Here we go again with the attacks on video games and how they contain too much violence or other suggestive themes. This whole debate is so worn out that I'm already fed up with this blog post 37 words into it. As long as there are bored politicians on capital hill, overly-worried parents, or people who just take some topics way too seriously this whole argument will never end, and chances are that none of the above are going to take time to google MetaMeeks' blog or anyone's blog for that matter. People love thinking they're right, and they want to continue to think they're right even if all evidence points otherwise so I'm struggling to see how I'm not wasting my time especially when the topic is video games.
Quick question: What is the second word in video games? IT'S A GAME! It's meant to be fun and not taken seriously. They're not called "video reality" or "video life" for a reason. Don't you dare try to argue that they influence what the player does in real life or how they act too because I have yet to see someone dressed up as a frog, hopping across a freeway, dodging cars, and then coming back to life where they left off if they die. Give people at least enough credit to understand what's real and what isn't.
On a similar note, PLEASE be sure you have all the info before you complain about anything people. Take the whole Resident Evil 5 "racism" fiasco for example. People started freaking out and playing the racist card when they saw Chris Redfield shooting Las Plagas infected black people in a trailer. Everyone that complained about this failed to wait till it was revealed that the game takes place in Africa. It kind of makes sense that infected people were dominantly black, and I'm not saying that because I particularly enjoy killing any one race over another, I'm saying that because killing a bunch of infected Chinese people, for example, wouldn't make an ounce of sense in a game set in Africa.
Here's a thought experiment for everyone: Let's say it's my birthday and my mom promises to take me out to Applebee's for dinner so we hop in the car and away we go. While on our way to Applebee's though she says "Oh, there's been a change of plans; we're not going to Applebee's anymore." Am I going to start throwing a fit because we're not going to Applebee's as originally planned? No because we're already in the car so we're obviously going somewhere so I will wait to find out where we're going. Turns out we pull into Chuck E. Cheese (my favorite place to eat out) and all my family is there to celebrate. WHOOO! I have a great time, win that giant stuffed Chuck E. that costs 2,000 tickets, and I live happily ever after. Now how pointless and childish would it have been for me to complain and start kicking and screaming when I found out we weren't going to Applebee's? Get the picture?
Back to this whole debate: where were these equal rights activists when Leon was shooting up Spaniards in Resident Evil 4 to save the President's incompetent blond hair blue-eyed daughter? I'm dominantly Mexican and yeah that's a far cry from the Spaniards in RE4, but you don't see me complaining about the Mexican gangs in the Grand Theft Auto series or about how every Mexican character in a fighter has to be a luchadore (El Fuerte anyone?). It's because, once again, IT'S A GAME! So everyone complaining can get over themselves, find something else to do, and go watch your favorite blockbuster films (because those are all violent free and are sent straight to us by God himself).
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days Review
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (pronounced 358 days over 2) for the DS is the newest installment of the extremely popular series that combines Final Fantasy and Disney characters in the same universe. This game, taking place between the second and third installments attempts to clear up the history of some of the lesser known but still crucial characters, and fill in the 358 day gap that was missing in the now continuous story line. This Kingdom Hearts, like every other game before it contains the basic concepts of the series but introduces aspects that make it unique in it's own way.
Returning aspects are the battle system, item collection, and multiple worlds you'll visit in your game. The game is still at heart, the same. You'll run through with your keyblade, bringing down any heartless you see in order to achieve your goal in the game. The fighting starts out pretty slow, but as you progress you will get new abilities that will both make you stronger and improve the overall fighting experience. Things like being able to jump higher, glide, air dash, upgraded magic, and better combos are among these upgrades. The overall progression of the game, which has been the same in every game, has the player going from world to world, interacting with the characters, and completing an objective. The sad thing is that although this may be fun for people who are rather new to the series, veterans may find this a bit redundant because no new worlds are added to this game and there's only so many times you can talk with the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland without wanting to strike him down with your all powerful weapon. The concept of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" may be a useful philosophy but updating the lineup of worlds you can visit isn't the same as fixing. Item collection also makes a triumphant return and is still a welcome addition to the game play. The beauty of the Kingdom Hearts series and most Square-Enix games for that matter is that there are multiple incentives to just run around fighting more bad guys. Since it is a role-playing game fighting helps you level up but it also gives you items or money (spelled munny in the Kingdom Hearts franchise) that are necessary to power up your character even further. It adds more depth to the game which helps take away from having to do the same routine, different world throughout all 30 hours of the game.
Some brand new features that were added to the game include the leveling up system, upgrading magic, missions, and multiplayer which is a first for the series. The most prominent of these additions is the mission aspect of the game. Because you will be playing a different character for the first time in the series, the way you go about the levels isn't entirely the same. Roxas, the main character, works for an organization in the game and because of this he is given missions to complete every day. For 93 missions straight almost all you'll be doing is waking up into a common area that acts as headquarters where you can take care of any customization, receiving you mission, completing your mission, and then repeating the same thing over and over again. It's basically like having a job, and even though killing heartless and taking names may be the coolest job in the world, it is still a job in which you do the same general task every day. I personally would've liked to see some adversity in the sense of these missions but there are some features that take away from this somewhat negative aspect. Instead of just fighting until you get level ups and leveling up until you get new abilities, there is a panel system which almost acts like a distant relative of Tetris. Every level up, ability, magic, weapon, and equipment all contain there specifically shaped blocks that must be arranged and fitted into this grid in order to use them during battle. There are also various panels that level up your abilities, magic, and weapons which can be linked to the corresponding slot in order to upgrade them even further. While this may seem as a last minute addition to the game that is more annoying than helpful, I found this to take up the perfect amount of time from game play and actually helped by breaking up the repetitiveness of the game. Because of this system, the magic upgrades are also different. Instead of blizzard turning into blizzara, then into blizzaga, each is there own panel which can be leveled up and by doing this, each tier of magic has its own effects. One may just be a blast of that element, one may be a radial spell that hits everyone in the area, and one may be a mine in which you place for your enemies to run into. This adds even more customization to a game that already contains a plethora of it. The last big change brought to the series is multiplayer which no one can logically complain about. You play through the exact same missions as you would in story mode, but with up to three other friends and nineteen playable characters. The group can either work together to complete a mission and receive points that go towards unlockable items in the main story or you can concentrate on competing against each other to see who gets the most points in the mission. Either way, multiplayer plays extremely well and is a must for any fan of the series.
The main thing to know about this game, and the reason that this review didn't focus on regular topics touched upon in a review such as graphics and re-playability, is because this is not a game for newcomers. If you're playing this game then you should know most if not all of the Kingdom Hearts story up until this point. There is no introduction, no brief summary, and no exposition. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is not the opportune game to jump in the Kingdom Hearts series, period. Square-Enix expects you to have played the other games and so for the sake of this review, so do I. To put to rest any remaining questions though, the graphics are very impressive for a DS. Some of the cinema scenes are on the same level of some from the original game, and the re-playability is at a very acceptable level with multiplayer and unlockables. The only thing keeping this game from receiving a perfect score is it's repetitiveness. Even being a long time, die-hard fan of the series, I had to force myself through some of the missions so I could finish the story. All in all though, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a great game that both clears up a lot of unanswered questions about the series and brings an abundant amount of exciting new features to the series. I'm giving it 4 stars out of 5.
Returning aspects are the battle system, item collection, and multiple worlds you'll visit in your game. The game is still at heart, the same. You'll run through with your keyblade, bringing down any heartless you see in order to achieve your goal in the game. The fighting starts out pretty slow, but as you progress you will get new abilities that will both make you stronger and improve the overall fighting experience. Things like being able to jump higher, glide, air dash, upgraded magic, and better combos are among these upgrades. The overall progression of the game, which has been the same in every game, has the player going from world to world, interacting with the characters, and completing an objective. The sad thing is that although this may be fun for people who are rather new to the series, veterans may find this a bit redundant because no new worlds are added to this game and there's only so many times you can talk with the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland without wanting to strike him down with your all powerful weapon. The concept of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" may be a useful philosophy but updating the lineup of worlds you can visit isn't the same as fixing. Item collection also makes a triumphant return and is still a welcome addition to the game play. The beauty of the Kingdom Hearts series and most Square-Enix games for that matter is that there are multiple incentives to just run around fighting more bad guys. Since it is a role-playing game fighting helps you level up but it also gives you items or money (spelled munny in the Kingdom Hearts franchise) that are necessary to power up your character even further. It adds more depth to the game which helps take away from having to do the same routine, different world throughout all 30 hours of the game.
Some brand new features that were added to the game include the leveling up system, upgrading magic, missions, and multiplayer which is a first for the series. The most prominent of these additions is the mission aspect of the game. Because you will be playing a different character for the first time in the series, the way you go about the levels isn't entirely the same. Roxas, the main character, works for an organization in the game and because of this he is given missions to complete every day. For 93 missions straight almost all you'll be doing is waking up into a common area that acts as headquarters where you can take care of any customization, receiving you mission, completing your mission, and then repeating the same thing over and over again. It's basically like having a job, and even though killing heartless and taking names may be the coolest job in the world, it is still a job in which you do the same general task every day. I personally would've liked to see some adversity in the sense of these missions but there are some features that take away from this somewhat negative aspect. Instead of just fighting until you get level ups and leveling up until you get new abilities, there is a panel system which almost acts like a distant relative of Tetris. Every level up, ability, magic, weapon, and equipment all contain there specifically shaped blocks that must be arranged and fitted into this grid in order to use them during battle. There are also various panels that level up your abilities, magic, and weapons which can be linked to the corresponding slot in order to upgrade them even further. While this may seem as a last minute addition to the game that is more annoying than helpful, I found this to take up the perfect amount of time from game play and actually helped by breaking up the repetitiveness of the game. Because of this system, the magic upgrades are also different. Instead of blizzard turning into blizzara, then into blizzaga, each is there own panel which can be leveled up and by doing this, each tier of magic has its own effects. One may just be a blast of that element, one may be a radial spell that hits everyone in the area, and one may be a mine in which you place for your enemies to run into. This adds even more customization to a game that already contains a plethora of it. The last big change brought to the series is multiplayer which no one can logically complain about. You play through the exact same missions as you would in story mode, but with up to three other friends and nineteen playable characters. The group can either work together to complete a mission and receive points that go towards unlockable items in the main story or you can concentrate on competing against each other to see who gets the most points in the mission. Either way, multiplayer plays extremely well and is a must for any fan of the series.
The main thing to know about this game, and the reason that this review didn't focus on regular topics touched upon in a review such as graphics and re-playability, is because this is not a game for newcomers. If you're playing this game then you should know most if not all of the Kingdom Hearts story up until this point. There is no introduction, no brief summary, and no exposition. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is not the opportune game to jump in the Kingdom Hearts series, period. Square-Enix expects you to have played the other games and so for the sake of this review, so do I. To put to rest any remaining questions though, the graphics are very impressive for a DS. Some of the cinema scenes are on the same level of some from the original game, and the re-playability is at a very acceptable level with multiplayer and unlockables. The only thing keeping this game from receiving a perfect score is it's repetitiveness. Even being a long time, die-hard fan of the series, I had to force myself through some of the missions so I could finish the story. All in all though, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a great game that both clears up a lot of unanswered questions about the series and brings an abundant amount of exciting new features to the series. I'm giving it 4 stars out of 5.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Video Game Journalism Revolution
The numerous conflicts about video game journalism are very interesting and all have their own bone to pick with the industry. Whether it be the movement of most video game articles to the world wide web or the movement towards "New Game Journalism", they all have a common thread and I believe that to be that video game journalism has hit a rut (and not the good kind either). It's reached a point where magazines struggle just to stay afloat and every review or preview is the exact same way. I'm not saying that way is bad though. I believe just laying out the goods, the bads, and the "meh"s of every game lets readers know exactly what the game is about, but come on... it does get a little tiresome after a while. That is why I am a strong advocate of New Game Journalism.
All of Kieron Gillen's ideas make perfect sense. Why would someone review a game like Halo 3, Left 4 Dead, or World of Warcraft without mentioning the multiplayer experience? A community can very well ruin a game; there's no doubt about that. I enjoy pretty much every game under the sun, but when I get beat (yeah, it happens to everyone once in a while) and return to the game lobby to hear people screaming "yeah, suck it b****. I pwned your a** and banged your mom" it kinda makes me think that the game isn't even worth playing if people are getting to be that big of D bags about something that's supposed to be fun. What I'm saying is that every game has it's own pulse and feel to it just like every human does so we should treat each one differently in our analysis of it. Focus on what the game is made for. Most people wouldn't greet the president with the phrase "what's up buttercup?" if they're meeting him for the first time because he's the president, not some long-time snuggle buddy (or whatever you're into). In the same sense you wouldn't only look at the story when analyzing Halo 3; you're just asking for angry fanboys if you do that. Yeah, it has a campaign but I guarantee the developers didn't walk in to work on the first day of development for the game and say "let's put all the attention on the story. We gotta make it bigger, better, and bolder". Let's just use some common sense with our critiques.
As far as the battle between magazine's and internet reviews: Cheez-Its beat Cheese Nips every time.... That is about as useful of a statement as me writing an entire paper on the subject. With the internet came a lot of changes and there's not much anyone can do about it. Music, games, books, programs, and many more things are all mediums that have the same nemesis. Unless we go back in time with our DeLorean and slay Al Gore for inventing the internet, it's going to be here to stay so learn to love it.
So there you have it, short and sweet. Now let's go start a Video Game Journalism revolution.
Edit: And for the record magazines do not have a toilet browsing advantage. I've seen people with their laptops in a public stall numerous times. Just a side note.
All of Kieron Gillen's ideas make perfect sense. Why would someone review a game like Halo 3, Left 4 Dead, or World of Warcraft without mentioning the multiplayer experience? A community can very well ruin a game; there's no doubt about that. I enjoy pretty much every game under the sun, but when I get beat (yeah, it happens to everyone once in a while) and return to the game lobby to hear people screaming "yeah, suck it b****. I pwned your a** and banged your mom" it kinda makes me think that the game isn't even worth playing if people are getting to be that big of D bags about something that's supposed to be fun. What I'm saying is that every game has it's own pulse and feel to it just like every human does so we should treat each one differently in our analysis of it. Focus on what the game is made for. Most people wouldn't greet the president with the phrase "what's up buttercup?" if they're meeting him for the first time because he's the president, not some long-time snuggle buddy (or whatever you're into). In the same sense you wouldn't only look at the story when analyzing Halo 3; you're just asking for angry fanboys if you do that. Yeah, it has a campaign but I guarantee the developers didn't walk in to work on the first day of development for the game and say "let's put all the attention on the story. We gotta make it bigger, better, and bolder". Let's just use some common sense with our critiques.
As far as the battle between magazine's and internet reviews: Cheez-Its beat Cheese Nips every time.... That is about as useful of a statement as me writing an entire paper on the subject. With the internet came a lot of changes and there's not much anyone can do about it. Music, games, books, programs, and many more things are all mediums that have the same nemesis. Unless we go back in time with our DeLorean and slay Al Gore for inventing the internet, it's going to be here to stay so learn to love it.
So there you have it, short and sweet. Now let's go start a Video Game Journalism revolution.
Edit: And for the record magazines do not have a toilet browsing advantage. I've seen people with their laptops in a public stall numerous times. Just a side note.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Review
With the huge success and fan base that Marvel Ultimate Alliance brought, it was a no-brainer that a sequel would be coming out sooner or later. This time however, the main developer of the first game, Raven Software, passed the reins onto Vicarious Visions. Under new development Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 set its sights on being bigger and better in every sense, and in most ways it doesn't disappoint.
First off, Vicarious Visions decided to stay true to the comic books and go with the widely popular Civil War story arch which places super heroes on opposite sides, battling against one another over the Superhuman Registration Act. This requires the player to make a choice about one third through the game of either joining Iron Man's team and fight for the government or joining Captain America's team and fight against the government, with each side having three exclusive playable characters. Being taken straight from probably Marvel Comics' most famous series, no one can really complain about most of the story, and I say most because the last third or so of the game is a new story line, made just for the game, that is apparent when that point in the game is reached. The story takes a sudden turn, causing a drastic change in the tone of the game, and goes in a direction that the player can tell was written by the developers due to its over the top feel for the setup of the final stage/boss battle. When the player finishes the game it almost leaves a thought of "...that's it?" running through their head, and if they're a long time comic book fan that's familiar with the story it will just leave a sour taste in their mouth. Although compared to the last game which was all story written specifically for the game, I would still have to say that Vicarious Visions made an improvement. There are moments in the game where the player actually feels like they are in the Marvel Universe and must fight through enemies to save Captain America in time or make a desperate escape from the government, and this is exactly what a person wants out of a storyline.
The visuals are definitely a step up in the new installment. Being developed as an Original Xbox game that was just moved to the 360, the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance wasn't exactly the most cutting edge in the graphics department, to put it lightly, so that kind of made VV's job easier. Bringing in a comparison to all other 360 games, the visuals are a tad above par. It's easy to see when the camera zooms in that the character models received a lot of attention, but sadly the same amount of attention wasn't given to all aspects of the game as seen in the on screen explosions, destroyed debris, and super hero's powers that look extremely outdated. This may seem like a minor set back but when Vicarious Visions promotes the fact that almost all of the environment is destructible the player would think that destroying everything in sight should look good. The fact that the entire team will be either blowing things up or using super powers at nearly all times makes this really noticeable.
The gameplay is about the same as the previous installment. The player runs into a level, beats up the bad guys by mashing buttons, finishes their objectives, gets lifted back to headquarters, gets their new mission, and then starts the whole cycle over again. Even though this is one and the same as the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, VV did do themselves a favor by making each character a unique experience as opposed to the last game in which every character within a category (ie. brutes, focus users, etc.) played the exact same. It's possible to put Hulk and Juggernaut in one's group and tackle the bad guys, pummeling their face into the ground with the jolly green giant, and then switch to Juggernaut and have a different kind of fun elbow dropping people. Adding to the character aspect of the game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has one of the most diverse character lineups anyone will ever see which helps out the fun factor. No other super hero game before this will let the player run through Washington DC playing as Green Goblin, Deadpool, Thor, and Jean Grey at the same time. Even in comparison to the previous installment, this is extremely diverse. The re-playability of the game is also in the improvement. While in the previous installment there was only one linear story line, the civil war gives two stories for the price of one. Once the player is done with their first play through they can restart the game with their upgraded characters and choose whichever side they didn't take during the first run through, or pick the same side if that's what they want.
Other new components that Vicarious Visions added to the game include the fusion system, power buffs, and boosts. While new aspects are always welcome, I feel like there was more the development team could have done with their ideas. Take the fusion system for example. This is the first game to finally do what was promised as far as doing different combination of powers. The other games would just say "combo" at the top of the screen when one target was hit with two different abilities and add 10 damage to the attack. This game actually has a special fusion bar that let's the player take two characters and fuse their powers together to make one "super move" with a special animation and do a devastating amount of damage. The problem I have with this is that after a while I started seeing the same 4 or 5 types of fusions, just different colored. For example, if the player fuses Storm's and Human Torch's power they get a fire tornado, and if they fuse Jean Grey's and Iceman's powers they get an ice tornado which looks about the same just white for the ice instead of red for fire. With around 250 different combination amongst all the characters however, I guess VV had to have some kind of overlap somewhere. The power buffs, also known as passive abilities which are always active, are another addition to the game, although I would call them more of a return since they were present in the X-Men Legends series. There are no complaints here. The buffs only add to the gameplay and help to make each character unique which is the biggest strength of a game featuring 25 playable heroes. The final addition is the boost system. In this game boosts are essentially equipment in every other Role-Playing game. All they do is give the characters additional perks to help the player survive. The difference in this game however is that boosts may be earned by doing special objectives such as defeat a certain number of enemies with a specific character. While some may find this annoying, I found it to be a nice distraction or goal to aim towards to take away from the repetitiveness of the game.
My final, miscellaneous, complaint about the game is the depth of the characters. Trying to take away from the uselessness of the plethora of powers for each character in the last game, Vicarious Visions decided to give every character four powers and that is it. I have a problem with this because yeah, some of the powers may have been worthless in the last game, but they still presented options to the player on which abilities to use. This game gives one for each face button and that's it. I, personally would have liked to see more to give the player more customization over there characters.
All in all, while the game does have its minor flaws, it shines more than it disappoints. Players may find themselves sticking with their four favorite characters but when they realize that every hero/villain is unique they will have a blast trying out all of them. Also, the additions to this game bump it into the above average category but if more attention would have been given to them, the game would have had the potential to be really good. In conclusion, between the storyline, detailed character models and environments, and diverse lineup this game is far from disappointing and will be loved by any Marvel fan. I give it a 7 out of 10.
First off, Vicarious Visions decided to stay true to the comic books and go with the widely popular Civil War story arch which places super heroes on opposite sides, battling against one another over the Superhuman Registration Act. This requires the player to make a choice about one third through the game of either joining Iron Man's team and fight for the government or joining Captain America's team and fight against the government, with each side having three exclusive playable characters. Being taken straight from probably Marvel Comics' most famous series, no one can really complain about most of the story, and I say most because the last third or so of the game is a new story line, made just for the game, that is apparent when that point in the game is reached. The story takes a sudden turn, causing a drastic change in the tone of the game, and goes in a direction that the player can tell was written by the developers due to its over the top feel for the setup of the final stage/boss battle. When the player finishes the game it almost leaves a thought of "...that's it?" running through their head, and if they're a long time comic book fan that's familiar with the story it will just leave a sour taste in their mouth. Although compared to the last game which was all story written specifically for the game, I would still have to say that Vicarious Visions made an improvement. There are moments in the game where the player actually feels like they are in the Marvel Universe and must fight through enemies to save Captain America in time or make a desperate escape from the government, and this is exactly what a person wants out of a storyline.
The visuals are definitely a step up in the new installment. Being developed as an Original Xbox game that was just moved to the 360, the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance wasn't exactly the most cutting edge in the graphics department, to put it lightly, so that kind of made VV's job easier. Bringing in a comparison to all other 360 games, the visuals are a tad above par. It's easy to see when the camera zooms in that the character models received a lot of attention, but sadly the same amount of attention wasn't given to all aspects of the game as seen in the on screen explosions, destroyed debris, and super hero's powers that look extremely outdated. This may seem like a minor set back but when Vicarious Visions promotes the fact that almost all of the environment is destructible the player would think that destroying everything in sight should look good. The fact that the entire team will be either blowing things up or using super powers at nearly all times makes this really noticeable.
The gameplay is about the same as the previous installment. The player runs into a level, beats up the bad guys by mashing buttons, finishes their objectives, gets lifted back to headquarters, gets their new mission, and then starts the whole cycle over again. Even though this is one and the same as the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, VV did do themselves a favor by making each character a unique experience as opposed to the last game in which every character within a category (ie. brutes, focus users, etc.) played the exact same. It's possible to put Hulk and Juggernaut in one's group and tackle the bad guys, pummeling their face into the ground with the jolly green giant, and then switch to Juggernaut and have a different kind of fun elbow dropping people. Adding to the character aspect of the game, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has one of the most diverse character lineups anyone will ever see which helps out the fun factor. No other super hero game before this will let the player run through Washington DC playing as Green Goblin, Deadpool, Thor, and Jean Grey at the same time. Even in comparison to the previous installment, this is extremely diverse. The re-playability of the game is also in the improvement. While in the previous installment there was only one linear story line, the civil war gives two stories for the price of one. Once the player is done with their first play through they can restart the game with their upgraded characters and choose whichever side they didn't take during the first run through, or pick the same side if that's what they want.
Other new components that Vicarious Visions added to the game include the fusion system, power buffs, and boosts. While new aspects are always welcome, I feel like there was more the development team could have done with their ideas. Take the fusion system for example. This is the first game to finally do what was promised as far as doing different combination of powers. The other games would just say "combo" at the top of the screen when one target was hit with two different abilities and add 10 damage to the attack. This game actually has a special fusion bar that let's the player take two characters and fuse their powers together to make one "super move" with a special animation and do a devastating amount of damage. The problem I have with this is that after a while I started seeing the same 4 or 5 types of fusions, just different colored. For example, if the player fuses Storm's and Human Torch's power they get a fire tornado, and if they fuse Jean Grey's and Iceman's powers they get an ice tornado which looks about the same just white for the ice instead of red for fire. With around 250 different combination amongst all the characters however, I guess VV had to have some kind of overlap somewhere. The power buffs, also known as passive abilities which are always active, are another addition to the game, although I would call them more of a return since they were present in the X-Men Legends series. There are no complaints here. The buffs only add to the gameplay and help to make each character unique which is the biggest strength of a game featuring 25 playable heroes. The final addition is the boost system. In this game boosts are essentially equipment in every other Role-Playing game. All they do is give the characters additional perks to help the player survive. The difference in this game however is that boosts may be earned by doing special objectives such as defeat a certain number of enemies with a specific character. While some may find this annoying, I found it to be a nice distraction or goal to aim towards to take away from the repetitiveness of the game.
My final, miscellaneous, complaint about the game is the depth of the characters. Trying to take away from the uselessness of the plethora of powers for each character in the last game, Vicarious Visions decided to give every character four powers and that is it. I have a problem with this because yeah, some of the powers may have been worthless in the last game, but they still presented options to the player on which abilities to use. This game gives one for each face button and that's it. I, personally would have liked to see more to give the player more customization over there characters.
All in all, while the game does have its minor flaws, it shines more than it disappoints. Players may find themselves sticking with their four favorite characters but when they realize that every hero/villain is unique they will have a blast trying out all of them. Also, the additions to this game bump it into the above average category but if more attention would have been given to them, the game would have had the potential to be really good. In conclusion, between the storyline, detailed character models and environments, and diverse lineup this game is far from disappointing and will be loved by any Marvel fan. I give it a 7 out of 10.
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