Based on the fictional Marvel Comics character
What’s it aboutX-Men Origins: Wolverine is a third person action adventure/hack ‘n slash released to coincide with the Twentieth Century Fox feature film featuring Hugh Jackman as the future X-Man superhero. The story explores the origins of the Marvel Comic superhero as it moves back and forth between periods of his life. With claws as sharp as blades, Spiderman-like agility and superhuman strength, Wolverine tackles a range of enemies from his Universe, including the likes of Gambit, Creed and The Blob across locations inspired by the film.
Influenced by the highly acclaimed and brutal combat game, God Of War, X-Men Origins is gloriously violent, utilising a melee combat system of light and heavy attacks, coupled with special moves, finishers, blocks and parries. There are also a few twists to the standard combat system, including Wolverine’s ranged move that allows him to lock-on to an enemy and strike him swiftly by lunging at him from a distance and then executing a finishing moves to impale, decapitate or dismember him.
X-Men Origins also features a number of other gameplay elements, including platforming, exploration, an EXP system, Quick Time Events and puzzle-solving. Predominantly though, you’ll spend most of your time slicing and dicing your way through swarms of attacking enemies, using your claws to ruthlessly tear them apart.
What do we like?
X-Men Origins is a high quality production. The cut-scenes capture Wolverine’s Universe superbly and the audio work, most notably the voice acting, gives the game real atmosphere. There are some nice cinematic touches that cut-in throughout the game which have given the developer the chance to showcase just how much they’ve pushed the boundaries and its mature rating , such as a slow-motion view just as you’re about to plunge your claws through someone’s skull. (Watch out also for the guy who gets his head thrust into the spinning blades of a helicopter!) Character models, especially Hugh Jackman and the mini-bosses, look tremendous and locations such as the lush jungle forest have also been very well rendered. The violence, blood, gore and the sheer power and brutality of Wolverine have been captured with great style through some superb animation. Overall, Origins is an impressive looking game.
The highlight, however, is the smooth combat system and the array of Wolverine’s upgradeable moves. You can chain lunges together, rack up combos and pull off special attacks, such as the devastating rage move which sees you spinning rapidly, blades out, into a cluster of enemies as you tear them to shreds. The combat system is extremely intuitive and the moves are enjoyable to execute. The combat scheme is deep enough to ensure that you don’t spend the majority of your time simply button-mashing your way through; there is an degree of tactical play to the mayhem.
Continued Overleaf...
