X-Men: The Official Movie Game First Look

Activision has been having a good run as of late with its series of games based on Marvel's uncanny X-Men. 2004's X-Men Legends seemed to finally find the right structure to please both gamers and fans of the comic, who have suffered through some bipolar ups and downs over the past two decades. The promising first effort was followed up by last year's X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, which built on the solid foundation of its predecessor. One element missing from the Legends series has been ties to the successful film franchise, which boosted the mighty mutants' popularity in the first place. Activision and Northern California-based developer Z-Axis are aiming to more closely synch up with the film series in the tentatively named X-Men: The Official Movie Game, an original title--independent from the Legends continuity--that is steeped in the lore surrounding the films. The game is being positioned as a bridge between the stellar X2 movie and its upcoming sequel, X-men: The Last Stand. We were treated to a demo of a work-in-progress version of the PlayStation 2 game recently, and we had a chance to see what to expect from the upcoming multiplatform game.

You didn't think old Wolvie was gonna skip this one, did you?

For those keeping score, the X-Men were not having their best day at the end of X2. Although the day had been won and saw both William Stryker's and Magneto's evil plans thwarted, the team had paid a terrible price. Jean Grey, one of the founding members of the X-Men, had sacrificed herself to protect the team. The Last Stand will find the team trying to cope with their loss, all the while dealing with both the apparent return of Jean Grey and a mysterious "cure" for mutants, forcing the team to rethink their allegiances. The game begins a few weeks after the end of X2, and it takes you through some of the events that set up the major conflicts in The Last Stand. As a result, the team of X-Men found in the game will differ from the one you'll see in The Last Stand movie--that is, Jean Grey won't be around, but Nightcrawler, who won't be appearing in the movie, will be. In fact, the game will explain just why Mr. Wagner is MIA in the new film.

The game finds the team returning to the Alkali Lake compound, which served as William Stryker's base of operations and housed the replica of Professor Xavier's telepathy-enhancing machine, Cerebro. Following Stryker's defeat, a team of X-Men is dispatched to retrieve equipment from the dupe Cerebro. Unfortunately, the team discovers that forces from HYDRA (an organization dedicated to global conquest, which should be familiar to comic readers) have decided to do some looting, which sets up the first of many conflicts you'll face in the game. Though specific details of the rest of the story are being kept under wraps, reps from Z-Axis did note that the narrative was crafted from an original story from venerable X-comic scribe Chris Claremont and X-movie scribe Zak Penn.

The tale will play out over the course of 28 single-player levels, which are broken up into three acts comprising various chapters. You'll go through the adventure using one of three members of the team--Wolverine, Nightcrawler, or Iceman. We were disappointed to see that our choice in characters was so limited, especially in the wake of the Legends franchise's wealth of choices, but the Z-Axis reps noted that it was a conscious decision made to let them focus on creating levels tailored to each of the hero's unique powers. Our demo offered us a brief look at how this customization is going to be accomplished. The first hero to be shown was Wolverine, whose level took place inside the Alkali Lake base and pitted him against HYDRA soldiers. Given the X-Man's facility in kicking butt, the soldiers have no choice but to make use of death traps to stop him. The gameplay obviously played to Wolverine's strengths as a brawler, providing him with ample opportunity to show off his melee abilities and his famous claws. The segment also showed off his rage meter, which fills as you attack or take damage. Once the meter is maxed out, you'll have access to powered-up moves and a heal-over-time ability.

The game will focus on only three X-men to provide a more focused gameplay experience.

The Nightcrawler demo was geared toward showing off the blue-skinned hero's acrobatic and teleportation prowess in a stealth-oriented level, which has you assisting non-player-character Colossus as he makes his way through another area of the Alkali base. The reps pointed out that melee combat would be difficult for the lithe and agile hero and that taking on multiple enemies would be extremely tough. We'll give the Z-Axis crew a "pass" for this faux pas, since as anyone who reads the X books or saw X2 can tell you, Mr. Wagner, while not the butt-kicker Wolverine is, does just fine for himself when the time comes to throw down. In the context of the game, this approach works fine, with the demo showing off how you'll use the environment like a massive jungle gym and swing your way to different areas.

When swinging isn't an option, you can use his trusty line-of-site teleportation power. When you need to keep a low profile, you can fade into the shadows and become nearly invisible to your foes, provided you're standing still. Another highlight is the ability to temporarily stick to walls--but you won't be able to make like Spider-Man and stick to them for extended periods of time. The feature that has us most excited, though, is the ability to use Nightcrawler's teleportation during a battle. While it doesn't look like you'll be able to perform the cool, multiple-teleport attacks seen in the comic, Z-Axis is working to let players perform one of Nightcrawler's signature attacks from the movie: teleporting around a foe quickly, landing a punch every time he materializes.