First Encounter

X-Men™ Legends brings one of Marvel Comics' most popular superhero titles to the Xbox® with all the wild action and colorful characters intact. Activision has created a deep and engaging 3-D action-roleplaying game that lets you assemble and train a team of mutant heroes that grow and evolve as they battle the forces of intolerance and evil.

For those who are unfamiliar, the X-Men are a team of super-powered mutants in a world on the brink of genetic war. Normal humans fear and distrust beings that can change shape, fire energy blasts from their eyes, or read minds.

A rising tide of violence between extremists on both sides threatens to engulf the entire world, but the X-Men are dedicated to helping mutants adjust to their powers, while protecting innocents from the extremists on both sides.

People with something X-tra.

The game uses a top-down 3-D view to give gamers an artistic look of the X-Men's turbulent world. Beginning with one mutant (fan favorite Wolverine), players explore massive indoor and outdoor environments and use their special gifts in combat. Against these mostly destructible backdrops, the X-Men fight a daunting array of heavily armed humans and staggeringly powerful mutant villains.

As the game progresses, more than a dozen other X-Men join in the fight, with four battling on-screen at a time. You can select which four will go in before each mission starts, and you can swap out team members at various save points within each mission.

When you're not defending the innocent out in the world, you can explore the X-Men's headquarters or use the facility's advanced combat simulator (known as the Danger Room) to improve your skills and mutant abilities.

Combat is a mixture of physical brawling and spectacular mutant powers. All mutants can combine basic punches, kicks, jumps, and throws to create powerful combos, but they also all have mutant powers unique to their mutant natures.

Wolverine, for example, can constantly regenerate his health bar to reflect his mutant fast-healing ability. Storm, who controls the weather, can fly and hurl lightning bolts. Cyclops, the team leader, generates a powerful beam of concussive energy from his eyes. One of the game's biggest challenges (and biggest rewards) is to master all of these strange abilities and combine them into an effective four-person team.

Mutants aren't welcome here.

Though it is a combat-heavy adventure, X-Men Legends is an action-roleplaying game with extensive character management and evolution. Each mutant on your team (both on-screen and in reserve) gains experience points as you progress through the missions and train in the Danger Room.

As you accumulate enough experience points to level up, your stats for offense, defense, and mutant powers go up automatically. But, you also get to distribute points yourself to pump up your skills or acquire powerful new mutant abilities. For example, you can pour all of Wolverine's points into his healing factor, or you can choose to unlock new melee attacks that put his claws to good use.

X-Men Legends can be played alone (with the A.I. controlling three of your four team members), or your friends can join in for some heavy-duty multiplayer action. Outside of the missions, there are also several multiplayer modes like Brawl (deathmatch), Last Man Standing, and King of the Hill, which let you duke it out as any of the unlocked characters. You can also unlock classic scenario missions that recreate famous battles from the comic book's history, such as the unstoppable Juggernaut's assault on X-Men headquarters.

Enter the "Danger Room."

Activision made sure to put in enough content to satisfy diehard X-Men fans by weaving tons of background material into the game. If you explore and talk to the non-playable characters, you'll learn just about anything you might need to know about the X-Men and their history.

Both comic book fans and action-roleplaying enthusiasts will be hooked by the game's fast-paced mutant action as well as a rich and engaging story that puts some of the most spectacular superpowers ever imagined at your fingertips.

By Pete Hutter