[Khaos4k]

I strongly suggest Marvel Ultimate Alliance as an RPG. Huge amount of playable superheroes all with unique superpowers. You play as a party of 4 (out of about 20-30 depending on how many are locked) and can switch out team members at every save point.

The animations are amazing, and really make the game. Lots of very cool moves that are easy to pull off thanks to an intuitive control scheme. The story is also pretty good in it, if a little over the top.

My one qualm with it is that there is some poor level design where your not too sure where to go or what to do. However, this game is so fun that it greatly outweighs that.

All of the tedious parts of RPGs that I don't like are taken out. You gain health and energy (mana) by killing enemies or breaking open crates. There is no inventory management, although you can still pick up equipment for boosts. You don't need to worry about what sword or shield you are carrying, since all weapons and powers are inherent to a certain superhero.

The single player campaign will probably last about 15-20 hours, but there is huge replayability in it. You can go through again with different people for a completely different experience.

There are also "simulator missions" which are on disks scattered throughout the levels. These function as mini-missions outside of the main storyline that put you in control of a single superhero fighting a significant battle that he or she has fought in the comics. This definetely adds a lot of hours of playtime since there is a disk for every hero, plus some for fighting certain supervillains as any hero.

It's been out for a while now so you should be able to pick it up pretty cheap. I picked it up about 2 weeks ago for $40 CDN, so you can probably get it for $30.