X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is a follow up to X-Men Legends. It is an action role-playing game released in 2005 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, N-Gage, PSP, and GameCube video game consoles as well as the PC.

Story
When Apocalypse kidnaps Professor X and Polaris, the X-Men and Brotherhood of Evil Mutants unite to save them. Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine meet up with Magneto, Mystique, and Sabretooth at a military prison outpost in Greenland to free the Professor. Upon freeing him, the teams relocate to Genosha to work through the wreckage and find out what Apocalypse wanted with the area. Finding Quicksilver also kidnapped, the teams prepare to return to the X-Mansion, but Apocalypse arrives first. He plants a bomb, which more or less destroys the X-Mansion, and kidnaps Beast, who manages to point the team in the direction of the Savage Land.

The teams work their way through the Savage Land, freeing Beast and hindering Apocalypse's plans, and continue to fight against his forces; however, Apocalypse manages to conquer New York and seize control. The teams work at sabotaging his army and resources, but Emma Frost and Angel are soon kidnapped as well. Angel is transformed into Archangel to act as a Horseman of Apocalypse, to defend Apocalypse's tower. When the teams infiltrate it, they find Beast, too, is working against them under the name Dark Beast; he kidnaps Sabretooth and escapes with Apocalypse and Mr. Sinister to Egypt while the teams deal with Archangel.

The teams learn that Apocalypse's plan is to use Polaris, Quicksilver, Emma Frost, and Sabretooth - four mutants with Harmonic DNA - to power an experiment to grant him massive amounts of power. The teams then follow him to Egypt to defeat him once and for all, after first defeating Sinister and Dark Beast (returning the latter to normal). After besting the final guard, the Living Monolith, the teams take on Apocalypse and defeat him by stealing the powers from his machine. In the final cutscene, Magneto and Xavier part once again as adversaries, noting that Apocalypse was defeated but not destroyed. Beast ponders why the machine did not work properly, wondering if sabotage was a factor. As the X-Jet flies away, Sinister is seen on top of the pyramid, laughing.

New features
X-Men Legends II contains expanded versions of the gameplay features from the original X-Men Legends, with several notable additions:


 * Online multiplayer modes.


 * New characters are playable, including characters from the X-Men and the Brotherhood.


 * New powers and abilities are available for all characters, and the player can switch between more than 4 mutant powers at once.


 * After beating the game, the player could start a new game with their old stats.

Several characters from the first X-Men Legends were dropped from the roster of playable characters in the sequel: Jubilee, Magma (despite her being the main character of the first game), and Psylocke do not appear in X-Men Legends II, and Beast and Emma Frost appear but are not playable. A boss from the first game, Avalanche, also did not get mentioned in this game.

Continuity
Despite the similarities with the comic book continuity, the X-Men Legends games are in a continuity of their own. The story of X-Men Legends II is inspired by the Age of Apocalypse storyline from the Marvel Comics series to coincide with the 10th anniversary of that event. It is not, however, a direct adaptation of the storyline. The original Age of Apocalypse occurred as a result of Professor X having been killed by a time traveler prior to his forming of the X-Men; Apocalypse was awakened from hibernation by this event and proceeded to take over an unprepared world. Apocalypse's rule in the game comes about as a result of events in the present day, and is not dependent on Xavier's absence. Some of the events and many of the principal characters still exist in the game the same as they do in the Age of Apocalypse, but many others exist as they do in the normal Marvel Universe.

Notable differences in continuity include:
 * Sugar Man, a character who originated in the Age of Apocalypse, says that Apocalypse helped him escape the Age of Apocalypse, but he references the Age of Apocalypse as having been a future timeline, whereas the original storyline took place in the present.
 * Of Apocalypse's four Horsemen (Mister Sinister, Mikhail Rasputin, Holocaust, and Abyss), all but Sinister are the same as they were in the Age of Apocalypse. Sinister was a horseman until he committed treason against Apocalypse and created Nate Grey. In the normal Marvel Universe, Holocaust is from the comic's Age of Apocalypse storyline, but now dead, Abyss is a much more heroic figure, Sinister has been an adversary of Apocalypse for years, (although he has worked with him in the past, with Apocalypse directly tied to Sinister's origin) and Mikhail is unaffiliated with Apocalypse.
 * In the game, Beast and Angel are kidnapped by Apocalypse and unwillingly transformed into Dark Beast and Archangel, respectively. In the comics, Dark Beast is the Beast's evil counterpart from the Age of Apocalypse timeline, and Angel was willingly transformed after he lost his wings during the Mutant Massacre. His wings returned after he resigned as Death of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.
 * In the game, the Scarlet Witch, Juggernaut, and Pyro are all still members of the Brotherhood; in the comic book continuity, the former two are heroes and Pyro is dead (although Scarlet Witch briefly admits that she and Quicksilver stay with Magneto to try and balance his actions with justice). Banshee appears in the game, but was apparently killed in a comic book published shortly after the game was released.
 * The X-Men's appearances and costumes are based on their Ultimate Marvel counterparts, with the exceptions of Juggernaut (whose costume is based on the traditional design), Bishop (whose Ultimate incarnation only was a cameo at the time of the game's development), Sunfire (who didn't have an Ultimate counterpart at the time of the game's development), Scarlet Witch (whose costume is based on the one she wore around the time of the Onslaught crossover), and Pyro (who didn't have an Ultimate counterpart at the time of the game's development). However, costumes based on the classic, current, and Age of Apocalypse versions of almost all characters are unlockable by progressing through the game.
 * The Cerci, a race of insect enemies, are based on the Brood from the comics; they are referred to as such in the game's viewable concept art, and one type of Cerci is called a "Brood Queen". However, while the Brood are highly intelligent aliens, the Cerci are genetically engineered creatures with animal-like intelligence. As you fight the Cerci, some have a name with "Brood" in the title, as well.

The storyline also derives elements from the X-Men storyline "Apocalypse: The Twelve". In this storyline, as in the game, Apocalypse is searching for specific mutants to power the machine that will make him a god. However, in the game, there are four mutants rather than twelve, and they are wanted because they have "harmonic DNA". It is interesting to note that only Polaris from the original "Twelve" is in "The Four" who are used in the game. It is also interesting to note that the "The Four" are each of the four mutant genome types (feral, psionic, molecular, and elemental) in Mutant X.

Characters
Old and new characters return from X-Men Legends, while new faces and characters appear during some levels. Several dialogues in the game will have different text and slightly different dialogue options, depending on whether the speaker is a member of the X-Men or the Brotherhood

† Alternate costume for previous character.

Online & Multiplayer
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse brings up to 4 players either offline or online. Players who have purchased it on the Xbox can play online via Xbox Live. During Xbox Live play, however, only the "Danger Room" and "Campaign" modes can be played. Players must also have the unlocked the "Danger Room Disc" that they wish to play.

Ratings
The game was well-received by critics. Metacritic, which aggregates review scores from multiple sources, scored it between 80 and 85 on a 100-point scale, with slight variation by platform. This is characterized as "Generally favorable reviews" despite more glitches and less name value in antagonists compared to the first game