Movie games suck. Its one of those unwritten laws of gaming. So upon first hearing of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie tie-in game, I was quick to judge. I rolled my eyes, and thought great, another sucky movie game featuring one of my favorite superheroes. But then, I discovered that it was being developed by Raven, the guys behind the fantastic Action/RPG series X-Men Legends, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. And, they had actually been working on the game for quite some time. After reading plenty interviews and previews, I started to get excited, even hopeful. So, against my better judgment, thinking for sure I was setting myself up for disappointment, I went out and bought a copy, placed it in my 360, and hoped for the best. And this time, I'm glad I took the risk.
First thing first, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a whole lot of bloody fun. Bloody, BLOODY fun. In fact, I haven't had this much fun with a game in a while. The combat is fast and visceral, and, most of all, brutal. This is not your family friendly version of Wolverine your used to seeing in games, movies, or cartoons. This is Wolverine in his purest, most brutal, berserker rage form. If you ever wondered what exactly it is that Wolverine does best, play this game, and you will quickly find out.
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| "HEY GUYS!" |
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The highlight of X-Men Origins: Wolverine is without a doubt the gameplay. You have your standard light and heavy attacks, which you can chain together in a variety of ways to execute different combos. You also gain a set of Fury attacks that include the group devastating claw spin, the dismembering claw drill, the out of control claw cyclone, and of course berserker rage which makes your attacks way more damaging among other bonuses to your attributes. In addition to those are the grab attacks, which you can use to impale enemies on objects in the environment, or execute a quick kill. There's also a nice set of counter moves, blocks, and aerial combos. To top it all off there's the Lunge ability, which allows you to leap to enemies over vast distances. At times this ability reaches comical heights due to the absurd lengths you can use it to lunge to, but lunging strategically across the battlefield is so much fun that you'll likely ignore how unrealistic it is.
Graphically wise, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is impressive. The environments are nicely detailed, and the lighting effects are well done. The visual highlight however is Wolverine himself, particularly his healing factor. This is the first time Wolverine's healing factor has truly been nailed. As he takes damage, you'll see it, from his clothes to his skin, and all the way down to his adamantium skeleton. After large battles I found myself zooming in and watching the real time healing factor go to work. Watching Wolverine fully heal from a bloody mess back to full form is truly an impressive sight. There were a couple times I noticed some texture pop-up however, as well as some jaggies in the background, but this was in only one area toward the end of the game.
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| X-Force costume FTW. |
The sound work in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is also impressive. Hugh Jackman does a fantastic job voicing the character he's become so accustomed to playing on-screen. Liev Schrieber also reprises his role as Sabretooth, and will.i.am as John Wraith respectively, and both do a fine job. The rest of the voice-overs are generally well done. Hearing the screams of fallen enemies is cringe-worthy, but in a good way, as its oddly satisfying. And the chatter of frightened and paranoid soldiers is often times hilarious. The sound of Wolverine's claws tear through flesh and bone is also sickly satisfying.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is also a very cinematic experience. The camera will often times zoom in on the action and slow down, giving you a nice visual of all the carnage. To add a little variety, the game throws in some thrilling moments such as using a turret to gun down speeding boats, taking down a group of helicopters, leaping from truck to truck escaping a rushing flood of water, and skydiving after a sentinel. As fun and exciting those moments are, perhaps even more so are the boss battles. You can't just run up and mash the attack button to defeat these bosses, they require you to utilize all of the skills you have accumulated, sometimes in inventive ways. Thankfully the game doesn't make the mistake of using quick-time events, you'll need to rapidly tap a button now and then, but that's it, you always feel in control of the action.
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| Turns out the cake wasn't a lie... |
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is far from perfect however. First of all, the storyline is a jumbled mess. Logan often recalls his mission in Africa, which is told in bits and pieces throughout the course of the game. For the first half of the game, you'll return to Africa every couple of hours or so, but around the beginning of the second half, you'll be returning roughly every ten to thirty minutes. This flashback style of storytelling works well for TV shows like LOST, but here it just falls flat. Probably as expected there's also some repetition issues. For a game that relies heavily on flashy combat, you need to keep upping the ante. Unfortunately the game runs out of new tricks about two thirds into it. Another area where the problem of repetition arises is with the mid-bosses. These enemies come in two forms, and their attacks are nearly identical, therefore the technique needed to defeat them is the exact same. Dodge, lunge, slash away, jump off, repeat. There's also a few technical faults typical of movie games that X-Men Origins: Wolverine unfortunately shares, including occasional framerate dips, and buggy collision detection. You'll likely come across a few random glitches during your playthrough as well, some even may require you revert back to your last checkpoint. Along the way you'll also come across some puzzles which serve as sort of a breather between all the chaotic action. Unfortunately these puzzles are mind-numbingly dull, as they almost always require slowly pushing some sort of object into a specific place. Even worse are the platforming sections, which feel extremely clunky and at times can be infuriating.
Despite these faults, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the first game to make you truly feel like you are Wolverine. The storyline is a mess, its sometimes repetitive, and it has a number of technical failures and glitches. But X-Men Origins: Wolverine can't help but be a whole lot of fun. Its sure to please any Wolverine fan looking for a true to the character experience. At least those old enough to appreciate him at his most brutal.
7.75/10
*Originally written May 11, 2009*
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