Xbox 360 Review: X-Men Origins Wolverine

Let’s get this out of the way. Movie games on average are terrible. Comic-based games used to be terrible, but have slowly been bucking the trend over the past five years. If you mix the comic and movie genre together you’re likely to come up with an anomaly that can teeter on the point of being a gaming tragedy, or something that draws you in on the levels of Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

For long time gaming fanatics, featuring a game with Wolverine as the star character may make you cringe with fright. Wolverine is like Marvel’s version of Superman when it comes to video games. Tons of great potential, which eventually suffers due to poor execution and an overall lack of character knowledge on the part of the design team. After playing X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition, I can honestly say that Activision and developers Raven Software have indeed uncaged Wolverine’s Adamantium Frenzy.

When it comes to video games, there are two things that will always make or break a game: fun and gameplay. Let’s be serious if a game isn’t fun, there’s no reason to play it. ‘Drop-your-jaw graphics and animation’ will not keep you playing if the game is boring. While, a game with terrible mechanics, lackluster nuances and monotonous play will only takes away from its entertainment value. If you’ve got both of those two, you will be able to forgive non-stellar graphics, and a mediocre story. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” wins out on both gameplay and entertainment value.

There are two things about Wolverine that are central to his character: the claws he was born with and his mutant healing factor. Most games featuring Wolverine have always given him claws, since it would be bizarre not to have them. However, rarely has anyone ever addressed his healing factor. Developers may dumb his powers down to a health bar that replenishes slightly faster than his teammates, but otherwise we have never been given a real sense of his healing factor in video games.

Raven changed all that in X-Men Origins. Not only does Wolverine heal, but also you get to watch the process right before your eyes. Wolverine’s body will show the real-time damage he takes from bullets or other attacks, correlating directly to the body part affected. Visually, this winds up looking like a bunch of red splotchy patches after a while, but the effect and gore are still great. You are given two health meters. The first is your typical health meter. When that meter hits zero, it means that Wolverine has become is near death. The meter is then replaced by a heart-meter. At this point, you’ll probably see Wolverine’s skeleton since his skin has been peeled off by damage. Once your heart-meter goes to zero you’re dead. Fortunately, if you can evade enemy attacks for a few moments, your health meter will replenish itself at a moderately fast rate. While your mutant healing is working, you will see your skin regenerate right before your eyes. It’s really sweet. There is one caveat though. Wolverine can drown. You’ll find out the hard way that if you are ever thrown into the water, you won’t get back out.

The game features several fun combos that are easy to execute and of course a berserker rage. You will earn skill points as you play to upgrade Wolverine’s claws or abilities. The most notable Wolverine attack is the lunge attack. If an enemy is attacking you across the map you can target him, and the lunge to attack them. It is also the only way to cross certain landscapes. So, if you need to jump from one platform to another or across a ravine, you’ll probably see an enemy standing there to provide an imaginary grappling hook.

The lunge attack is also the primary way you’ll fight most overgrown bosses. This is actually the downfall of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Outside of the Sentinel, each boss tends to be repetitive in style and attack. You’ll lunge at them, and then hang off of their backs as you plunge your claws over and over again into their bodies. Also, bosses tend to get stuck in the map. Wendigo was the first boss to get stuck in the board, making it overtly easy to just keep lunging and plunging. Also the first boss you encounter has an extremely lackluster visual upon defeat. I ripped off his head and all that happened was a few sparks. What’s that about?

When you start the game you actually begin without your adamantium skeleton, during the time when Wolverine was a friend of Sabertooth. The story is somewhat convoluted as you jump back-and-forth through different periods of Wolverine’s life. You’ll encounter characters without any real explanation as to why you need to fight them, or what’s going on in Wolverine’s life to have him come to this moment.

Hugh Jackman provides all the VO for Wolverine, which is nice addition. I used to hate movie to game adaptations where the character voice was swapped out for a voice that just didn’t seem to fit the character.

The game features a few more cool nuances, including trivia bits between loading sequences. You can also find different Wolverine costumes hidden throughout the game if you want to switch out of Wolverine’s jeans attire.

The graphics are not what you’d want out of this game. As I said before, even though the blood and damage on Wolverine looks awesome, it doesn’t really look as great as it could. And, that goes for the whole game. From the settings to the characters there is an abundant lack of finished detail in this game. You will be able to get past it, but you will definitely wish that Raven invested just a little more time in making this game into as great a title as it could have been. Graphics aside, the fun and gore factor is enough to keep you playing.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a gory game that’s entertaining to play from start to finish. Quirky boss encounters, a muddled story and graphics that fail to go above and beyond expectations hinders this game from reaching the heights it could have reached. But, all things aside, this is one game that is definitely worth the eight or ten hours you’ll invest in gaming. I’m just thrilled to know that Wolverine has finally got the respect he deserves in a video game.