X-Men Origins – Wolverine
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Well lets make it clear here, i am a huge wolverine fan, and Hugh Jackman fits the role perfectly, so when i got a whiff of an x-men game featuring the one and only Wolverine in his reinvented form, i was definitely going to pay at least some attention to it.
With my fanboyism out of the way, i found out about this game via the demo they had up on live a few weeks before release, enjoying it immensely due to my thirst for hack and slash goodness i decided to shell out and grab myself a copy of the full game, bad reviews and “OH GOD ITS SO UNLIKE THE COMIC” cries not tainting the joyous occasion.
The game is very reminiscent of other console hack and slashes like Devil May Cry or God of War, but with a superhero touch, thankfully Raven have deviated enough from the movie to make Wolverine come across as the true bad ass that he is, rather than some spandex wearing gimp with a fetish for long nails, giving this game a real manly sense of brutal maiming and killing (Grrr).
One of the things that i found was great about the game was the ease of controls, everything was fluid and smooth, controlling wolverine is a rewarding experience, for example, who can beat holding in a back button and hitting A to leap toward your target, claws out and rip right through his ribcage? perhaps if you have some sort of anti-violence stance you will
stamp your feet and protest this senseless violence that is plaguing young culture, or you’ll squeal like a 5 year old girl who has just got the latest barbie accessories from Argos, i definitely squealed a little, a manly internal squeal, my favourite of these skills being the berserker skill, wolverines claws light on fire and you proceed to go on an anger filled killing spree, attacking faster, moving faster, and fuck yeah, mashing faces in faster.
Wolverines skills are rough and gory, making dismembering enemies a very enjoyable and exhilarating experience, there is just something about turning yourself into a human drill and driving your way through someones stomach that brings a tear to my perhaps sick and demented eye.
Skills in wolverine are based on rage, this can be replenished by grabbing red orbs that fall on the ground upon enemy death, my only qualm with skills in the game are, well you never really feel the need to use them constantly, most of the time i found myself lunging a target, and press Y (smashing down on his face with my claws) this usually dispatched enemies quick enough, and this works for pretty much the entire game.
Boss battles also suffer from this “same tactic fuck it” mentality, and well, we can’t help it, the developers deemed it OK to make button mashing (akin to God of War) sequences apply to every fucking boss fight in the game bar the last, it made them trivial and nowhere near as epic as they could have been had they mixed it up a little.
Wolverine as some of you may know, also has the ability to regenerate, adamantium frame and all that, now as nice as this is, i think i may have died once during my entire play through on hard, this due to the fact that bouncing around and avoiding things like a dickhead, letting me regenerate quickly, this takes away from the need to avoid things for me “boss hitting me in the face and taking 3/4 of my health? fuck it I’ll regenerate” i wanted hard to be challenging but alas, wolverine is just too hardcore to give me that option.
Plot wise this game has a few references to the movie, others are just added to make the game a bit more interesting, but generally speaking the game focuses more on smashing peoples skulls than trying to engage you in a wonderful tale of bowel dislodging and limb amputation, (as much as I’d like that.) ill avoid releasing any story information for those of you who hate being told what happens in the film like for example the EPIC FIGHT BETWEEN WOLVERINE AND DEADPOOL but i won’t tell you about it because I’m a nice guy.
One of the main reasons i played this game from start to finish and then some, was for the unlock system, now i don’t know about you but unlock systems are my weakness, in Wolverine enemies drop delicious little golden orbs that give you experience, which can then in turn be converted into new skills, upgrades and so forth for wolverine, you level up as you go along too, levels will give you skill points which you can then freely distribute into upgrades for wolverine, examples being his claw damage, skill damage, and other nifty but not overly exciting things (heal on hit etc.) they didn’t make me go WOW FUCK I NEED TO GET THAT RIGHT NOW but they did the trick.
Another addition is mutagens, these can be found throughout the game in fucking annoying but not too hard to find places, these give wolverine bonuses to Regen, extra damage, extra experience and such, these too while not overly exciting, where at the least a tad helpful.
Whilst on the top of collectible things, there are also little wolverine figurines floating around in yes, you guessed it FUCKING ANNOYING places, which upon obtaining two of the same, gives you a mini challenge accessible from the main menu to unlock new costumes for wolverine (original x-men costume etc), in these challenges you are pitted against wolverine in said costume and made fight to the death, if you kill him, you get to roll through the campaign in a yellow faggot suit (which is REALLY unfitting in the campaign, he looks like a rampant pervert prowling for young ladies) i found these challenges a nice distraction but they can be annoying, since the other wolverine regenerates just like you do.
Graphics wise, this game in my opinion is gorgeous, lush jungles, detailed science labs make for a really stunning environment, based on the unreal engine, wolverine is definitely not falling short in the graphics department, all the characters within the game cannot be confused for their movie counterparts, Jackman being the one that stands out (obviously) another unique feature is the visual regeneration on wolverine, if hes been filled with 200 bullets, you can see the holes onscreen, then slowly watch as he heals himself, this was a really nice touch to the game and really shows how tough wolverine really is.
Voice acting is also done by the movie counterparts, gambit I’m in two minds about, his repeated french references to wolverine throughout the game are non-existent in the movie, but sadly I’m a lazy cunt with no intention of googling this matter to find out the cold hard truth, i leave that to you, my glorious readers.
Chances are i missed something along my trail, but a quick roundup anyway:
The game is definitely very fun in that it doesn’t require extreme focus and attention, you can hack and smack your way through the game, occasionally cock-blocked by the odd puzzle but nothing too tough (unless you’re retarded and well….I’m sorry) the game clocks in at about 10-12 hours by my guess, so its a decent length, its flaw being that the game gets very repetitive and boring at some points, but putting down the controller and strolling outside does wonders for ones attention span, i enjoyed the game, i don’t regret picking it up, so if you find it pre-owned or dropped by a few quick i recommend you pick it up, you could do a lot worse.
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