Posted at April 29, 2006, 3:32 pm:
So I finally picked this game up today, having seen it drop down to just $15 at a local store. I had read that a lot of the issues from the first game that kept me from really picking it up again after a few hours in were addressed, and that this sequel was much better. Sadly, I have to disagree. All of the problems that I had with the original are still pretty much here.
To begin, I grew up playing the old side scrolling beat em ups from the arcades. And there was definetly a few years of my life where I would have considered this type of game to be the best genre out there.... by far. So naturally, I am a huge fan of most of the PS2 Baldur's gate style games that seem to have adopted that sort of mindless progressive violence gameplay.
Its not that X-Men isn't fun, its just that there is so much potential with a game like this that goes untapped. First off, You are given access to many different characters within the X-Men universe, but in the end, they come off as no more than different model skins applied to the same character. perhaps juggernaut's "strength" is better than cyclop's rating, but thats really all that seperates the two. there are unique special abilities available for each character, but they are all packed into an energy bar draining system, so are forced to become secondary gameplay features. punch, punch, super punch combo is pretty much 95% of the game. While I wouldn't mind having limited special abilities at my disposal that could get me out of a pinch, it is particularly annoying when an ability that the character would be able to use infinitely in the comic (such as cyclop's beam, or magneto's magnetic field) for some reason are suddenly extremely limited. Honestly, the whole reason I would be turned on by this game in concept from the start would be to be able to play as cyclops optic blasting everything in sight, or as Nightcrawler, able to teleport at will all over. Sadly, every character runs around punching and kicking everything most of the time.... even if that character would neve really fist fight in the comic.
And my last point touches on my biggest issue with this game: none of the characters are given creative default abilities. By this, I mean that Magneto doesnt automatically stop metal bullets from hitting him, Juggernaut doesnt easily punch away destructible objects in the world that would take another character several hits to destroy, Colossus doesnt reflect bullets off his skin, rogue and Storm cant fly through an entire level without touching the ground., nightcralwer doesnt walk any faster than Juggernaut, characters that can fly dont NOT fall to their death when they fall off the edge of a level.... and on and on. things that would be neat to give a character by default, abilities that dont tie into the user input, but rather reflect what that character would normally ALWAYS do (such as flying character NOT falling to their death in a pit..) in a given situation are simply not to be found. I think Wolverine slowly heals a bit over time, but thats all I really noticed. Where the abilities do come into play are at very specific and predetermined points in the levels, such as a blinking blue icon on the edge of a cliff, with a similar one across the gap (so that characters that can "fly" can hop from one point to another.) Whats unfortunate about this type of gameplay (other than the developers inability, through time, resources, desire, etc. to build a game capable of supporting gameplay where flying characters can always fly no problem anywhere on the level for an unlimited amount of time) is that only some characters can utilize these acces points. While at first this seems challenging after a fashion, in reality, it only forces the player to take the 5 minute trek back to the X-traction point at the beginning of the level to get a flying character, and trek back to be able to fly across. not exactly a very fun thing to do. A more on the fly character switching option would have done wonders in situations like this.
While the art in the game is good, the layout and design of the environments is very uninspired, and screams "I was made in a level editor." there arent really environments so much as there are mazes with an environmental aesthetic applied to them. A good deal of the game involves destroying crates, barrels, and misc objects in the environments. The original Baldurs gate PS2 game did a good job with their destructibles. Everything was easily broken, and explosive damaging objects were defined enough as to not accidentaly hit them over and over . For some reason, most of the objects that are destructible in Xmen are ridiculously powerful, taking sometimes a good 5 seconds of beating down to take out of the way (and thats 5 seconds of 4 characters attacking the object.) the explosive barrels did not seem to be very identifiable, and many of the characters in my team would die when i accidentaly hit one of these barrels. Again, I think it would have been very interesting if characters like juggernaut could plow through these objects like no other.
Fighting seemed equally devoid of any character. The same attack attack super attack combo that wolverine pulls off doesnt feel any faster than juggernaut's. I really wish they would have infused the common gameplay itself with some of the characters personalities.
The story is very boring. As a fan of the comic to a degree, it would be nice if the story and characters didnt feel like "xmen for people who dont already like xmen." I understand that with IP's like this, rarely are game designers given much freedom to experiment with story or characters, so im not really blaming the developers for this really. It would be nice though if whoever makes these decisions of the threshold of artistic liberty would realize that a new interesting story would in the end probably be more enjoyable to all than a rehashing of ideas and concepts already from the comics and movies. Especially with a game that is as text heavy as this. I dont think I have ever been so uninterested in exploring any given conversation branch.
I was hoping that it was going to be a better game than the original, but seems to have some of the same flaws I saw in the first one. Ill probably play a great deal more of it, since I do enjoy what type of simple gameplay is there to a degree. If nothing else, to be nostalgic for the old beat em ups. Oh, and in closing, I wish flying characters didnt fall to their death......
Original of the message was taken from http://www.conceptart.org/forums/
Replies:
just one correction, cyclops' beam is actually produced by his body co...I agree with most of that Oracrest.
I bought this when it initially came out, and I actually liked it alot...
man, i thought this thread would die into obscurity for sure.
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