X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Rating Mature Genre action Publisher Raven Software External Links

Blockbuster movie season generally brings forth a parade of video games with tie-ins to the related movie. All too often, these games feel slapped together at best and are downright awful at worst. They’re cash grabs mainly designed to score a few sales while the movie’s out.

Every now and then though, one of these manages to stand on its own. The latest Wolverine title is one of the very few movie tie-in games I’ve played that actually turned out pretty well. It helps that there’s a pretty good history of X-Men games to work from and certainly Wolverine’s personality and popularity add to the experience.

As far as pure gameplay, there’s nothing terribly original. The game plays out as a standard 3rd person adventure game. It’s similar to the God of War model as you generally alternate between fighting groups of thugs or solving a puzzle with a few boss battles thrown in. Multiple cutscenes are mixed in to move the story along and some look like they may have even been pulled straight from the movie.

While the story isn’t exactly enthralling, Hugh Jackman does lend his voice, so it at least helps bring some authenticity. Much of the game flashes between a mission in Africa from 3 years ago and the present mission of revenge that Wolverine is pursuing. In reality, the story doesn’t matter, it’s more of an excuse to mix in multiple types of enemies along with different environments.

The gameplay itself is where Wolverine really rises. Games of this type often devolve into a simple button mash. If you know a couple of the basic attacks, the game is extraordinarily simple. This isn’t the case with Wolverine. Through various controller combinations you can string together several attacks as well as launch long distance lunge attacks. The nice thing is, most of the button combos are pretty intuitive and it won’t take hours with the book in front of you to know how to do everything. The enemies are also varied enough and vulnerable to different attacks so that you have to be able to mix it up. In addition to the normal attacking sequences, you also have a variety of finishing moves. This is where the game really shines.

The game really earns its mature rating with the finishers and really just some of the basic gore and brutality found throughout play. While in the jungle, you can grab an enemy close to spike and your finisher will impale them for an instant kill. Or you can grab a guy and toss him into a convenient spinning fan blade nearby. Even just some of the basic claw attacks will separate limbs and heads in gruesome, slo-mo, close-up kills. This game is bloody and the lengthy variety of attacks and finishers make each kill feel somewhat unique. This really helps minimize some of the monotony that could come after simply dealing with wave after wave of drones.

Other than the battle scenes there are puzzle sequences to complete also. These are usually fairly simple and involve manipulating the environment in some way or finding a key that allows you to move on. I haven’t run into anything terribly difficult and really, even in the fight sequences and boss battles, you’re not likely to die often. Wolverine’s regeneration ability means you really have to screw it up to do too poorly. The most likely death will come from falling during some of the puzzles.

Beyond the normal gameplay, there are plenty of the usual easter eggs mixed in. There are soldiers scattered and hidden throughout each level and you can retrieve their dogtags for XP. There are also Wolverine figurines that can be collected that open up bonus battle minigames. Along with the dogtags, you earn XP for kills and completing objectives. As usual, the XP can be used to upgrade abilities and open up new attack combos. It’s pretty standard stuff by now for this type of game, but it does help keep things somewhat fresh as the levels drag on.

Overall, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a solid game. It breaks out of the mold of the usual movie tie-in game to provide a fun, bloody experience. This definitely isn’t one for the youngsters with all of the gore, but older gamers will find it enjoyable if you’re into that sort of thing. I am and several times throughout the game I found myself chuckling at the new and creative ways Wolverine finds to dismember the enemy. I’m not sure how much replay value there is, but the first time through is definitely worth it.