X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse Hands-On Preview

That band of merry mutants is primed and ready for yet another adventure in the upcoming X-Men Legends II, an updated build of which we recently got to check out during an Activision press event. With just a scant few weeks before the game blows up on every major console and PC (along with the PSP in October), we got a taste of it on just about every platform to see just how far it has come since the sequel was announced in 2004.

The X-Men team up with Magneto's Brotherhood to take down Apocalypse in X-Men Legends II.

Our first stop during our hands-on time with Professor Xavier's bunch was to see how the multiplayer game works. The good news is that online is going to be a big part of nearly every version of X-Men Legends II. In fact, the only version of the game that won't feature online play is the GameCube version (for obvious reasons). It's great news that the PS2, Xbox, and PC versions of XMLII are shipping with online support for up to four separate players. It's even better that the PSP version of the game, shipping just a month later, will feature wireless multiplayer for up to four players as well, via either infrastructure or ad hoc. It wasn't working when we were playing the game, but it sounds like it's going to be a great addition to the handheld version.

Speaking of the PSP game, this was our first chance to try out the handheld version, and we were very impressed with its sharp look and familiar gameplay. The storyline that is common to all versions of the game is present and accounted for in the PSP version, and it goes something like this: In a bid to stop the evil Apocalypse from taking over the world, the X-Men and their mortal enemies, the Brotherhood, begrudgingly join forces. As they snake through the maps that make up the XMLII world, the two teams will be taking on wave after wave of baddies and bosses intent on taking both groups down. The boss fights themselves tend to be pretty involved affairs, and they will test both your problem-solving and teamwork skills in the process.

An example of these skills can be seen in a boss battle we played in the PSP version of the game. Trapped in what appeared to be an underground tomb, our group of mutant adventurers came upon that odd collection of clone sisters, the Stepford Cuckoos, who came at us from every direction. To add complexity, periodically one sister would turn transparent and become invulnerable to our attacks, meaning we needed to choose our targets wisely. Once we plowed through the strange sisters, we met up with that biogenetic maniac, Holocaust, who was intent on roasting us alive with his highly charged microwave blasts. In order to take him down, we needed to not only hammer him with our store of mutant powers, but also take out a number of granite thrones, on top of which sat magic mirrors which were granting the fiery freak his powers. These kinds of interactive and destructible environments look to play a big part in all the boss battles in XMLII.

Use your mutant powers early and often to take down the hordes of enemies you'll face.

In our initial look at the PSP version of XMLII, we didn't have a good idea of how the powers worked yet, especially with regard to the shoulder buttons. After a little while of playing, we could happily say that the game controls just fine. The left shoulder button is used in conjunction with the directional pad to choose your character; the right shoulder button lets you activate your special mutant-powered offense. Simply hold down the button and press the associated face button to let fly with your best attacks. It's a pretty easy setup to learn and not that big a departure from the admittedly more intuitive console controls. In addition to all this, the PSP version of XMLII will feature four unique characters, as well as a handful of levels that will only appear in the PSP game.