X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (Sony PlayStation 2, 2005)

This is one of the best games I have played in a good long while. It takes everything you loved about the first game and made it better. The core gameplay is the same. Leveling up, equipping items and expanding your mutant powers all works basically the same. The addition of an auto-equip and auto-distribute for character skills, attributes and equipment takes out the slow micromanaging element for those that just want smash and bash. You can get bogged down with too many items, even with the addition of the hero stash storage chest. This can also lead to a game-freezing glitch on replays because the game can't keep track of everything.
The storyline is classic and well put together. It is a sort of mash between various Marvel storylines that revolve around the virtually omniscient Apocalypse. Character development is done pretty much completely in 3D CGI cutscenes. The production value on these are impressive. The voice-casting is also excellent, headlined by Patrick "Professor X" Stewart.
I really liked the addition of more mutant powers for each character. These additional powers can be mapped through the pause menu or on the fly to the four different face buttons. Most characters now have two "Ultimate" powers to choose from. I also liked the way the various powers sort of tie together in a tree-branching scheme. You need to learn and use some weaker powers to gain the ability to fire the strongest ones.
As for character selection: It's impossible to get this feature right. You will always forget someone and you'll always include someone that's not needed. That being said I liked the variety. I'm a little lost on removing Magma (the main character from the first game) and adding Sunfire, whose powers are also fire-based. Of course, I would have loved to use characters like Angel, Beast, Sabretooth, etc. But, you can't win em all. There is also the issue of character balance. Iceman starts off markedly stronger than other characters. Because of that, and the fact that he's one of my favorites, I used him a lot. Which only made him even more powerful. One of his most basic powers, the ice crush, is easily the strongest and most effective attack in the entire game. Other characters are decidedly weaker, Toad, for instance. I was glad to see Wolverine had been taken down a notch in usefulness; the first game was beatable using only Wolverine because he was so overly powerful.
The characters in this game are all available from the very beginning, unlike the slowly releasing playable characters from the first one. There are an additional three "hidden" characters (Deadpool, Iron Man and Xavier) that you can earn through some difficult challenges. All of the characters are also parts of certain historical Marvel teams as well. If you assemble your four-person party with the right characters you can earn team bonuses. Teams consist of things like The Brotherhood, Old School (original X-Men + Magneto or Toad), New X-Men, and the New Avengers. There are other teams that rely on features of the characters or costumes (Age of Apocalypse, Forces of Nature, Bruise Brigade, etc.).
All things considered, if you like action RPGs, the X-Men or just generally fun games, you can't go wrong with this one. I am now on my third playthrough of a 30+ hour game and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Well, maybe I will, but only if I pick up Marvel Ultimate Alliance, the spiritual sequel to this game. Have fun.

I bought this game because I had read some positive reviews of it, had been a big x-men fan, and like role-playing games. Just so you don't have to read this whole thing to get my take on it...its a pretty good game and worth buying. I bought mine on ebay and including shipping paid about $10. The one I bought however didn't have the jacket so it took me a while to figure some things out...like how to save (you need to select 'extract' on the blue X's that appear throughout the game as waypoints...yeah call me retarded). Anyway I probably spent about 30-40 hours completing all the missions, going through all the maps, and beating the game.

The thing I like most about it was the extended game play. I hate buying games that only take 10 hours to beat and then you're bored playing it again. Almost all the regular x-men or brotherhood characters are playable and you can unlock other characters by completing certain tasks....some characters are definately more powerful than others but I'll let you figure that out for yourself.

Some of the things that weren't so great was the mapping and objective completion. The map works great it just shows you too much. It points exactly where the objectives are so if you don't like to explore then you can just run through the game and knock out the objectives quickly. The only other thing that bothered me was lack of exploring element. There are many side quests but the maps are kind of like diablo 2's, all you need to do is run around and get all the red area out of the map and you've seen everything (you'll know what I'm talking about if you start playing the game) so there isn't much to explore or discover.

On the whole it was entertaining...it gives you a lot of insight into the x-men world and the videos try to capture all the characters and how they interact pretty well.

If Emma Frost were a playable character. There was a lot about this game to like. There are multiple abilities for each character, and game play is great enough. I prefer the first one, but the second one did not leave me disappointed.

If you love X-Men and role playing games you will love X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse. If you played the first one you will definitely notice the improvements. Game play is about the same but now there are 8-12 active powers that you can have for your X-man instead of last years 4. There are also tons of Marvel characters to choose from in this game that make it amazing. The graphics are marvelous and the story is compelling. Great levels, objectives, and fighting capabilities.

One of the coolest things about this game is how up to four friends can play the story mode together as their own character (wolverine, gambit, cyclops, .. you choose).

RAAGGHH! I FEEL THE POWER AS THOSE ADAMANTIUM RETRACTABLE CLAWS BURST OUT OF MY FIRSTS.. WHOA.. got a little crazy there. But this game is incredible. RPG elements with super cool Marvel characters with amazing graphics and no flaws. This is a must have for anyone with a PS2! ARE YOU A MUTANT?! I SURE AM!