This is the latest superhero game from Marvel Comics. X-Men Legends II features all your favourite Xmen stars ? Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and the others. The X-Men are led by Professor X, and their rivals ? the Brotherhood ? are led by Magneto, the most powerful mutant. In this game, they join forces to destroy a common enemy, Apocalypse.

The evil genius, Apocalypse, has resurfaced from places unknown and has kidnapped Professor X. Apocalypse?s forces are too powerful for the X-Men to handle, and so they are in need of allies. For the first time, both the X-Men and Magneto?s Brotherhood of evil mutants face one enemy. Together, they hope to stop Apocalypse?s robust armies and his mighty Four Horsemen.

It depends on how you, the gamer, plan to utilise a team comprising some of the most powerful mutants on the planet to stop Apocalypse from conquering the planet. Along your way, a Dream Team is at your service to solve puzzles and blow up everything in sight. If you don?t know a character too well, or just want to test your limits, you can pop into the Danger Room for some special training.

In select spots, you can exchange and tweak your players for maximum effect. You can also purchase upgrades for your armour and other battle equipment as and when the need arises. Despite the characters being quite powerful, you can choose to improve them further.

However, one of the major disappointments that the gamer is likely to face while playing is the game?s linearity. Though sometimes you can opt for one mission, or a one-mission-objective, and though, at each level, there?s some room to go looking for hidden goodies, at each of these levels, you pretty much move on big fat rails.

There are no wide-open areas, and it?s evident how deep the X-Men Legends II?s dungeon-crawl roots go. The biggest addition to the series is the online multi-player component, which allows you to host or connect to games through the Internet. Fighting alongside computer-controlled teammates is great fun, but it?s even more entertaining to play ?co-op? with other people.

You can even play through the entire single-player campaign by saving and loading your game as you go so that you don?t have to endure an epic session. The game is a very complex one to learn on the PC. There are a lot of moves and keys to remember. However, once you are comfortable, you will love the challenges of the game. The moves are precise, the graphics are good and so are the cutscenes. Its only weakness is the sound. Some of the voices, though not a major factor, are mumbled and out of place.

Minimum system requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP; Processor: Pentium III 1.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz; Video Card: GeForce2/ATI 7500 or better with at least 64MB of VRAM; RAM: 256MB of RAM; Hard Drive Space: 3 GB minimum hard drive space; Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or higher compatible sound card; DirectX Version: 9.0 or higher; CD-ROM: 16X or better; Controls: Windows-compatible mouse and keyboard; additionally supported peripherals: USB gamepad