X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse [PSP]

Has Activision gone crazy? Does it think it can screw with history by putting the X-Men and Brotherhood on the same side? Just like a good comic book, X-Men Legends II starts off with a conflict-filled premise, which provides a rich story to carry the gameplay.

To help move the compelling plot forward, Activision and developer Vicarious Visions have called upon Blur Studios to create strong cutscenes that connect the missions and play out like pieces of an animated X-Men movie. As you'd expect, the voice acting is superb, headed up by Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Professor X.

The gameplay is similar to Sony Online's Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade with scads of action and puzzles, though here you get the popular comic-book mutants as your playable party members. In all, 20 different superheroes from the X-Men universe are offered, including Magneto, Wolverine, Storm, and Juggernaut. You also have support from others with Professor X serving as the focal point for most new missions and briefings.

In standard fashion, you wander around the vast landscape battling all that get in your way, which in turn unearths clues that push you toward another conversation or confrontation. The map fills in making it easy to see where to guide the party. There's certainly linearity to the story, though you can have a couple of missions going at once, which gives you the freedom to pick which task you want to accomplish next.

If there's one key to X-Men Legends II's quality gameplay, it's the incredible amount of customization you're given. You can change up the members of your four-hero team to meet the needs of the situation, and specifically structure each character with three of the powers that are available at the time (with others unlocking and becoming usable as each hero levels up).

With a push of the shoulder button, you can also switch your hero's powers in mid-battle. As the characters grow, you decide where the stat points should be allocated. Then again, if you'd rather pass up micromanaging the RPG parts and concentrate on the action, you can have the game do all of this automatically.

The single-player side will provide hours of gameplay, but you also get added value with multiplayer modes for up to four gamers. This not only covers Ad Hoc or locally networked games, but you can also connect to others via a WiFi connection to the Internet. Multiplayer gameplay supports campaign mode (to cooperatively play the story from the beginning or using an existing game save as your start point) and the Danger Room's versus-style combat.

The extras are also a treat, as the game is stuffed with unlockables -- screenshots, video clips, comic covers, and concept art. There's also a training room that provides you with a tutorial on how to perform the characters' various actions, but it rewards success with experience points and gear, so you have an incentive to take the time to learn it in the room.

Throughout the game, most of the visuals are excellent, with detailed environments, cool battle effects, and solid character animations. The terrain also contains a lot of items that are destructible, and in some cases, you'll be rewarded for your rampant demolition with potions or other helpful items.

Despite the great imagery, though, the game is plagued by scenes that are quite dark on the PSP. Additionally, if you're in the midst of a frantic battle or transitioning to another point at top speed, you'll find that the graphics will get smeary. And there other hiccups, including long loading times, momentary freeze-ups (especially after a game save), and some jarring forced-perspective changes.

Thankfully, those quirks don't drag X-Men Legends II down too far, and can certainly be overlooked with such strong gameplay. There's no question that X-Men Legends II is an improvement on its console predecessors -- now it's even better with a PSP version, so you can take your mayhem with you.