XMen: Legends
Four days? Holy crap. Sorry. Evenings at the hospital are busy as free nipple lickings at a cold witch's convention. Add to that 5 or so hours at Barnes & Noble unloading trailers for the new store before Fairview, and you get a Shafeman with little time.
Regardless, I couldn't pass up the chance to grab the new XMen game on my day off yesterday. Scored it at Target for $35 to boot. Beat that at any other store...
Graphics leave a bit wanting, but this is Ravensoft, the same guys that did Jedi Academy. Of course, they also did Jedi Knight II, and I remember that being on par with graphics at the time, so apparently, while the game play and story departments are advancing in skill, the graphics team is staying in place or slipping a little. They should just hire me.
The main problem with graphics is in the cut scenes. In the dialogue scenes, they used a toon shader that's pretty subpar. Toon shading (making it look like a cartoon instead of 3D) is done so often in today's 3D gaming environment, that you just need to do it well, or not do it at all. The trouble is, many of the companies jumping on the band wagon are just starting to learn the things that the toon pros learned several years ago. So, you get a feel of bad graphics, when it's just a case of old graphics. Of course, the load screen for Prof X makes him look like a bald gay man plotting how best to get into your back door, sans lotion.
Story so far is really not a matter worth discussion. It's very linear. Very much like the movies. Rescue a new mutant from the Brotherhood, try to figure out why they want her, while teaching her her powers. The linearality of it may change past the 2nd mission. We'll see. The great part is, if you take your time and destroy EVERYTHING you can, which is fun in itself, going berserk on park benches, the levels are pretty long. So, content is large, just kind of boring in the first part of the game. ESPECIALLY when Magma (the girl) gets to the XMansion, and you can't progress without exploring the mansion and meeting the characters. Granted, you want to do this, as you can't use the characters until you meet them, but still....very boring.
Gameplay is new to me. I personally don't like the mainly overhead view, and there's almost no point in trying to rotate the camera to compensate that. The ghost map helps a little, but the first few levels really give you no choice about where to go anyway. Combat is great, specially with just one or two Xmen. Action on screen gets confusing with 4 XMen, though, and you find yourself missing a lot, because if you don't focus on the X under your direct control, you lose yourself. The combo power hits are fun. Nothing like grabbing a goon with Wolvy, tossing him at Cyclops, and seeing Slim bat the bastard up into the air with a nice one-two punch.
Plus, the game is actually labeled as an RPG, so you get experience, levels, skills, etc. Kinda cool, cause you get to decide how the mutant powers grow.
So far, character wise, my team can include Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Gray, Beast, and Iceman, but there are hints of Colossus and Nightcrawler, and I'm sure that Magma the new girl jumps in at sometime, otherwise why use her in the Danger Room? That's right, you get to run training missions in the Danger Room.
Best part of the game? Lou Diamond Phillips. He's the voice of Forge. You can't play Forge, but you get to buy shit from him at super expensive prices. That must be to help fund LDP's retirement, or maybe his comeback as an actor.
Regardless, I couldn't pass up the chance to grab the new XMen game on my day off yesterday. Scored it at Target for $35 to boot. Beat that at any other store...
Graphics leave a bit wanting, but this is Ravensoft, the same guys that did Jedi Academy. Of course, they also did Jedi Knight II, and I remember that being on par with graphics at the time, so apparently, while the game play and story departments are advancing in skill, the graphics team is staying in place or slipping a little. They should just hire me.
The main problem with graphics is in the cut scenes. In the dialogue scenes, they used a toon shader that's pretty subpar. Toon shading (making it look like a cartoon instead of 3D) is done so often in today's 3D gaming environment, that you just need to do it well, or not do it at all. The trouble is, many of the companies jumping on the band wagon are just starting to learn the things that the toon pros learned several years ago. So, you get a feel of bad graphics, when it's just a case of old graphics. Of course, the load screen for Prof X makes him look like a bald gay man plotting how best to get into your back door, sans lotion.
Story so far is really not a matter worth discussion. It's very linear. Very much like the movies. Rescue a new mutant from the Brotherhood, try to figure out why they want her, while teaching her her powers. The linearality of it may change past the 2nd mission. We'll see. The great part is, if you take your time and destroy EVERYTHING you can, which is fun in itself, going berserk on park benches, the levels are pretty long. So, content is large, just kind of boring in the first part of the game. ESPECIALLY when Magma (the girl) gets to the XMansion, and you can't progress without exploring the mansion and meeting the characters. Granted, you want to do this, as you can't use the characters until you meet them, but still....very boring.
Gameplay is new to me. I personally don't like the mainly overhead view, and there's almost no point in trying to rotate the camera to compensate that. The ghost map helps a little, but the first few levels really give you no choice about where to go anyway. Combat is great, specially with just one or two Xmen. Action on screen gets confusing with 4 XMen, though, and you find yourself missing a lot, because if you don't focus on the X under your direct control, you lose yourself. The combo power hits are fun. Nothing like grabbing a goon with Wolvy, tossing him at Cyclops, and seeing Slim bat the bastard up into the air with a nice one-two punch.
Plus, the game is actually labeled as an RPG, so you get experience, levels, skills, etc. Kinda cool, cause you get to decide how the mutant powers grow.
So far, character wise, my team can include Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Gray, Beast, and Iceman, but there are hints of Colossus and Nightcrawler, and I'm sure that Magma the new girl jumps in at sometime, otherwise why use her in the Danger Room? That's right, you get to run training missions in the Danger Room.
Best part of the game? Lou Diamond Phillips. He's the voice of Forge. You can't play Forge, but you get to buy shit from him at super expensive prices. That must be to help fund LDP's retirement, or maybe his comeback as an actor.
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 5:03 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home