X-Men: The Official Game

The enemies do show decent Artificial Intelligence at the beginning but as the game progresses they seem to react quicker and smarter creating a gradual difficulty curve. This tends to get boring after about the first two hours of gameplay and the boss fights don’t get any better. Typically they aren’t any harder than fighting the average mass of Hydra grunts. Kick, Punch, Heal is the basis of the boss fights with little to no flavor mixed in. At the end of each mission your character is rewarded with gene alterations that enhance several attributes. While fighting, look for Weapon X Pieces and Sentinel Tech that are available for collecting. These unlock oldschool costumes and danger room missions for when you’re tired of going through the story mode.

Like most games the story is told through cut-scenes. These scenes are 3-D and full of action creating a cinematic experience. Activision really dropped the ball with this as well. Think of their cut-scenes as…a flipbook on steroids; using a simple 2-D image and a flip book effect producing two-six total movements in the entire scene. It’s sad because the story is quite interesting but is robbed by its incompetent cut-scenes.

Like the rest of the game the graphics are also inconsistent. The player models and faces look as if they were on the Xbox platform rather than the 360. The environments do look some what next-gen, but I would put them at the bottom of the barrel. The game sports good particle effects with a few destructible props located throughout the environments splintering into pieces when hit. The graphics are disappointing to say the least.

The game handles OK except for one big problem… the camera. It doesn’t react quickly enough when you walk around a corner which allows your enemies to get 2-4 cheap shots on you before you can see them. This can lead to frustration when you die because of a dodgy camera. Wolverine and Nightcrawler both have a jump button, at least two attack buttons, a heal button, and a special button. Iceman has a boost button and two attack buttons. Combos can be harder to execute when fighting in a group of enemies but it’s nothing too serious.

The good thing about most licensed games is that they feature quality voiceovers. You’ll hear the voices of Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, the god-like voice of Patrick Stewart, and more. The main composition at the main menu is nice and has X-men written all over it. Wolverine’s claws, Nightcrawler’s teleportation, and Iceman’s ice attacks all sound rather nice.

Final Word

I look at this game and can see how some subtle changes could very well make this game great, but as usual a licensed game feels rushed leaving you with an incomplete experience. Though it has a good story  the horrible cuts-scenes, a dodgy camera, and rudimentary controls give me clarity of mind to say that this game isn’t worth the price tag it carries and joins the already full licensed game garbage bin.