  Multiple Man has Nightcrawler in a tizzy.
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Picking up the X-Men storyline just after the end of the "X2: X-Men United" movie, we find the the team of X-Men needing to journey back to Alkali Lake to recover missing components from Cerebro. Arriving at Alkali Lake, they discover that is is not the abandoned and destroyed base they left it after defeating Stryker, but rather that a mysterious new crew has resurected the base for some sinister goal. A goal which the X-Men must thwart as things head towards the events which will play out in the third X-Men movie "The Last Stand".
In "X-Men: The Official Game" you get to lead a team of X-Men into the base at Alkali lake to confront this new foe. Depending on the scenario you will play as either Wolverine, Iceman, or Nightcrawler with occasional minimal support from other X-Men mutants. It is nice to see that the team at Activision were able to secure the likenesses and the voice talents of Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Alan Cumming and Shawn Ashmore to recreate their film roles in the game environment and contribute to the story line created by Zak Penn, and Chris Claremont.
The graphical environment in the missions is rich with ragdoll physics and environmental effects handled by Havok. One of the nice features of the game is that is uses a series of comic book like scenes in between missions to carry the storyline along. The audio effects help carry the experience but don't overwhelm the game, and the musical score caries many of the familiar themes from the silver screen to the computer screen adding to the ambiance.
Each of the three main characters have unique abilities which you get to experience as you play through the missions, from Wolverines furious claw attacks, to Icemans aerial acrobatics and ice beams, to Nightcrawlers ability to teleport from one part of the scene to the next which allows him to execute a sudden surprise attack from in behind of the opponents. In addition to the expected abilities, as you play the game you can collect what essentially amounts to genetic points to be spent on evolving your mutants ability. You can make their attacks stronger, make them heal faster, block better, or even improve Icemans balance on the sheet of ice he flys around on.
Ultimately this game focuses on the conflict between the mutants and their adversaries and that means that there is plenty of fighting in the game. In fact at times the fighting can become a little tedious as nearly endless waves of para militaristic grunts hurl themselves at the mutants with out much in the way of strategy on their part. Even though you can play each mission on three different difficulty levels, with the higher skill levels yielding a greater number of genetic points, it still comes down to a lot of button mashing in order to defeat the rank and file. Fortunately there are a few interesting boss type fights in the game to keep it from becoming overly stale including some interesting members from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
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For the fans of the movies, and of the comic books on which the movies are based, you will likely enjoy the story in the game, particularly as a method of connecting the story of the second movie with the third. As for longevity and replayability it is fairly lacking, which is a pity given the excellent talents put into it.
Minimum Hardware Requirements
CPU: Intel Pentium 3 1.2 Ghz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ Ghz equivalent
OS: Microsoft Windows 2000/XP
Memory: 256mb
Disk Space: 3gb
Video: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 64mb hardware accelerated video card
Audio: Windows compatible sound system
CD-ROM: 16x Speed CD-ROM drive
Controls: Windows 2000/XP compatible mouse and keyboard, additional support for USB Gamepad
WHAM! Rating: |
6.5 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
T (Teen). |
Official Web Site: |
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