Activision got the mechanics of this game pretty much spot on, and it looks and sounds great, with good artwork and graphics, plus good voice acting.  But the gameplay is seriously hindered by some massive problems:

- There is no alternate mode available to play.  When you start out, you pretty much have to play Story Mode.  You get very limited control over which X-Man you play as.  Yes, there is a roster of tried-and-true favourites to choose from -- Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, Rogue and Jean Grey -- but they're not all available at the same time, and their abilities are poorly balanced (Wolverine is overpowered as usual, but Cyclops positively sucks).

- Why bother having a Danger Room training mode if the only character you can train is Magma?  When you start out, there *are* a few team-training missions where you can build up the abilities of your preferred X-Man, but it's not possible to do the single-character training lessons as any character other than Magma.  Boo.

- Each mission is far, far too long, with too much running around looking for things to smash.  The second mission in the game (also the first mission proper) took me about two hours to finish.  Two hours!  When your characters actually go up nine levels in one mission, you know you have a design problem.  By the time I got to the end, the fun was gone.  The maps should have been half the size.

- With such long missions, you better give us the healing icons we need.  Well, in this game, healing icons are mostly hidden in environments and objects you have to destroy, and you get maybe one healing icon every 20 objects you smash.  So when your health is low, you end up running around smashing objects desperately hoping the game would actually give you a healing item.  Absolutely dreary.

- The save-game system is one of the worst I've ever encountered.  What could the logic be of not having an auto-save feature at the end of missions?  If you finish a mission, you end up at the Xavier Mansion -- where it's supposed to be safe haven, right?  Unfortunately, this game has a habit of launching super-hard missions at you when you're not intending to move on in the game.  I was just about to catch my breath after the two-hour first mission when the game sprang a "flashback" on me.  Turns out this was a mission like any other where you have to battle eight sentinels at a time, whose attacks take half your health -- no exaggeration.  Maybe the game programmers had a ball designing this mission; playing it was like water torture.

- The loading times are excruciating.  Even when you press start to pause the game, there is a substantial lag, and loading times between parts of a level are inexcusable.  This game really doesn't seem that much more complex than others of its type -- why the long loading times?

I enjoyed this game at first, but after about an hour and a half of struggling with the above issues, it got to be laborious and joyless.  Too bad, because this game had born the promise of being the best X-Men game yet outside of Capcom's two-player fighting games.  It allows you to progress your characters and features a plethora of background detail.  But the problems are just too substantial for this to be even a somewhat good, let alone great, game.
Activision got the mechanics of this game pretty much spot on, and it looks and sounds great, with good artwork and graphics, plus good voice acting. But the gameplay is seriously hindered by some massive problems:

- There is no alternate mode available to play. When you start out, you pretty much have to play Story Mode. You get very limited control over which X-Man you play as. Yes, there is a roster of tried-and-true favourites to choose from -- Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, Rogue and Jean Grey -- but they're not all available at the same time, and their abilities are poorly balanced (Wolverine is overpowered as usual, but Cyclops positively sucks). - Why bother having a Danger Room training mode if the only character you can train is Magma? When you start out, there *are* a few team-training missions where you can build up the abilities of your preferred X-Man, but it's not possible to do the single-character training lessons as any character other than Magma. Boo. - Each mission is far, far too long, with too much running around looking for things to smash. The second mission in the game (also the first mission proper) took me about two hours to finish. Two hours! When your characters actually go up nine levels in one mission, you know you have a design problem. By the time I got to the end, the fun was gone. The maps should have been half the size. - With such long missions, you better give us the healing icons we need. Well, in this game, healing icons are mostly hidden in environments and objects you have to destroy, and you get maybe one healing icon every 20 objects you smash. So when your health is low, you end up running around smashing objects desperately hoping the game would actually give you a healing item. Absolutely dreary. - The save-game system is one of the worst I've ever encountered. What could the logic be of not having an auto-save feature at the end of missions? If you finish a mission, you end up at the Xavier Mansion -- where it's supposed to be safe haven, right? Unfortunately, this game has a habit of launching super-hard missions at you when you're not intending to move on in the game. I was just about to catch my breath after the two-hour first mission when the game sprang a "flashback" on me. Turns out this was a mission like any other where you have to battle eight sentinels at a time, whose attacks take half your health -- no exaggeration. Maybe the game programmers had a ball designing this mission; playing it was like water torture. - The loading times are excruciating. Even when you press start to pause the game, there is a substantial lag, and loading times between parts of a level are inexcusable. This game really doesn't seem that much more complex than others of its type -- why the long loading times? I enjoyed this game at first, but after about an hour and a half of struggling with the above issues, it got to be laborious and joyless. Too bad, because this game had born the promise of being the best X-Men game yet outside of Capcom's two-player fighting games. It allows you to progress your characters and features a plethora of background detail. But the problems are just too substantial for this to be even a somewhat good, let alone great, game.