats, one for powers, and one for equipment. The equipment page is simply for armor and accessories that you find or buy along the way. When you level up, you’ll usually get an automatic increase in some of your stats, but you’ll also have a certain number of points that can be assigned to whichever attributes you please. It’s similar to the system in Knights of the Old Republic. You also have a separate set of points to be assigned to your mutant powers, which include increasing the attack power of current moves, additional stat bonuses, new mutant powers, and special abilities like flying. However, some of the choices may require you to reach a particular experience level before you can apply points to them.

X-Men fans have plenty to look forward to. Legends features fifteen playable mutants, including Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Jean Grey, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Beast, and Storm, and several others. The story was written by Men of Action, a group that features several former Marvel writers. It begins with a girl named Alison who Wolverine rescues from being kidnapped by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in New York. She is then brought back to Xavier’s school, where she picks up the name Magma and must decide whether she wants to become an X-Man or not.

The game features a number of bonuses for fans to find along the way, which can be reviewed in Xavier’s mansion between missions. There are cinematic clips, comic book covers, various artwork from the load screens, concept art, enemy profiles, and even an X-Men trivia game that dispenses experience points for correct answers. You can also find training discs for use in the Danger Room that teach all the combat basics as well as advanced combos.

One of the best features for fans is the set of “flashback” scenarios. As you walk through the dormitories and get to know the more experienced mutants, they’ll begin to share their stories, many of which are pulled straight from classic X-Men comics. You don’t just sit back and listen though -- you actually play out the scenario. Activision showed us one of Beast’s flashbacks from a time when Juggernaut broke into the mansion in an attempt to kidnap Professor Xavier. Not only are Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, and Beast in your party, but they’re wearing their original old-school uniforms from when the comics first started. This scene is also a superb display of X-Men Legends’ destructible environments, as Juggernaut literally starts running through the walls, ripping the place apart and giving you a panicked realization of the sheer strength of your opponent.

Even if it’s a bit rough around the edges, X-Men Legends looks to have plenty to offer with lots of goodies for the fans, over twenty levels, a fun battle system that expands as you gain experience, and easy hot-swap multiplayer. X-Men Legends comes out on the 24th of September, but if you pre-order, be sure to look for the limited-edition comic books and trading cards that Activision is offering as incentives.