X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Surely everyone saw it coming. A game spawned from a new hit movie. Though this one different from many others who share the same beginning. This one is actually pretty good, with its hang-ups here or there. While it won't win any Game of the Year awards, it is still a decent action game, with everyone's favorite mutant in the spot light.

Story wise, its pretty weak. Its a prequel, and its set in Africa, and blah, blah. You will stop caring about the story direction as soon as the game starts. From there it is an all out blood-letting fest that is pretty much the same the entire way through. You will come across the same poor sap that signed up to be a guard about a thousand times. Though you can perform instant kill moves on anyone, this too gets old. That doesn't mean the game is bad, it just means it's rather one dimensional. Unless you tire easily of lopping off heads, cutting people in half, and various other violent means to an end, you will probably like the game for what it is, instead of hating it for what it isn't.

It handles a lot like God of War, or Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and a fairly generic control scheme. The A button on the 360 and the X button on PS3 jumps, X and Y for 360 and square and triangle buttons strike to varying degrees of swiftness, and the B or O button grabs. The shoulder and trigger buttons allow for combinations leading to distance strikes and other things including devastating slash attack combinations. No new ground was broken here, so its likely to get so-so marks from most critics.

Wolverine himself is also upgradeable in a sense, allowing you to make him faster, stronger and what-not. You will almost completely ignore these features as well as the new attack combinations. Why? Because the normal button mashing is more than enough to get through the game. The blood will fly, and the heads will roll, but there really isn't much effort in getting this all to happen.

Graphically, the game is nothing special. That's not to say it doesn't look great, its just that nothing new has been accomplished. For this, many will simply not notice how it looks at all. What is very neat however is the way certain things look. Wolverine is actually damageable on four independent levels, two of which being accounted for in the status bar at the top of the screen. As he takes damage, Wolverine's body begins to deteriorate from his shirt downward. The skin will open up to reveal muscle tissue, bone, and finally organs. This damage is reflected in the meters above, the over lying one meaning everything above the organs, and the bar under meaning the vital organs themselves. Deplete both and our mutant hero is dead. Sure enough though, you can take damage, and watch Wolverine heal in real-time, just as you expect she should.

This really wasn't a problem though, as the upgrades you give him make you nearly invincible, and the lunge attack is completely unavoidable against 99% of the enemies. The blazing slash attack combinations unlocked by passing through the levels of experience are pleasing to the eyes but only a few are ever really used, or needed. Most gamers will try them, and that will be all, memorizing only a few of the most deadly, and use them only when needed.

The sounds of the game fit the part, again, nothing new is here. The expected growls, and sarcasm from Logan abound, with intermixed gun fire, and screaming. If you are a fan of such, you will love it.

Over all, the game does what it sets out to do. It allows you to become Wolverine in a way no other game has before. Things look the way they should, as the character certain looks like Jackman, the same way the rest of the cast resembles their real life counter parts. Tons of blood, and lopped off limbs are what this game and Wolverine is all about. Fans of carnage and the character will most likely be in love, finally.

I give it an 8/10