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A few days ago, we managed to take a trip to Activision's offices in Santa Monica, where we spent a sizable chunk of time with a nearly finished build of X-Men Legends. Plenty of superhero titles have crashed and burned because of a pathetic plot or weakly defined characterizations of legendary characters. Thankfully, Legends bucks that trend, drawing on a cadre of current and former Marvel writers known as Man of Action to pen its engaging storyline. On top of this, the programmers at Raven (best known for first person shooters) have captured a comic-book influenced art style, along with an incredibly intuitive control scheme and impressive voice acting to produce what may be the finest superhero game ever made. Read on, oh comic book fan! Excelsior!
 
The plot of Legends takes place during in a world whose anti-mutant fervor has reached a fever pitch. Local and international news channels regularly report on the disturbances or demonstrations of power from these individuals, and the global tolerance for “non-humans” is at an all time low. In the midst of the latest round of hatred is a young teenage girl named Alison Crestmere, whose powers have made her a target of attacks from angry mobs. Even worse, her talents have attracted the attention of the Evil Brotherhood of Mutants, who seek to kidnap Alison for their own nefarious purposes. Her safety, and potentially the safety of the entire world, can only be protected by the one group dedicated to human and mutantkind alike, The X-Men.  
Players initially start off controlling Wolverine, but as they continue through the game, they will amass a constantly growing and evolving party of 15 different X-Men. At first, players will have access to only light or heavy attacks (in a control scheme similar to that of fighting games), the ability to pick up objects or enemies, and a decent jump, as well as one of their trademark powers. As time goes on, however, you’ll be able to strengthen your squad, enabling incredible feats of superhuman strength, flight and other impressive powers. Powers wind up using a certain amount of mutant energy, which can be completely exhausted with continual use. While it will regenerate over time (or restored faster with energy potions), this system balances the heroes’ powers with the odds that you’ll face off against. Seemingly everything (including a few reconfigured kitchen sinks in the form of robots) will be thrown at you during the expansive missions, and it’ll be up to you to defeat them and achieve your mission objectives.   
Players won’t be venturing into the world alone like other Action RPGs, however. You’ll be able to control and direct up to four of the champions at any point in time. While you’ll be able to direct their actions at any point in time, setting how aggressive they are, when they heal themselves and what powers they’ll use, even cooler is the ability to switch between any one of the supermen or women at will. All the player has to do is tap a direction on the directional pad and they’ll take over that hero. This is sometimes useful in the middle of battle when one of your characters is getting battered and needs immediate attention. Other times it can be used to progress through a level thanks to a power or ability. Depending upon your squad, you’ll approach environmental situations in a different way, and fortunately, Legends is flexible enough to give you numerous options to solve each puzzle accordingly. For instance, at one point in our demo we encountered a room stocked with health potions that that couldn’t be broken into or accessed in any way. Every hero we used failed, until we realized that Nightcrawler could probably just teleport his way into the area and snag the loot. Two quick teleports later and we were a much healthier party.   
Combat is also fast and furious, which is to be expected with up to four heroes onscreen at the same time. As I said earlier, you have light and heavy attacks, which can be strung together to create powerful combos. With the proper button presses, you can juggle your opponents into the air, leaving them vulnerable to projectile attacks from teammates. Players can also produce squad-based combos, with each hero capitalizing on attacks made on a single target. For instance, Iceman can freeze someone before Wolverine slashes them, causing twice the damage and providing a bonus to the experience points the two characters receive.  
If you’re really good, you can use the fully interactive environment as well, stringing together incredibly punishing attacks. You’ll definitely need to learn how to create these sequences if you’re going to survive, because later on in the game you’ll need to inflict as much pain as possible on your harder opponents. If you can’t handle it, you may want to consider calling in a friend or three, as co-op play can allow multiple gamers to take on the forces of evil. However, be careful, because the difficulty level ramps up with every single controller that’s plugged in. We had three players launch their most powerful attacks against a mini-boss, and they barely made a dent.  
Focusing primarily upon the Ultimate X-Men series of comics, Legends packs a visually distinctive punch. Levels are incredibly huge and nicely detailed. What’s more, fans of the comic books will also notice a number of heroes and villains alike from X-Men adventures. What’s more, there will be signature “unique” items that fans will recognize, as well as plenty of unlockable galleries and hidden objects. Plus, what’s an X-Men story without at least one trip to the Danger Room? Players will be able to access training programs and simulations to boost their character’s experience and try out their powers before going into the field of battle. Simply put, this game looks incredible, and we can’t wait until it mutates onto store shelves in a few weeks. Check back soon for a full review!
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