It’s a decent time to review the new Xmen game since the film is coming out soon. I’ve had my eye on the game for a long time, but it always got stepped on by the other big titles. (Shattered Dimensions, Iron Man 2) Still, I finally managed to buy it and I can safely say that it does manage to look unimpressive, but it’s a decent game anyway.

I have to say that I barely got the game. The first time I bought it for my Birthday…it did not work. Shaken and confused, but not out for the count; I went to Gamestop and exchanged it for another copy. The game worked this time……for a while. Luckily, it worked long enough for me to complete it. Upon my second playthrough, it started to freeze a little more and the sound got a little sketchy. You may wonder why I decided to complete Story Mode twice right? Well, I was aiming for the Platinum and I actually succeeded this time! Number 8 for me and I won’t be forgetting it. Anyway, that’s enough of a prelude…time for the actual game commentary.

You choose which character to play as during the very beginning of the game. They’re all made up, but I quickly went for the guy who had a sinister past. His father was against mutants and he’s not very fond of them either. Will this guy manage to change his ways or will he succumb to the darkness? Admittedly, I also chose him because he’s a long range fighter. I really like close combat, but you don’t get quite as many opportunities to go long range so I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

The game has 8 levels, but to spice things up, we’ve also been given some choices. Throughout the game, you can decide to be a hero or a villain depending on the choices that you make. It’s an interesting idea in theory, but the sad truth is that it doesn’t make a difference. No matter what you do, you’ll be doing the exact same things. There may be a minor difference here and there, but it’s extremely minor. It’s made very clear once you’ve played the game both times. Ah well….maybe there wasn’t enough budget to make extra levels.

Back to the plot! A group of anti mutant guys have begun attacking mutants and the actual mutants are being framed by persons unknown. We also have Mr. Hodge, a man who wants to help the mutants out. Cyclops wants to find the villains and put an end to the madness while Magneto wants the same thing…but he will use permanent means. The hero is forced to make the tough choices as things get intense!

The graphics are admittedly sub par, but the cover probably gave you some advanced warning on that. Seriously, since when does a company not even bother to make the cover look good? The in game graphics are basically PS2 level and they aren’t impressive at all. Unfortunately, the game also can’t handle too much action at once so there is a high chance that you can start counting the pixels once you use your ultimate attack. Anytime there are too many fighters onscreen, you can count on some lag in the gameplay. I’m pretty sure that is also why the game has a tendency to freeze. It can’t be coincidence that both of my copies ultimately started to freeze.

The actual gameplay is decent. It’s as generic as third person action games get, but it’s a formula that definitely works. The gameplay is basically the same as a Spider Man installment, but with less variety. You’ll likely spend the game spamming the same attack over and over and over at least 1000 times. The gameplay is extremely repetitious and if I were not such a fan, I probably would have needed to turn the game off a few times. Each character gets 4 different superpowers to use, but odds are that you will only use two of them. The giant laser came in handy and the final smash was great, but I completely ignored the other two super attacks. The super attacks are also incredibly overpowered and they are capable of taking down almost any boss in a single blow. The developers likely noticed this in the final stages of development so you can notice a quick fix. The bosses get a quick moment of invincibility when their health drops below a certain point. This just prolongs everything, but it had to be done right?

This review is turning out to be pretty negative right? No worries, I’m getting to the positives…but first let’s look at some more negatives! I didn’t fully appreciate this until my second playthrough…but you cannot skip cutscenes. That’s terrible! If you lose a fight, you’ll have to keep watching the cutscenes over and over again. I haven’t seen a game do this in a long time. Skipping cutscenes should really be mandatory at this point. This is why I’m glad that I ended up playing the game twice as I almost didn’t realize this the first time. (I don’t skip cutscenes on the first playthrough and I only lost once, but there was no cutscene at that point)

Let’s talk about the character portrayals for a second. Cyclops is the heroic leader….but he’s shown to be very weak. Magneto easily defeats him twice in the span of one level. It’s also a little fishy seeing Cyclops let this new recruit (who can’t be trusted) do all of the missions on his own while the Xmen evacuate civilians. The Xmen help at times…but not very often. Wolverine and Northstar look terrible because they fall under the mind control very easily. Gambit is actually a villain in this game, which was unexpected,

Don’t worry, the heroes aren’t the only ones who look bad! Quicksilver is consistently humiliated throughout the game. He talks tough, but then he gets captured by the anti mutant group…twice. He also gets one shotted by one of the bosses. Magneto also seems to be a little gullible as he actually believes that Cyclops shot down one of the helicopters, which resulted in a mutant perishing. (I do have to say that I was surprised at that scene. One of the big Xmen characters actually dies!) It wouldn’t have been completely unreasonable to think that if Magneto had not been framed a few levels earlier…

Still, aside from those issues, the characters looked decently accurate. Colossus trying to shred the forcefields with his teeth seemed a little out of character, but it happens. Either way you’ll likely forget what the characters are saying as soon as you walk away from them. You’re just waiting to beat up on the hundreds of look alike minions.

The soundtrack is decent. I actually remember a few of the tunes, which is an improvement from the average superhero game. It’s definitely not a 5 Star soundtrack, but I would give it a 3 for effort. The themes are catchy and the best one is the Sentinel boss theme. Another positive is the trophies that you can get for the PS3. None of them are outragous or essentially impossible and they add to the replay value.

Replay Value is one of the few positives for the game. It’s not nearly as extensive as Bleach Soul Resurreccion, but you can play this game for a while. There are 15 challenges to complete and a lot of X-Genes to find. I almost beat the game with 100% during a normal playthrough, but I imagine that the final objects will be tough to find. Also, any game that has trophies automatically has replay value…as long as the trophies are fun. The 8 levels will likely take you around 4-6 hours overall. Then you just need to endure the long credits!

I believe that I’ve basically covered all of the bases. Overall, this game barely manages to stay in the good category thanks to the gameplay, soundtrack, and replay value. The main reason why it did not reach a 7 was due to the short length of the game, the animation, and the fact that you cannot skip cutscenes. This is a good game to rent, but I can’t say that I’d highly recommend buying it. For 10-15 dollars I would recommend picking it up, but if it’s any higher then you should wait a while. Go and pick up Spiderman Shattered Dimensions instead!

Overall 6/10