Close your eyes. Well, actually, don't because then you won't be able to read! Okay, Imagine Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, but instead of the generic sword wielding barbarian, magical dark elf and axe laden dwarf, or other such mythical characters, you have Wolverine, Gambit and Storm. If you have a smile on your face right now then it's likely that you'll enjoy X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, because it's pretty much Baldur's Gate in garish yellow and blue lycra with a big X emblem on the back.

But we've seen it before, I hear you cry! X-Men Legends was the same format and a little bit complex and confusing to play. So how does the sequel compare? Well, this time around the X-men have been forced to join forces manipulator of metal, Magneto, and his motley Brotherhood, to take on the obscenely powerful Apocalypse. Apocalypse, a 5000 year old nut job, is under some ridiculous impression that the world would be a much better place if he wiped out the weak and created a civilisation comprised of those strong enough to survive his rule. Magneto and Professor Xavier must combine forces and overcome their differences to defeat this powerful foe, as must the likes of Wolverine and Sabretooth (mortal enemies for those not in the know), which leads to some rather amusing, if somewhat wooden, banter.

There have been some changes to the gameplay since the first Legends, but the core game is still the same. You still command one member of a team of four mutants, which you can fluidly switch between at will, giving gameplay a dynamic element, as different situations call for different mutant powers to deal with. For instance, on the early levels Storm needs to put out some fires with her wind (insert relevant toilet humour here) and Magneto needs to chuck some barrels around to make a bridge across a ravine. Each character has a unique set of abilities that develops throughout the game as you gain experience. As these abilities are unlocked, they can be allocated to the X, circle and square buttons respectively and are used in combination with the R2 button. These can be changed in real time during the game, which is handy for switching in different situations. Triangle is reserved for an Xtreme attack, which needs to be unlocked by gaining experience points. These build up power over time and are generally used to decimate large numbers of foes.

The team of four can be chopped and changed at Extraction points, which are dotted throughout the levels. At these you can save, go back to base or change your team members. Most of your favourite mutants are there to choose from, including some that non-hardcore Marvel fans will be new to (anyone heard of Sunfire or Scarlet Witch?). The beauty of Legends 2 is that you can also play as some of the bad dudes, so Toad, Juggernaut and Magneto can be taken into battle.

The majority of gameplay involves hammering at the attack buttons while you cut your way through hordes of giant spiders, robotic sentries and genetically modified clones. There are three camera options, but those are pretty much limited to a top down view, a zoomed in top down view and a slightly angled top down view. It works well for the close quarter battles though and the mini-map is a handy tool for exploration, so you rarely need to look much further anyway. Occasionally you'll meet a puzzle, but they're not terribly taxing (normally walk over there, pick that up, bring it here and put it in there). Some puzzles are mutant specific and will require a certain skill to overcome, but these are clearly marked with a floating X above them, so they're easy to spot.

If you do bump into an enemy mutant, they'll talk some jive for a while, tell you how much of a pleasure its going to be defeating you, reveal a little of the master's plot, then idly stand around while you mercilessly pummel them into soup, only occasionally launching a pathetic excuse for an attack. There's one or two notable boss battles, namely Vortex who sucks you into his 'alternate dimension' chest cavity (as you do) where you must detonate bombs to defeat him, and Mikhail, brother of Colossus, who creates several clones of himself who all stand around idly while you pummel them into soup.

Legends II is a pretty-looking game. The pre-rendered intro FMV looks lovely, and the game itself uses cel-shaded animation, an increasingly popular convention in modern games (see Ultimate Spiderman and XIII). The characters aren't terribly detailed but they are superbly animated; Wolverine is testament to this, as he bounces and slashes his way through numerous enemies. I must admit he is the main character that I used - it's most entertaining tearing things to pieces with his adamantium arsenal; everyone else tends to sit at the back launching laser beams or lightning bolts. If that's not your thing, there are plenty of characters to keep you amused; whether you're a stay at the back and zap things from a distance fan or you like to get involved up close and personal and have a good old scrap, there's a mutant to suit your needs. The fights involve lots of light effects and numbers flashing up detailing the damage you inflict per blow, which sometimes looks a little busy, but for the most part looks good. The more special moves you pull off, the more spectacular everything gets, especially if you have Storm in your team. She does like to fire the odd torrent of weather your way.

The arenas in which you fight (various caves, jungles and installations) look really detailed and are nicely interactive. By interactive I mean you can destroy pretty much anything you see, an element I found particularly amusing. For about an hour I found myself picking up enemy soldiers and throwing them through walls, statues, machinery etc. chuckling to myself the whole while. There are a lot of open spaces where not a lot happens though, and you will sometimes find yourself wandering aimlessly through acres of needless floor space. The levels tend to blend into one after a while; they look a little different, but it's corridor after corridor filled with mindless morons who run at you to be pummelled. The only way to get round this is to play on the hard difficulty setting to at least give you some kind of a challenge. You're not always led on the most effective path through the levels either. Most of the time it's okay, as you have a mini-map, with unexplored areas remaining red so you know where you haven't been, and for the most part if there are enemies in your vicinity you're in the right place. Every now and then though you will find yourself lost, mostly when you start a new section and this can get a little frustrating, especially if you have to keep switching between loading sections. The loading times can be testing, as it seems like every two minutes the game needs to load something else. If you're a player who potters in and out of the menu screens a great deal it can make you want to point your finger at the TV in mild annoyance and say "ooh".

As you progress through the six areas of the game, you gain experience points and your character levels up, gaining access to better weapons; weapons that you either find in the levels or buy at base camp, much like any generic RPG. The original Legends game had a menu system that left many scratching their heads, but Legends II has been simplified a great deal. There's an automation option, meaning that you don't ever have to worry about allocating ability points to your characters when they level up, or equip them with new weaponry when it's collected. The die hard RPG fans will probably want to spend most of their time in the menu screens fine tuning their characters' abilities and equipment for best effect, but those who just want to hack and slash their way through without too much interruption can do just that.

The equipment you find in the field is very similar to the type of things you would find in any Baldur's Gate or Diablo dungeon, items with names like Fabulous Tech Coil of The Moon (!) and Bands of Adamantium Shinyness 5 (okay so that last one was made up but you get the picture). There's plenty of stuff lying around, but because of that you may find yourself pottering back and forth from home base to either sell your excess kit or put it in the Hero Chest (surprisingly a storage unit for excess items). Each piece has different abilities, some are standard and come with a set defence or attack rating, some have extra abilities like added striking, or added radiation damage over two seconds, and some are rare items designed for a specific character. You may be asking what all of those mean, and you'll probably find yourself asking very similar questions throughout the game. Fans of action RPGs will be fairly familiar with these descriptions, but newcomers to the genre may find themselves ignoring that whole element and simply sticking it all on automatic. But at least they have the choice of how deep into the gameplay to venture.

Unlike Baldur's Gate, you cannot change the appearance of your character with each individual item you allocate and there aren't too many body parts to arm. There are only three main areas of customisation; chest, waist and hands. Chest is primarily defence, hands attack and waist a mixture of the two. You can change the overall appearance of the character with new suits, more of which unlock as you progress, but there are only a couple to choose from. If you kit out your mutants in costumes of the same era then you get an attack bonus; for example, on the third stage you can set everyone in 'Age of Apocalypse' costumes for a 100% attack rating.

Home base is where all your mutants hang out, drink cappuccinos and decide what their next move is going to be. It's also a handy place for you to regroup, find out what your next mission is and sell some items. Professor Xavier is here dishing out words of wisdom and you'll find Beast pottering around like Q in the Bond films, selling you equipment (selling! Now that's teamwork). There's a trivia game you can play that'll give you a break from hacking up bugs and a few experience points, as well as some helpful background to some of the characters.

The characters are voiced pretty well, Xavier is voiced by Patrick Stewart (the actor who plays Xavier in the movies and Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, for those who have been frozen in ice for an extended period of time), which makes a welcome addition to the game. Other notables include John Di Maggio (Bender from Futurama) and Peter Lurie, who was Vulcan Raven in Metal Gear Solid. Oh come on, it can't just be me who thinks that's cool?! [No, I think that's pretty cool too! Ed]

There's a nice level of attention to detail that fans of the comics and movies will enjoy. The voiceovers are welcome to bring the characters to life; even the little one-liners they come out with as they kick ass amuse. The danger room option gives play a little extra lastability, as you can put the mutant badasses through a series of experience-earning tests, making them even more badass. The only thing with that though is you have to find danger room disks scattered through the levels to be able to take the tests and the skills you learn in them are skills you've probably learned in the game already. As mini-challenges though, they're quite fun in the later stages.

The multiplayer function's okay; you can have four people playing at once, but inevitably everyone wants to go in different directions and the three who don't want to be sat in the menu screen will get annoyed at the one who can't decide what gloves to wear. You do have to share items, which in my household created an argument, and like Mr Black in Reservoir Dogs, everyone wanted to be Wolverine. Play with less people and the computer takes over the remaining characters and surprisingly you won't get too annoyed at the A.I.

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is an adaptation of a popular game format rather than anything particularly new and innovative. It's an action role playing game with X-Men skins over it that does most of the things successful action RPG's like Baldur's Gate and Diablo have done before, but somehow it falls short. It's like at a comic book convention when a fat middle-aged man puts on a Wolverine costume; it's just not as cool as the real thing. It hasn't broken any new ground or brought anything new to the genre, but it will keep X-Men fans happy. It's got all your favourite characters and some you'll have never heard of, and the addition of the bad guys as playable characters gives you even more choice. If you liked the first game, this one's an improvement; the menus are easier to navigate, the graphics and sound have been vamped up and the actions of the characters look really fluid. If you want a great action RPG and you're not particularly fussed about the X-factor though, I have to say that you'll enjoy Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance more; it's got more character customisation options, more depth and generally looks and plays better. The X-Men would be much better suited to a free-roaming 3D environment where the full potential of their powers could be explored. Hulk and Spidey have already made the leap - when will the X-Men?

Reviewed by Jim Powell for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).