Graphics
Graphically speaking XOG is a mixed bag. Environments are generally dull and uninteresting, only occasionally giving the player a “that looks nice” moment such as the Asian garden Wolverine levels. Environments feature a decent amount of destructible objects for players to smash through, but would have benefited from allowing the player to use these destructible objects to their advantage by being able to throw them or through someone into them. Overall the environment designs leave a lot to be desired and generally feel slapped together or as though their design was an afterthought. None of this is helped by the fact that the title also suffers from a lack of advanced or even slightly impressive lighting effects and limited special effects. Hopefully the next X-Men title, a truly next-gen effort, will give players the spectacular X-Men character ability effects as seen in the films.

While the environments and effects leave a lot to be desired, character models are well done. All of the mutants look as they should look and sport decent polygon counts and detailed textures. However this is not to say that all in game characters look great. The game does suffer from a serious lack of enemy variety. After a few levels players will awaken to harsh reality that they will essentially be fighting the same enemies over, and over…and over again, with the only variation being the color of their weapons. This is really distracting and hurts the overall presentation.

The most damaging aspect of the graphics is that they are the same regardless of whether you buy the Xbox or Xbox 360 version. The only difference comes in that the Xbox 360 version does offer HD support, however with the visuals being the way they are…seeing them in HD is not really a big treat or worth the additional cost. On that note if you have an Xbox and an Xbox 360 you are better off saving the extra cash and going with the Xbox version.

Sound
Like the graphics, the sound design in XOG is another shining example of what you get from a lack of attention to detail. Featuring some of the voice talents from the film, such as Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman, their voice work is essentially the highlight of the titles audio. Unfortunately their well delivered dialog is limited, leaving you wanting more. While other X-Men such as Storm are not voiced by their film counterpart their voice-a-likes do a good job and sound close enough to the originals to not be distracting. The only one that is truly distracting is Beast not featuring the one-of-a-kind voice of Kelsey Grammer. Overall the game does provide strong voice work that gamers should enjoy.



While the voice work is solid the same can not be said about the titles score. While the main theme is well done, the level music itself is generally dull, forgettable, sometimes grating, and generally lifeless due to its overall synthetic sound. The title could have benefited by utilizing the score from the film or even using a score based on the films using a real orchestra. One of the highlights of movie-based games, yes there are some highlights, often comes in their use of the scores from the films and unfortunately Activision did not go that route with XOG, instead falling back on audio that manages to drag down even the well done voice work.

Closing
There is nothing worse then buying a game that turns out so badly that you fear the film the game is based on, the film you have been so excited about seeing, could be equally as horrendous. This is the case with X-Men: The Official Game, though rest assured the film is pretty damn good. On that note only the most diehard of X-Men fans need to spend the money to buy this game to get the whole trilogy story. Anyone else would be better off just seeing the film or if they need their X-Men gaming fix, check out either of the X-Men Legends games or if you must play this new one, rent it before buying it.