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, PlayStation Portable, and GameCube video game consoles as well as the PC.

Gameplay
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. Avalanche, a boss from the first game, also did not make an appearance.

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 unlock the "Danger Room Disc" that they wish to play.

Plot
When Apocalypse kidnaps Professor X and Polaris, the X-Men and Brotherhood of 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, hinting that he sabotaged the machine.

Characters
Old and new characters return from X-Men Legends, while new faces and characters appear during some levels. Additionally, some dailogues throughout the game can be character-to-character specific, depending on the player character's alignment and relationship with the NPC.

†Under the control of Mr. Sinister

Reception
The game was well received by critics. Metacritic, which aggregates review scores from multiple sources, scored it 84 on Xbox, 80 on PC, 80 on PlayStation 2 and 84 the PSP using a 100-point scale. This is characterized as "Generally favorable reviews" despite more glitches and less name value in antagonists compared to the first game.