Re: X-Men Legends II
- From: Billy Bissette <baines@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 00:05:57 GMT
"Astrobiochemist" <CCSBeyond@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:1134148927.433917.26300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
> I'm about to finish X-Men Legends and I started to look at getting
> X-Men Legends 2 since the first one was so enjoyable. According to
> Wikipedia, the game as unlockable characters such as X-Man, Pyro, Cable
> and Iron Man. However, it also says that some of these characters are
> only available on the PC or the PSP versions of the game, which seems
> like a bit of a gyp. Has anyone played those versions of the game and
> unlocked characters specific only to that version?
Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube have Deadpool, Iron Man, and Xavier. Those
three aren't as fleshed out as the regular roster, but mostly remain
competative (and arguably in some situations are outright overpowered.)
Sabretooth is only playable on the PC. The PC also has
Deadpool, Iron Man, and Xavier. I don't know if it has anyone else.
As Sony apparently requires exclusive content for PSP ports of
multiplatform games, and just to move more copies, it has even more
exclusives. I don't think it has Sabretooth though. It has the
console characters, Pyro, X-Man, Cable, and I've read it also has
one or two other versions of Jean?
As a note, the default roster this time seemingly tried to remove
"clone" characters. Several of the characters in Legends 1 overlapped
quite a bit in how they operated, or how they appeared to operate.
That has mostly been removed here. For example, rather than Jubilee
and Gambit, there is only Gambit. I've heard though that the
non-console extra characters are fairly clone-ish in design.
> I also read that the game was based on the "Age of Apocolypse"
> Storyline.
The game is based upon Apocalypse. As with Legends 1, it draws
aspects of different storylines to create its own universe. Legends 2
isn't an alternate future/present where Xavier died, rather it is the
current day sequel of Legends 1 where Apocalypse chooses to attack.
It does draw heavily from AoA, but it isn't AoA. AoA costumes are
present for most characters. Some of the missions are based off of
AoA events. And some aren't. Sugarman appears, and it mentions that
he escaped from the AoA timeline to arrive in the Legends timeline.
> Well, if you have knowledge of what the game is actually
> like, I'd appreciate any posts about it and if you liked it.
I'm going to say plenty of negatives below. The game is still fun
though, and is mostly improved over Legends 1.
The game is streamlined for multiplayer play. The forced solo
missions that frequented Legends 1 are gone. Things to do at the
hub (the Mansion in Legends 1, varies by Act in Legends 2) are
reduced, as there are less people to talk to and no items hidden
there. Beyond the first mission, all characters will be available
for all missions. You can also replay prior missions, to search for
missed items or level a bit more or gain more money and equipment.
(The danger rooms also still exists for leveling. And in the last
game Act, you can revisit the prior boss stage to find it always
restocks all money and items, unlike other areas.)
A downside of the streamlining is that the story suffers. Mission
briefings, for example, are now almost all optional. You actually
have to go out of your way to view them now. The story is a bit
more chaotic, bouncing around as the X-Men mostly react to whatever
event sent them to a new location. The locations aren't so great
either. Genosha is a pretty awful start for the game, where you
fight mainly mutant insects and robots. And I never liked the Savage
Land, but you spend an Act there doing...well...things...
The game feels a bit shorter than the first due to the streamlining
as well.
There is now a difficulty selection, though I don't recall if Hard
is available before you beat the game the first time. Easy is kind
of pointless, as the difficulty curve of the game is kind of off.
(The game gets easier as you progress, rather than harder. The enemies
don't do a good enough job of keeping pace with your increasing
abilities combined with your improving equipment.)
You can import characters from a saved game into a new game. So you
can beat Normal, and play again on Hard using the leveled characters
from your Normal game. If you play Hard without importing characters,
your starting characters will all be at level 45 to compensate.
(Note: If you use the default Hard stats, you are able to reassigned
stats and skill points at the character selection screen, but they
will save as set the moment you leave the selection screen. And you
will *want* to change them, as the default assignments are evenly
distributed while you will want and need to focus on certain specifics.)
Powers are changed from Legends 1. In Legends 1, you had four
attacks, each of a different design: single target, area target, buff,
and X-Treme/super. After leveling an attack enough, it gained new
abilities that stacked onto the previous abilities. Iceman's beam,
for example, started as a beam that slowed the target and evolved into
a beam that froze the target.
In Legends 2, characters have multiple options for each attack type,
which are leveled independently and do not stack. Iceman, for example,
now has a slow beam and a separate freeze beam. Other than the freeze
beam (I think) requiring you spend at least one point in the slow beam,
there is not interdependence. Note that the degree of difference in
powers is also a bit misleading. When you look at Juggernaut's attacks,
his Widowmaker looks to do a ton more damage than his Thunder Punch.
But if you max both skills to your current skill limits, you would
notice that they do similar damage. The differences become a matter
of skill points spent and the "extra" effect of the attacks, which at
times can be quite minor. (Note: You can pay to reallocate your skill
points, but it quickly becomes *very* expensive. Best you quickly
pick certain things to focus on, and actually avoid many of the skills
entirely. Juggernaut's Widowmaker, for example, is a complete waste.
Block is a complete waste for everyone. Etc.)
Some powers have been greatly depowered. Storm's Chain Lighting,
for example, has been crippled in its effectiveness. On the other hand,
some other abilities are even stronger. Again in the case of Storm,
her large tornado/whirlwind can easily juggle a group to death. A
particular example of the latter are the second X-Tremes for characters,
which at times can be almost insanely overpowered when used correctly.
Legends 1 was a bit glitchy, and equipment/power interactions weren't
always well considered. Legends 2 is worse in this area. The freeze
glitch related to the item cache is still present, for example. Items
that boost a single skill will often display as boosting all skills
unless you remove and re-equip them. Resistance percents often aren't
displayed correctly unless you remove/equip a piece of equipment.
In cases, some skill descriptions are wrong, and in some cases the
skills are outright broken. Minor issues are things like Teleport
saying you gain the ability to carry an ally at level 3, while you
actually gain the ability at level 1. Moderate are that some item
combinations cause some item damage to be added twice. Major are things
like Iron Man's Motion Amplifier boosting *all* his damage, not just
what it says. Supposedly, Gambit has a similar boost that incorrectly
boosts his damage ten times or more. Very dependent on character things
are how various damage boosts from items is stacked onto continuous
attacks. (Continuous attacks repeatedly do small amounts of damage
every half-second or so, but each "hit" gets full benefit from items,
which quite often can be much greater than the actual attack damage.)
Also quite abusable (and quite problematic if you don't catch it) is
that Nightcrawler's Teleport Frenzy incorrectly uses the EP cost of his
Teleport Attack, even though the skill screen shows the proper damage.
(This is very abusable if you do not put any points into Teleport
Attack, as it will be a 0EP attack. You can then max Teleport Frenzy
to your heart's delight, and it will never cost a single EP to use.)
Annoying things are like Jean's Mental Mastery skill not boosting her
attacks that do Mental damage, rather it only boosts damage bonuses
from items that do Mental damage. (Which makes Mental Mastery
worthless.) Frustrating is that damage boosts on Magneto's Magnetic
Shell will wrongly break the target out of their freeze (as Iceman's
freeze still works properly, breaking only on radiation damage boosts.)
Sometimes frustrating is that you cannot use your second X-Treme attack
at all unless you put at least one level into the first X-Treme.
Annoying is that Rogue's Heal skill removes the skill abilities of
all the characters until you go into their equipment screens and
remove/requip an item.
If you pay attention and play around, you can warp the above issues
into extremely good damages.
.
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