If you’re a video gamer that plays online games a lot, then you’re probably not into playing against the computer. Online games such as Rainbow 6, Ghost Recon 2, most racing games, and Halo 2, which won game of the year last year, were not designed to have replay value after beating the game offline.

But one game, X-Men Legends, that was designed to be a non-online game (like Halo 1 was) with replay value after beating the game has been made into a sequel (like Halo 2 was) that is online. All of you online gamers should pick up its sequel, X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse, which arrived Sept. 21, 2005 to a store near you.

Is X-Men Legends 2 in the caliber of online games such as Halo 2?

That, and then some. Unlike Halo 2, this game has the same campaign in the offline version as the online version. Unlike other online games, the online version of this game has the option to let players save at any point in the game in order to go back to that spot later. Unlike any online games, you can unlock players after you pass the game, and use them online.

The producers of the game, Raven Software, have responded to all of you X-Men fans not only at their message board, but also all X-Men fans in general. In the latest issue of Wizard magazine, a source from the producers of the game said that they took requests for the top 40 X-Men and Brotherhood characters, and put them into the game. Sixteen out of the 40 were made into playable characters. One of the characters added to the game that was requested by fans on the Raven message boards before the first X-Men Legends game came out was Warren Worthington III, a.k.a. Angel. He isn’t playable, but he’s a boss that fights players as the Archangel.

Online and offline players will encounter X-Men trivia, which gives experience points for every question you answer correctly. For all of you X-Men fanatics, such as myself, you’ll only get a couple of answers wrong. If you know the answer to the question, then you will remember what comic book issues had the story related to it. This trivia shows that the producers worked hard not only to relate to all of the X-Men fanatics, but also to teach all of the newcomers the classic stories, which all X-Men fans know.

Similar to Halo 2, the story is cinematic when the game starts, and at the end of each level. Unlike Halo 2, there is dialogue between characters when you’re playing the game, but only at certain spots. All of you X-Men fanatics will find out that the voices of the characters will seem accurate to the dialogue in the comics and cartoons, whereas all of you newcomers will be imitating the voices, for fun with your buddies, who will say in response, “Who’s that?” For example, Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation), who plays Professor X in the X-Men movies, does the voice of Professor X in the game. This game has brought not only the comics and movies of X-Men to life, but also has given all of you online players the ultimate online, and X-Men experience.