X-Men: The Official Game, or X-Men 2.5, follows the events that occur between the movies X-Men 2 and X-Men 3: The Last Stand. For those who want to know why Nightcrawler and Sabretooth didn’t return, and why the Sentinels aren’t given much screen time in the newly released flick, here you go. Some people might think that the game will spoil the movie’s story, given its “official” title, its release alongside the movie, and the fact that it looks a great deal like The Last Stand; however, the game is actually needed to flesh everything out. 

Those of you who got your kicks with the X-Men Legends titles are in for a very rough surprise with The Official Game. The tons of playable characters, unlockable goods, and random cameos are instead replaced by a few lame extra costumes, a few dry Cerebro sessions, and three playable characters with throwaway appearances by a handful of others; hell, there are only two actual in-level cameos by other X-Men.

The events after the second movie involve Jason, the wheelchair-bound mutant who was being used to track mutants by fooling Professor X. Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Iceman are tapped to return to Alkaline Lake, the location at the end of X-Men 2, to dismantle a bizarro Dark Cerebro that was under construction by General Stryker. Upon investigating the compound, the X-Men run into a mercenary group known as Hydra, who were in the midst of plundering when they and the X-Men stumble upon the Sentinel program. Jason also returns, haunting the X-Men and blaming them for his death.

The game starts off in a training scenario for each character and then branches off once they get to Alkaline Lake. Despite the fact that the levels look like advancement can be made by sticking to certain character paths, the only way to continue on is to complete each batch of missions. Once a character is chosen, you are then given a brief description of what’s going on and plopped into the level. Every now and then there will be cutscenes that involve limited animations with standard comic art, often with characters not moving and simply gliding across the screen, which comes across as more lazy than interesting. The voices for some of the characters are present – Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler),  Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Patrick Stewart (Professor X) – while others aren’t, which, while understandable when viewed in a business sense, brings the presentation down quite a bit.

Each character’s missions involve highly repetitive combat with a very limited amount of combos and room to maneuver. Wolverine is often placed in long corridors and forced to fight the same four or five types of Hydra mercenaries ad nauseum all while being shot because the best he can do to avoid incoming gunfire is to do a rigid side roll or jump.  It should be mentioned that the guards have a tendency of choking, as they go from being crack shots from mid- to long-range to only hitting once in a while when they’re shooting from up close. Nightcrawler is put in similar situations, but there are often poles, pipes, and more obstacles in general for him to run along and teleport onto. Iceman’s missions involve him being on an ice slide, several of which are timed sequences that feel like rail racers. Each character only has a few moves, and even the more interesting combat that involves excessive teleporting as Nightcrawler gets old.

Upon completing a mission you will gain the ability to upgrade your character’s stats. Some things, like health, are universal, while other items, like blocking (Wolverine) and ice shield (Iceman), are character-specific. The number of mutations given for completion is also dependent the difficulty level. Wolverine gets robbed here because every character can heal themselves - Nightcrawler goes into a shadow aura to heal and Iceman heals automatically, both of which can be upgraded – leaving him with a stronger block and rage as his main specialty. Sorry, Bub.

What’s disappointing is that the characters are actually fun to use, and the control schemes implemented to handle teleporting and ice sliding are solid. It’s just the rest of the game that needs help. The camera presents several problems with its inconsistencies: while it isn’t restricted for Nightcrawler, it is for Wolverine, leaving you backed into a corner fighting off unseen enemies.  What’s more, it’s never far enough out for any character, particularly Iceman during one of his many moments in tight tunnels. The levels themselves are both bland and poorly designed, leaving me feeling very pedestrian as I moseyed about unremarkable locations devoid of any sort of character or life.

Other characters make appearances as well. Storm is a secondary character in a few spots, following you and calling down lightning when you ask for it. Colossus, equally abrasive in appearance as he is in the movie, assists Nightcrawler as well; oddly enough, he needs Nightcrawler’s help to fight off enemies during a mission involving heavy backtracking, taking severe damage because of the super strong enemy weapons until you arrive -- at which point he dominates anything near him. Thanks for the needless frustration. Multiple Man, Sabretooh, Silver Samurai, and a few other characters make brief appearances while others are seen in only cutscenes, such as Beast and Magneto. Nothing is really explained as to what the other characters do when your chosen hero goes gallivanting around, but I just assumed it was something really heroic so they wouldn’t feel wasted.

Overall: 4/10

X-Men: The Official Game just feels lazy. The environments are bland, the cutscenes are dull, and the story is anticlimactic. Having players go through it to find out what happens to a small handful of characters, with that not aspect of the game actually having minimal substance, is something I find to be weak form. A game tie-in to a movie isn’t something I’m opposed to, but it’s very disappointing when one hits the market that leaves fans in the dark and provides a lackluster experience to those who pay to explore the movie universe. The characters themselves offer the greatest respite, as they actually handle well and sometimes play as you would hope: dazzling viewers with constant teleporting as Nightcrawler, raging as Wolverine and pouncing on an enemy’s chest, pummeling them with his claws, and reforming an ice slide mere inches from the ground as Iceman. Hopefully someone can transplant the ideas and characters and put them into a title that’s worth its MSRP.