X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse - Reception

Reception

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse was well received by critics. All platforms hold aggregate scores in the 80–85% range at aggregate review websites GameRankings and Metacritic. According to the NPD Group, Rise of Apocalypse sold over 63,000 units on the Xbox during the month of its release.

GameTrailers's reviewer gave the game an 8 out of 10. The reviewer disliked that several famous X-Men and Brotherhood characters were not playable, but appeared only as side characters. They also cited issues with voice acting and a convoluted story. The inclusion of additional mutant powers and online gameplay were points of praise. The reviewer also noted that the game's visuals had improved greatly, citing the effects, environments and cinematics as some of the largest upgrades. G4TV's reviewer gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. The lauded the destructible environments and character cast, but felt that the gameplay lacked variation. Unlike the critic from GameTrailers G4's reviewer praised the overall story. VideoGamer.com gave the game a slightly lower score of 7 out of 10. The reviewer noted that the co-operative gameplay was strong, and that the addition of online play "opens the up to a wider range of people."

PALGN's Jeremy Jastrzab felt that the game's menus were convoluted and difficult to navigate, and also felt that the game began to drag near the end of the story. He did concede that it "caters for X-Men fans and if you can gather three others, you’re going to have a great time." Greg Mueller of GameSpot scored the game an 8.1 out of 10. He praised the game's vast cast of characters, destructible environments and unlockable content, but felt that the user interface was awkward. Mueller also felt that the game loaded content far too frequently. GamesRadar's Raymond Padilla had similar complaints about the frequency and length of the game's load times. He also felt that the game's graphics felt dated. Padilla praised the addition of online play and the automatic upgrade system. The game was given an A rating from Tom Byron of 1UP.com. Byron praised several aspects of the game, and felt that amidst the The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Ultimate Spider-Man and Fantastic Four game releases in 2005 X-Men Legends II was the best release from Marvel that year.

The success of the X-Men Legends series led Raven Software, Marvel, and Activision to create the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which was released on several consoles, handheld devices and Microsoft Windows in 2007. Barking Lizards, Vicarious Visions and Beenox handled the ports for different platforms. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance was followed by Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, jointly developed by Vicarious Visions, n-Space and Savage Entertainment. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was released on several consoles and handhelds in the fall of 2009. Vicarious Visions developed the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, while n-Space developed the Nintendo DS, PSP and Wii versions. Savage Entertainment ported the version developed by n-Space to the PSP.