X-Men: Legends II - Rise of Apocalypse

How to Play

The game has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11, it works fine, the game supports widescreen. We also tested the game with dgVoodoo 2 on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 10, works good too. You may experience some small troubles when you play the game on modern systems, check our Guide and Notes for details

Install & play guide:

• Mount the disc image of CD1/DVD. You will need the utility for mounting disc image files, like WinCDEmu, UltraISO, Alcohol 52%/Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools Lite
• Launch the installation (if autorun doesn't work - simply launch the installation from Setup.exe inside the disc). It is recommended to install the game not in default path, but in some other, non-system folder, like C:/Games/X-Men Legends II, so you won't have troubles with NoCD or fixes
• For CD version: when the installation process will ask for the next disc, mount the disc images of next CDs. All discs must be mounted in the same drive, so first un-mount the disc image of previous disc and only then mount the next disc image
• Finish the installation. After you installed the game - use NoCD, simply copy Xmen2.exe from the archive to the game folder, agree to replace the original file
• Open the game folder and find Xmen2.exe. Right-click on Xmen2.exe -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Set "Run this app in compatibility mode with Windows XP" and "Run as Administrator"
• Launch the game and play. If the game doesn't work in compatibility mode with Windows XP - try to launch it in compatibility mode with other version of Windows (Windows 95, 98, 2000, etc.)

3 CD version has only English language, DVD version is multilingual and has 5 available languages: English, French, Deutsch, Italian and Spanish, you can select the language during the installation. English, German and Spanish languages are presented with full audio & text, French and Italian languages are available only as text

Notes:

• If the installation doesn't start - try to launch Setup.exe in compatibility mode with old version of Windows (98, 2000 or XP)
• You may get error at the end of installation - don't worry, the game will be installed properly, it's just some unknown bug of the installer
• It is recommended to install all versions of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable and NET Framework for the correct work of the game. Also it is recommended to install K-Lite Codec Pack for the correct work of in-game audio and video
• The game works on DirectX 9, so if you're using Windows 8, 8.1, 10 or 11 - you need to enable DirectPlay: Go to Control Panel, and select 'Programs'. Select 'Turn Windows features on and off', click on 'Legacy Components' and check the box 'DirectPlay'. Select OK, once the installation is done, restart your computer
• NoCD is required for the launch because the game was protected with SafeDisc 4 DRM that doesn't work on modern systems. NoCD "breaks" DRM protection and allows to play the game without the disc. If you see the error that there's not enough space on the hard drive when you copy NoCD files - re-install the game in non-system folder, like D:/Games/X-Men Legends II, Windows Protection may block copying of files to system folders (like C:/Program Files or C:/Windows)
• If you launch the game and see the error windows about missing dll-files - install Microsoft Visual C ++ 2008 Redistributable package. Theoritically, you can also skip that error windows by clicking "Ignore" until the game starts, check this thread for more details about that problem
• You may also get the error window about missed libIGAudio.dll, libCriMovie.dll or libIGDisplay.dll files, it is the dll-files of DirectX 8.1. Enabling DirectPlay (for Windows 8 or newer) or installing DirectX 9 from the disc (for Windows 7 or older) should fix that issue. If that error window still appears, we also uploaded the archive with dll-files copied from the folder of installed game; simply extract all that dll-files to game folder to fix the issue
• If you launch the game and see the error about Intrinsic Alchemy and msdia80.dll - download that dll-file and copy it to the game folder
• If you launch the game and see only the black screen or the game crashes at launch, do the next steps: open Registry Editor (press Win+R and enter regedit.exe) and go to the path Computer/HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Activision/X-Men Legends 2/Settings/Display. Right-click on "Resolution" and select "Modify", input your desktop screen resolution (for example if you have 1920x1080 desktop resolution, enter 1920x1080); after that click OK and close Registry Editor. Now the game should launch properly, you need to do this only one time after the installation
• The game supports wide screen resolutions, including UltraHD 4K, ultrawide and multi-display setups, check WSGF page for example screenshots. To change the screen resolution, go to Options -> Advanced Options in the game. If you cannot find your screen resolution, you can try to enable the custom screen resolution in Windows Registry, the instruction is in the note above
• If the game crashes at random moments: this can occur if your stash and inventory is full or near full. Clear out your stash back at base and keep your inventory and stash low if this happens. The crash will occur when an item drops from an enemy or object that is destroyed, due to the game exceeding the item limit and not knowing what to do. Keeping these low can help prevent this
• On modern systems the game may work too slow or have the unstable framerate - in that case try to run the game through one of display wrappers, we recommend to use dgVoodoo 2. To run the game with dgVoodoo 2 copy the dll-files from the MS/x86 folder, dgVoodooCpl.exe and dgVoodoo.conf to the game folder, next to Xmen2.exe. To change dgVoodoo 2 settings, run dgVoodoo Control Panel (dgVoodooCpl.exe) as administrator. After you changed dgVoodoo 2 settings, run the game as usual from Xmen2.exe. Also, dgVoodoo 2 wrapper provides additional technical features, such as Texture filtering, Anti-aliasing and others, you can find such settings in dgVoodoo Control Panel
• Looks like on some modern GPUs Anti-aliasing (FSAA) option in the game doesn't work, even if you enabled FSAA in game settings. If you want to play the game with Anti-aliasing, force it through control panel of your video card or run the game with dgVoodoo 2 and enable Anti-aliasing in dgVoodoo Control Panel
• If you get the error "Unable to initialise graphic display. Resolution and FSAA have been reverted to default" - try to run the game through one of display wrappers, such as dgVoodoo 2, DXVK, etc.
• The game has Cooperative multiplayer mode for 2~4 players. But the game was using GameSpy servers for online Cooperative, and GameSpy service was shut down in 2014. Luckily, the game also had support of LAN multiplayer, so fans made fixes that allow to play the Cooperative mode via LAN emulators like RadminVPN, Hamachi or Tunngle. We found two fixes: first one is by Xeth Gaming, the link and instruction is available in this video (check that channel for possible updates), second one is by Alex Trin created for his repack (check this thread for details)
• The game also allowed to play Cooperative mode in Local play, for 2~4 players with few controllers, so as alternative you can play Local Cooperative over the internet by using tools like Remote Play Together or similar. Online Cooperative mode was working through GameSpy service which was closed in 2014, but you can try to use GameSpy alternatives such an OpenSpy
• The game has controller support so you can play the game with gamepad. If the game doesn't recognize your controller - try to use one of the additional tools from PCGamingWiki guide for controllers
• Don't forget to check PCGamingWiki page if you have any troubles, it is very useful!