This is a good game, but when compared to games like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, it could have been so much more.
User Rating: 7.5 | Justice League Heroes XBOX
For the most part, I really liked this game. But my first big issue with it is the length. Coming from the company that put out the Balder's Gate and Champions of Norath games, I was expecting a long running game of truely epic proportions. Story-wise, the story was good and not needlessly drawn-out (though it was more of a "video game" story than a "comic book" story), but the levels themselves were way too short, especially the alternate dimension and Apokolips Earth levels. Those two could have been massive in scale. Something else they could have done to give more play out of the game was to work more with the multiple team missions. My favorite level of the game was during the infiltration of the Watchtower when there were three seperate teams working towards different objectives, and the action was bouncing from team to team (ala a comic book style). As it is, just as you are getting your players to where you want them with power-ups and boosts, the game is over. It may not have been as bad if you weren't forced to use pre-set characters as much as you were, and you were able to use the specific characters you wanted to play with; which brings us to my next issue with the game. I understand being made to use Superman and Batman in the first level, and truthfully there is no better way to start a Justice League game than with the two originals, however, after that they force-fed you the characters to use way too often in this game. I understand that certain characters could only be used on certain levels, like when Wonder Woman was fighting the White Martians' battlecruisers in space, but even here they could have let you pick your hero, just put a stipulation on it like you may only use Green Lanter, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, etc. (In fact, one of the things that leads me to believe there were last minute changes to the character select is that in the demo and trailers they showed Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter fighting the White Martians' ships).
As I said, this is a good game, but when compared to games like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (and let's face it, it's hard not to compare the two), and games like Balder's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norath (two series that it could be argued this game has it's roots in) it could have been so much more. I hope that there is a sequal in the works, because this is a good base foundation to build upon. If a sequal is made, they need to 1) increase the roster of heroes (not just three versions of the Green Lantern - which how could they do that and not even include Alan Scott?) with names such as Black Lightning, Red Tornado, Power Girl, Steel, Firestar, and Firestorm (they could easily have both versions with alternating costumes); 2) they need to take at least one page from Ultimate Alliance and include more DC-specific locations; Gotham City, Arkham Asylum, Coast City, the Fortress of Solitude, and Atlantis just to name a few. (Yes, I know that last one isn't a "DC-Specific" local, but by doing this they could have given Aquaman a power similar to Batman's bat swarm, where he could have summoned various types of marine life to attack his opponent).
I sincerely hope they do not give up on this possible franchise just because it didn't do as good as Ultimate Alliance.
