X Men Origins: Wolverine (The Game)

Just downloaded the demo off PSN, and I have to say I've gobsmacked.

Maybe that's a little strong, but I wasn't expecting much from a movie tie in, let alone anything like this. Forget about it being a kiddie friendly tie in, as the BBFC 18 certificate the full game has earned itself will attest, this is Wolverine as he should be; he's got claws, and he uses them to brutal effect. Enemies are skewered, diced and dismembered, and it doesn't shy away from the claret either.

Graphically it's very impressive, with Hugh Jackman's likeness particularly good, even if the frame rate seemes to slow down at times, and some of the set pieces are suitably wince inducing.

The gameplay revolves around three main buttons [] being the generic slashing attack, O being a grab and triangle is a heavy blow. They can be chained together into combos, very much like God of War, and while you can get away with button mashing initially, the game does seem to throw a nice mix up of melee enemies and those toting mchine guns to force you to mix it up a bit.

In any case, the demo was a pleasant surprise, and you have to give the developer kudos for 'getting' Wolverine so spot on.

It's not actually a movie tie in as far as I can tell. It was in the making before the film was, and was developed separately.

Ah, that might explain it. If it's had a few years in development, that's considerbaly longer than most tie-ins get. Nice demo though, if you're a fan of either God of War, X Men or Wolverine in general, you should give it a go.

Also

SimianWonder wrote:

BBFC 18 certificate

Kick ass.

Yeah, it's properly violent. Various finishing moves can take off enemy limbs, and one scene has Wolverine jumping onto an attck helicopter, punhcing through the windscreen, pulling out the pilot, and then holding him up so his head gets caught in the rotor.

The actual gameplay starts at about 3.00, yet the opening cutscene gives a good impression of what to expect. I liked the moment at 1.30. Ouch.

Oh, and the aforementioned helicopter bit is right at the end, about 8.00 in. It's worth waiting for.

Looks pretty good. I like the real time damage and healing.

My only concern would be over the usual things with games of this genre; variety and depth. If the bad guys are the same two or three over and over again, it'd get old very quickly, and hopefully there's enough in the game mechanics to prevent you from simply hammering the buttons and getting easy wins.

The healing is an impressive bullet point to put on the box, but even on my 40" HDTV, it's so subtle and the game's so busy you don't really notice it, at least not if you're actually playing it.

Hot Fucking Damn! This Rivals Punisher as my favorite Marvel Game Ever. In fact, I think Ol' Frank just got topped. That Helicopter shit was WICKED!

Punisher
Wolverine

All I need now is a Gambit game of the same caliber and I'm fucking set.

Yeah, the game is fun.

Rent or buy?

I bought. I wanted a actiony/hack 'n' slash to play for a while. Was gonna get Afro Samurai, but just never got round to it. The first couple chapters are bit repetitive, mainly because of the boss fights, which are just dodging and then jumping on their heads to slash at them, jump of before they hit you, rinse and repeat.

I mean, I suppose it's all repetitive, but with the regular it's more fun because there's quite a few ways to mix things up. Apparently after the first couple chapters it gets better though, as more established characters get involved. At the start it's just escaping the Weapon X facility and Alkali Lake, and the mission in Africa, which is all faceless henchmen.

Already unlocked the classic Wolverine outfit, although you feel a bit stupid running through the jungle in a bright blue and yellow jumpsuit.

I guess I'll be buying it then.

While the real time healing isn't that noticeable (at least not as it happens), the real time damage is a nice feature. There's a point when you're escaping the Weapon X facility where you lose your healing ability, and you have to sneak passed a bunch of motion sensing guns. I got caught by one, it nearly killed and I was walking around for a while with have my chest missing, metal ribcage showing through and all.

So what are we looking at boss wise?

I'm not past the opening opening chapters yet, and so far there's been 2 types of bosses, although really it's one type, since you take them out exactly the same way. Having said that there's been about 8 boss battles with these things so far. 1 is big lava/rock monster, and the other is the WENDIGO prototype, which is basically a big angry guy. There's only one way to take these things down, which is why it gets annoying.

Oh, but there was a battle with Sabretooth too, which was fun.

And one against Classic Wolverine. When you unlock a costume what you actually unlock is a battle with that version of Wolverine, and if you win you get the costume.

Awesome.

Out for the PS2?

Yes, but only the 360 and PS3 (and I think PC) versions have all the gore and stuff.

Huh, GR says it's only for PS3, 360 and PC.

Sucks for me.

PS2 gameplay