Opposable Thumbs / Gaming & Entertainment

Violence is the answer: Ars reviews X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is much better than a movie tie-in game has any right …

Wolverine may be the best at what he does, but what he does unfortunately does not include starring in good games. Does anyone remember the last Wolverine title, where Mark Hamill voiced the spiky-haired antihero? The NES title where he mostly kicked at things? Wolverine may have been a great co-star in games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but for such a beloved character he has been a crap leading man.

And now we have X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a game based on the movie that's being almost universally panned by critics and fans alike. While we originally had little to no hope for the title, a demo at GDC showed an M-rated bloodbath with some sound mechanics, excellent level design, and an actual understanding of who—and what—the character is. The preview inspired so much confidence that someone created a rap song dedicated to the idea of the game not sucking.

Title X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Developer Raven Software
Publisher Activision
Price $59.99
Platform Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3 Shop.ars

We've had our copy since last Thursday, and we've since beaten the game and have now started over on Hard Mode. It has its problems, and some of them are hard to ignore, but I have to say that even last night when I finished the grind with a four-hour playing session deep into the night, I was still having a good time. Yes, there are some stumbles on the way to completion, but overall, this is one of the most satisfying takes on a superhero we've seen on this generation of consoles.

What I do isn't very nice

Wolverine as a character is uniquely suited for video games. His claws make the perfect weapon, his sense of smell and animal instincts can be used to tell the player where to go next, and his most important mutant ability is his body's ability to heal itself rapidly. In other words, regenerative health actually makes sense in this game.


As you take damage, you become bloody and you start to see tissue and the adamantium skeleton under the skin, and then near death you begin to notice huge holes in Wolverine's body that you can actually see through. Since the character is more or less unstoppable, "death" in the game happens when you sustain an incredible amount of damage; the screen blacks out and tells you that you have been "captured." Don't worry though, that won't happen often. Even the normal difficulty level felt easy, as it's very, very hard to take out Wolverine in the game.

To the game's credit, it at least shows him getting hurt. You can get thrown into the same environmental traps that you use against the enemy, so it's not rare to be thrown by an explosion and find yourself on the wall, impaled by a metal rod. You simply push yourself off. The game plays with Wolverine's ability to take punishment and keep swinging, leading to some very gruesome attacks and counters.

What makes the combat so special is two things: the lunge move and the variety of moves you have to clear out a room. You tap the right bumper to lock onto an enemy, and then the left bumper causes you to jump across large expanses of the level onto that enemy. Once there, you can execute a number of attacks, or simply throw him out of the brawl and focus on his friends. Other enemies will jump toward you, and you can meet them in mid-air if you time things right.

By holding the right trigger, you bring up a menu of four special moves, including a rage attack that simply adds power and speed to your attacks. You can level these moves up—and Wolverine himself—by killing scads of enemy soldiers and other mutants. The idea of a leveling-up Wolverine is an odd one, but it does add some strategy to figuring out where you'd like him to be powerful—although by the end of the game, almost everything should be maxed out. There are also three "slots" for mutagen power-ups that also provide buffs, such as more experience or faster healing. These things don't make much sense inside the game's universe, and serve to make the game feel very "game-y" in places.

Even at the beginning of the game, Wolverine's attacks will look and feel great. He rips the arms off of his enemies. He cuts the heads off those who get in his way. The environment is littered with brutal ways to kill enemies quickly, usually in a shower of blood and limbs. By tapping the block button right before an attack lands and then hitting the attack button yourself, you can use counters that are enemy-specific. Yes, you can button mash and it may look good now and again, but by exploring the system you'll be finding new attacks and new animations throughout the entire game. The gameplay may get repetitive as you clear each room of enemies, but even when you're about to beat the title you'll be enjoying ripping people limb from limb. Near the end of the game is a nearly vertical level, and I spent the entirety of it throwing enemies off the sides so they fell to their death. Cheesy? Yes, but I did it with a smile. It just felt so... Wolverine.

Are you the best they've got?

If the fundamentals are sound, how is the game itself? It's important to note that while the game shares the movie's name and cover—and it uses likeness of several movie characters—the two stories only have a glancing similarity to each other. The game takes place in two different timelines, one before Wolverine had adamantium over his claws, and the other after, and the game jumps back and forth in a somewhat annoying fashion. In some sections you take a leap back or forward right before you get comfortable with whatever setting you're in. Expect to spend half the game fighting a mission that happened years ago in Africa, and the other half hunting down your enemies in the modern day. You will jump on way too many helicopters during both timelines, but I digress.

The odd thing is that since Wolverine levels up and gains new powers, it's odd to see him become more powerful in a linear fashion, even though the game is showing his past exploits half the time. I'm not sure how this could have been fixed in the narrative or in the game's mechanics—and it's more a problem with the medium than anything else—but it did rub me the wrong way.

Through all of this, it's just hard to feel like you're ever in danger of losing a fight. During your first scuffle with Sabretooth, you destroy your environment, and even when you play it skillfully you're going to take a massive beating. After seeing Wolverine pull a metal rod out of his body trunk and instantly heal, or seeing him hit the ground after a fall from the clouds with no long-lasting effects, it's just hard to get scared of a few guys with guns. Which is why, of course, you'll face boss characters.

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