Movie games are not cursed and X-men Origins: Wolverine proves this.

User Rating: 7.5 | X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Uncaged Edition) X360
Movie games are not cursed and X-men Origins: Wolverine proves this. As a matter of fact, the game does two major things that fans wanted from the movie: minimize the dialogue and go for a mature rating. The game isn't perfect and still shows signs of 'need to be released before the movie' but it is still one of the best movie tie-in titles I have played.

The action isn't much different than other games of the genre, but it survives off of something most gamers have only dreamed of before: you are Wolverine and you can rip people in half. It clearly doesn't shy away from what a man with adamantium claws (I know it's a fictional metal, but go with me on this) would do when he plunges them into an enemies chest. Your foes will regularly be dismembered with blood flying everywhere, though it's a bit disappointing that their bodies quickly disappear after battle.

The act of controlling Wolverine himself isn't particularly varied. For the most part, his combos consist of pressing the light attack between one and five times, then ending it with a heavy attack. There are three special attacks unlocked throughout the game, but these are rather underpowered and didn't get much use from me. The combat was kept interesting by environmental kills. If an object seems to glow slightly, chances are that if you grab an enemy near it, Wolverine will perform an instant kill using the object. Many of these can be used of an enemy is thrown at them from a distance as well. It always brought a smile to my face when I fought a group enemies and lost track of one or two of them after tossing them aside, only to find them impaled on a pipe that was off screen. You can also instant kill finishers that vary from foe to foe. A few enemies need to be weakened first, while most others can be killed immediately as long as you don't get hit while preparing your attack. One basic move that never gets old is the lunge. As long as you have a visual on your target, you can perform a lunge from across a room and stab violently stab them to the ground with your claws. There are enough regular attack combos, grab moves, finishers, and special attacks to keep the game interesting, but it could have benefited from more to chose from. By the end, it suffered from what I have dubbed the God of War syndrome: spamming X, X, Y (for Xbox users) will win almost every battle for you. One odd thing to note is that Wolverine doesn'r become any stronger or resilient after receiving the adamantium. I know it was a 'gameplay over realism' decision, but it's strange none the less.

The character of Wolverine causes an interesting problem for game designers. How can a hero that pretty much cannot die (hell, he survived a nuclear blast when nothing but his skeleton was left) be put into video game form and keep things challenging while still making sense? Their decision was to not actually say 'you died' but simply to say 'you have been captured'. Wolverine has two separate health bars, but they basically mean the same thing, so I'm not sure what the reason for two was instead of one long one. Since he can technically be knocked unconscious, this solution makes sense. This is also one of very few games where regenerative health also makes sense. If you take too much damage, simply hiding for several seconds will heal you.

Defeating enemies will earn you experience that allows you to level up and increase your abilities. Anything from improving special moves, to increasing you health, to improving damage can be increased. There are also mutagens scattered throughout the game that give unique bonuses. In the beginning, you can only equip one at a time. By the end, you can equip up the three, but there are a total of eleven to be found. The chosen three will vary from player to player and help add a customizable feel to the game.

The damage modeling on Wolverine is quite impressive. Getting shot in the stomach will show a bloody bullet wound in the exact spot where he was hit. Being shot with a larger caliber bullet may actually go through his body and it is possible to see completely through him. Being lit on fire will cause him to have grotequse burns exactly where the fire touched him. Massive damage, such as from a rocket launcher, will actually leave a hole large enough in his body to reveal his metal skeleton. It takes longer for his body to heal than his health to replenish, but this was probably done so that you can charge him into battle with half his face missing and still be able to come out victorious.

Level design simply gets the job done. It isn't boring and repetitive, but there isn't much to look at either. Each room is clearly an excuse to fight large groups of enemies in different areas. You never spend too much time in a single environment because each level is in a different location, with the exception of one. Nearly every other mission takes you back to the jungle. They may be the best looking levels in the game, but repeating the same general locations and basic enemy types gets a little old. It doesn't help that if you saw the movie, you already know how the jungle mission ends, so dragging this out through the entire game is monotonous. Luckily areas and objective vary enough in the rest of the game that this is only a minor complaint.

The boss battles are hit and miss. A fight against a sentinel in the middle of the game is easily one of the games highlights. It is completely intimidating, but the way you go about defeating it is believable. On the other hand, there are a few battles against the larger enemies that are won simply by lunging on their backs at the right time and pounding the attack button before they can hit you. These battles wouldn't have been too bad expect the developers gave these enemies ridiculous amounts of health, so the same pattern is repeated ad nauseam. The biggest disappointment was the battles against Victor Creed. In both of them, I defeated him without taking a single hit, even on the hard difficulty. Simply lunging at him and repeating the heavy attack while he is on the ground will earn you victory every time. The final boss is decent, but employs cheap tactics that can make you fall to your death several times. The boss fights may have been a little underwhelming, but in the end the game is more about fighting massive amounts of regular enemies and that is where the bulk of the fun lies.

The game is a decent length, but there isn't much to do after finishing it. There are three difficulties, but a seasoned gamer can breeze through on the hardest without much difficulty. Hidden dog tags and a few other hidden items (only three, to be exact) help increase the replay value, but not by much. There are three hidden costumes to unlock, though they are basically his traditional outfit with color variations. Most people will be able to get all the achievements or trophies in one or two rental periods.

While most movie games only cover pivotal story moments, enough is left intact here that you don't have to see the movie to understand what is going on. The game diverts from the movie, but has the same general plot. For example, instead of fighting The Blob in a boxing ring, you fight him in a supermarket. Mystique makes an appearance here as well and for the keen listener, there is even a quick reference to the origins to Nightcrawler. In the end, it sets up a sequel that isn't even mentioned in the movie. Here's to hoping we get a stand alone game that doesn't have to deal with a movie release date.

Graphically, the game is excellent, as is expected from the Unreal engine. Wolvierine looks just like Hugh Jackman, as do all the other characters that reprise their roles from the movie. Oddly, those that didn't return don't look anything like their movie counterpart. I understand not using their likenesses, but at least allow them to look similar. For example, Stryker looks like a failed design for Nick Fury. There are a few spots where invisible walls impede you from going into clearly open areas, but these are at a minimum. There are a few CGI cutscenes that look amazing, especially the scene where he is given the adamantium.

X-men Origins: Wolverine may not be an instant classic, but it's definitely one of the best movie games I have played recently. It could have been longer, but it isn't as short as many other well done movie tie-ins (I'm looking at you Wanted: Weapons of Fate and The Bourne Conspiracy). Any Wolverine fans will be pleasantly surprised by this title.