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Friday 8 February, 2008
[Gameplay]
For the second gaming session I played online co-op with three of my buddies. While the game was still the same old tired formula it was a much more enjoyable experience. When we all combined our attacks to unleash nifty special effects on enemy’s faces; I can honestly say those moments made up for some of the previous disappointment I had felt for the game.
We switched over from regular co-op to competitive multiplayer for the remainder of the session. The prospect of beating my friends served as a good motivational tool to continue playing this mediocre title. On a positive note, the unlockable alternative costumes for each hero/villain turned out to be really cool.
[Design]
There was very little innovation in terms of gameplay mechanics. The combat system was a rehash of old hack-n-slash games with a few alterations. The story was nothing new for the comic book world with a generic villainous attempt to conquer the universe. The only interesting element was the ability to combine special attacks to create even bigger and highly stylized attacks for dealing with a multitude of enemies on screen, but even that has been done before in variations.
The graphics were very subjective as Raven Software did away with the cell-shaded look of previous installations (X-Men Legends I and II). The collection of heroes and villains amassed for this title was impressive even if some of the roster slots felt wasteful (Elektra?). The constant collection of orbs and coins was more of a nuisance than a reward. Lastly, the RPG element of the game was also nothing new (allocating points to various skills/attacks), but it served the game well adding some replayability to the title.
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