What do you get when you combine a badass, licensed character in a totally average action game? I'll give you one guess.
Let's start with the better points: Origins is fairly fun to play if a bit monotonous; it is extremely gory and makes no apologies for its explicit depictions of dismemberments, decapitations and disembowelments of the numerous enemies you will encounter; fans will no doubt enjoy jumping into Wolverine's shoes; and playing as everyone's favorite badass, claw-wielding, adamantium-bonded protagonist is itself a redeeming quality. Unfortunately these few merits are not enough to elevate this game above the rank of mediocre and stand out above the crowd of other rank-and-file action games.
The story follows the plot of the movie of the same name, and you will journey from lush jungles, snow covered mountains and urban landscapes throughout the course of your play time. The story itself covers Wolverine's past and delves in to exactly how he came to be as the product of a super-soldier program. For those players not intimately familiar with Wolverine, the game does a nice job of explaining all this throughout the course of the game. For Wolverine enthusiasts it will all be common knowledge but no less engaging.
Graphically the game is all right, although for the most part it looks like a high-resolution PS2 game. The damage modeling for Wolverine is pretty cool, and the more punishment you sustain gets physically reflected on Wolverine's character himself. Conveniently enough one of his special powers is health regeneration, and over time his bruised and bloodied body will heal itself. There is still a health bar that contains two parts: The first is an overall health bar and acts as a buffer for the second part which is represented by Wolverine's heart. If you take too much damage and the buffer depletes you start taking damage to his heart which will eventually kill him if you can't escape to allow Wolverine to regenerate.
The game is very linear and you cannot deviate from your pre-assigned path too much or too often except if it is to search for any one of the ninety-five collectible dog tags hidden throughout each level, or to find miniature Wolverine statuettes that unlock special features like alternate costumes. Other than those exceptions the game always has you moving forward with little to no back tracking required. If you do happen to get turned around you can activate Wolverine's "feral sense" which is his heightened awareness that turns the world in to a wavy, semi-translucent perception that will point you in the right direction you need to go. You can also use this ability to find dog tags as well as highlight which objects in the environment you can use to kill enemies.
Speaking of killing enemies, that is what you will spend the majority of your time doing in Origins. You will be lunging, dodging and claw-spinning your way through the hordes of enemies the game throws at you every chance it gets. I have to admit, mercilessly shredding and ripping apart enemies as Wolverine with just his claws imparts a very satisfying feeling, and is one of the few highlights in the game. Technically speaking you could describe combat in this game as being on the button-mashy side, although there are a variety of combos in Wolverine's arsenal you will unlock as you progress further in the game that you can use for more finesse, but on the whole you can play the whole game just mashing buttons if you had to. You can also use various objects in the environment to kill which is also very satisfying to pull off and watch.
Enemies are abundant, frequently encountered and easily dispatched. Sub-boss and boss fights, however, prove to be anything but exciting or fun as you literally have to use the same attack pattern over and over to kill them. This is one of the game's glaring missteps in game play execution; the utter lack of creativity when it comes to sub-boss and main boss fights. I don't know about you, but furiously pounding on the square button for upwards of five minutes to defeat one of the several rock monster sub-bosses in the game does not a fun time make. I literally got bored during these encounters because it felt less of an accomplishment than it did a flat out chore.
Main boss fights offer a little more variety in execution but not much. And forget about the final boss (especially if you play on the hardest difficulty) as the game utilizes cheap tactics to best you. I realize the hardest difficulty is supposed to present a challenge and I have no problem with that because that is the point after all. My contention is when a game actually "cheats" or uses cheap tactics against you, and your success relies more on luck than actual skill which is clearly illustrated in the final boss fight in Origins. I have played a lot of games and to date I can state unequivocally that Origins has the worst final boss fight I have ever encountered in a video game.
Other than the tremendously skewed final boss fight, the monotonous, uncreative sub-boss fights, generic enemies and ho-hum, by-the-numbers game play execution, my experience with Origins wasn't all bad, but it wasn't exactly worth remembering either. Do yourself a favor if you still want to play this game: Rent it.