REVIEW: For a big comic book nerd, like me, this game is awesome!
Even for people who aren’t comic book nerds, this can be a very fun game. It’s a fairly elaborate beat-em-up or dungeon-crawler style game with some cool RPG elements thrown in (like using money and XP to improve skills and weapon power). The game is best enjoyed when playing with a party of 4, but the AI for your teammates in the game is pretty good so it can be tackled solo as well.
What makes this game great is its adherence to Marvel canon with its characters, catch-phrases, powers, locations, villains, signature moves, and on and on and on. Marvel certainly made sure that some embarrassments from their past (I’m looking at you, Punisher for the NES) were not repeated with this game. It has tons of replay value with bonus missions (which are discovered along the main story mission) and unlockable characters/costumes. There are lots of great characters to choose from and it was nice to see cult favorite characters like Moon Knight and Blade included as well. The boss battles are absolutely epic in size and awesomeness!
One of the downsides to this game is that sometimes levels get a little tedious and repetitive, as is the case with many dungeon-crawling games. Some of the levels are kind of visually confusing as well, but not too bad. Also, when playing on the PS3, I had a classic controller and my 3 partners all had the SIXAXIS Controller. That prevented me from being able to do any of the tasks required to beat the game which kind of sucked – a little better job in game coding, allowing it to recognize controllers, would have been nice. The game also lacked any kind of challenge; you just button-mash your way through it. But, overall, this is an outstanding game especially for party-based play.
PS – Be sure to watch all the ending credits to get some laughs.
YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS IF YOU LIKED: X-Men Legends, X-Men Legends II, City of Heroes, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, Reading Marvel Comics!
Score: 9 out of 10
I pretty much agree with J-Bone's assessment of this game. I too am a bit of a comic book fan and this is creamy goodness. Having played the two X-Men Legengs games, I was very familiar with the genre and I was thrilled to see the games moved beyond just the X-Men. One of the other features that J-Bone did not mention is the "Team" concept. You can establish your own team after playing the game for a while. Your team also gains experience points which can grow into added benefits. Just another wrinkle to the game. I also agree that their is some definite problems with board repetition that did not exist in Legends II. All together, the game is great and highly recommended.
