May 9, 2005 - Last year Raven Software and Activision answered the dreams of many gaming geeks with X-Men Legends, the first ever X-Men RPG. To be quite frank, the majority of prior X-Men games had been total crap, but Legends bucked the trend with a smart, fan-friendly action-RPG that paid homage to the comic books while being accessible to casual gamers. With its success a sequel was a no-brainer. Enter X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, which looks to improve upon the original with new characters, more powers and online play. That's right -- this sucker is online for Xbox, PS2 and PC. Don't fret Cube owners, you can still play Legends II offline with three of your buddies and get the exact same story.

Following the events of the original X-Men Legends, both the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants are exhausted and vulnerable. It's at this moment that Apocalypse, a near-omnipotent mutant obsessed with the idea of "survival of the fittest," comes out of hiding and strikes both teams. The attack is devastating and leaves the world ripe for a takeover. There is only one hope for homo sapiens and mutantkind alike. The X-Men and the Brotherhood must band together to battle their greatest foe or face a dark future.

The Enemy of My Enemy...
As with the first Legends game, up to four players can take control of any character from a healthy roster of sixteen. The difference this time is that half the team is comprised of X-Men, the other half of Brotherhood members. Finally, Magneto and Wolverine can work together instead of working to tear one another apart. Best of all, every character is available from the get-go, as are multiple skins. Plus, each level allows for four-players throughout, so you won't have buddies sitting on their thumbs while you battle through a one-player area.

Several characters have been confirmed in the newly-released trailer and in a recent demo from Activision. We know for certain that gamers can play as Magneto, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Bishop, Juggernaut and Nightcrawler. Sabretooth, Mystique and Toad are featured in the intro cinematics, which likely means they too will be playable. Also, Angel, Emma Frost, Forge and Heather Hudson have been confirmed as NPCs.

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Bigger, Better
X-Men Legends II takes a broader scope than the original, with a bigger story, more areas and more than 100 different types of enemies to combat. The X-Men and Brotherhood are scattered, disoriented and constantly on the run, forcing the group to take residence in five different headquarters over the course of Rise of Apocalypse. Along with the X-Mansion, players must hole up in the abandoned Weapon X facility seen in the first game along with three other locales.

As with the first Legends, Rise of Apocalypse takes players across the X-Men Universe. This time out, players get to explore the temples of Madripoor, the primitive jungle of the Savage Lands, the island of Genosha and Egypt among other key locations in X-Men lore. Each area features more interaction, tons of secrets and unique enemies. The Madripoor Temple, for example, sports crazed Madripoor priests and Hellhounds, while an area in Egypt has stone scarabs that emerge from the ground when stepped on. Legends II promises more outdoor environments to eliminate the claustrophobic feeling of the original, so expect wider areas for combat and levels three times the size of the first Legends.

Raven Software listened to the concerns following X-Men Legends and are addressing the most distressing aspects of gameplay. Every character now features more than double the active powers and all can be accessed on-screen using the D-Pad and corresponding face buttons. Powers are also a bit deeper, so that characters don't feel like carbon copies of one another. In fact, one of the reasons for splitting the roster between X-Men and Brotherhood was to limit the number of similarly-powered mutants available. A few characters have had radical transformations, including Nightcrawler who now wields two swords and has a bevy of new swashbuckling moves.

The menus, though cleaned up and more streamlined, appear almost unnecessary this time out thanks to in-game auto-leveling, which enables players to decide how points are automatically distributed during a level-up (even in the middle of combat!). Players also have the option of instantly equipping the best items, once again cutting down on the minutiae of micromanaging inventory.

Making things even more user-friendly, it's now possible to return to HQ at any time (rather than having to run all the way back through a level). This allows players to quickly switch out characters as they see fit. Because all sixteen characters are available right off the bat, gamers can begin experimenting for the best team immediately, perfecting techniques for the inevitable battle against Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen.