Deep down, everyone wishes they were a mutant. Waking up to discover you can unleash indestructable blades from your wrists or shoot laser blasts from your eyes, what isn't there to love about being a social outcast? Activision and Raven Software gave Action RPGers a taste of the mutant-fabulous lifestyle with X-Men Legends, which offered an experience for gamers in which they basically got to build their mutants how they wanted to. Following up on the first one, Raven is back at it again to bring all the awesome beat-em' up RPG goodness in a much beefier, meatier flavor with X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse.

The premise X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is an intriguing one. The super-evil and sinister Apocalypse has set plans into motion that requires Professor Xavier's X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood of evil mutants to team up and take care of proverbial business. While a great deal of the story will be told in-game just as it was in the first Legends, it gets some supplemental love this time around with some incredibly well-done cut scenes from Blur Studios to help things out on the cinematic front. If the trailer already released is any indication of the quality and fanboy-indulging goodness that gamers can expect, the combination of in-game and rendered cut-scenes should definitely carry things along nicely as far as the full game is concerned.

The first X-Men Legends , though an incredibly solid title, wasn't without its complaints from both fans and gamers alike. One of the biggest grievances was that though the game contained cooperative gameplay, the story was so regimented and fixed that it didn't lend itself well to being able to be a consistent cooperative experience. That aspect has been completely removed in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse. The focus of this title, stated best by Project Lead Dan Vondrak, is to be able to play the game how you want and with the mutants you want. No more watching your friends running around Xavier's mansion in the interim, itching to get back to some brawling. From start to finish, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is a completely cooperative experience.

And, quite honestly, it damn well should be, as this one features online cooperative multiplayer. Anything else would be unacceptable. It's good that Raven understands this too, and that's why the game will feature up to four player simultaneous action online. It's not all smoke and mirrors, either. After sitting down with this title for a bit, we learned almost right off the bat that the mission and level design of this one is completely flexible. All playable characters have their wide array of attacks and special moves that really don't restrict them to having to be played at any certain time. With X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, it really feels like you can play the mutants you want whenever you want.

The improvement of cooperative play isn't the only thing with an overhaul. The character progression of X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse has gotten an insane amount of attention. For starters, it's a much more flexible system. If players want to get all up close and meticulous with their characters, they need not worry. The same amount of detail seen in the first Legends in regards to improving powers and abilities is just as impressive, but on the other hand if gamers want to try a more hands off approach and concentrate more on the action, they can allow their characters to be auto-leveled. Additionally, an aspect that Raven put a lot more focus on was giving the characters a lot more powers than seen in the first. All playable mutants have a whole catalogue of swappable powers and abilities that they can leverage during their escapades.

Activision is being pretty tight-lipped about the cast of characters to be featured in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, but fans of both the first title and X-Men in general can rest assured that the lineup is staggering. There are a whole host of mutants, both members of the X-Men and the Brotherhood, with an insane amount of powers and level-ups that are completely customizable. The best part of the game being so flexible as far as characters go is that it is completely feasible to play through the entire game with your favorite team. Certain teams even get themselves a fair share of "perks" and bonus abilities, so putting together a group of mutants particularly historical to the X-Men canon could fetch avid comic-book readers a few tasty little surprises.

X-Men Legends wasn't a title that players could necessarily hate. It was a long time coming for X-Men fans to get a title that allowed a lot more depth and immersion into the universe, so it was nice to see Raven give things a valiant first effort. RPG-relative improvements aside, it's nice to see that this one is definitely more focused on the cooperative experience that gamers are frothing for. X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse looks to supplement all of the aspects missing from the first one, so anyone with either a taste for X-Men or the gratifying experience of a solid action RPG should check out our review when this one hits in late September.