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X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE XBOX 360 REVIEW |
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Raven
Software is back making action-RPG's again.
While they don’t produce as many action RPG
titles as other developers in their league, they
are the best at what they do. X-Men Origins:
Wolverine, their latest creation, is considered
to be one of the greatest movie-games to date! A
near-perfect blend of action, narrative, and
downtime/puzzles really make this game stand out
amongst titles like Too Human, Fallout 3, and
The Watcher. The storyline featured in X-Men
Origins: Wolverine is a hybrid of the plot found
in the movie and that plot is exclusive to the
console release. As the title implies, the game
revolves around Wolverine's origins, and the
founding of the X-Men, which gives you a good
insight of how it all started.
The gameplay doesn't progress the story
linearly, rather the chapters jump between
Wolverine's past and present accordingly,
complete with pre-rendered cutscenes. Many of
Wolverine's experiences during present-day
gameplay relate to things that happened in the
past, most notably his mission in Africa. Other
locations include the Alkali Lake Compound (reminscient
of the comic), the Weapon X Laboratory, among
other prominent Wolverine-related settings.
Jumping back and forth between the past and
present timelines is integral not only to the
story, but the gameplay as well. As an
action-RPG, anything earned in one section of
the game carries on to the next, whether it
takes place in the past or present. This lets
Wolverine use his repertoire of moves
consistently, and it's one hell of an arsenal.
The nature of combat is very reminiscent of God
of War and X-Men Legends, being comprised of
Light and Heavy attacks, along with a Grab
command. Like most action-RPGs, the combos are
strung together by mixing various button presses
that lead to amazing aerial strikes and even for
some nasty grappling finishers. What makes
Wolverine different is the fluidity of the
combat: he can flip over enemies, counter a
number of cheap blows, tackle them into an
uppercut, and lunge at them with a fury of
slashes, which are spectacularly very gruesome –
you can do all of these without much effort
being put into memorization of the controls.
Everything just sort of clicks contextually
since the control scheme is very minimal.
Special kills, such as environmental ones, are
easy to pull off thanks to this system; all that
has to be done is for an enemy to be thrown into
the lethal object, as Wolverine takes care of
the rest.
The health system in X-Men Origins is akin to
many modern shooters, as there are two
regenerating health bars: one for his skin, and
one for his vitals. As Wolverine takes
consistent damage his vitals continuous to be
more exposed. However, letting him rest will
allow his skin to regenerate, which in turn lets
his vital points heal as well. Full usage of
Wolverine's skills is necessary both for
survival and to gain experience. The combat is
usually challenging, but there are situations
which require little or no effort to beat, such
as “cliff-sides” scenes where enemies can simply
be thrown off the face of the earth. At times,
the action can get nail-bitingly intense, as
quite a few sequences will leave Wolverine
struggling to regenerate his wounds in order to
protect his vitals. Enemy types are varied, but
each fall into some sort of category. |
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PRODUCT
OVERALL RATING: 9.0 OUT OF 10 |
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There's a
high degree of personalization to be found in
the game: Wolverine can become more resilient
while sacrificing attack power, or he can be
customized to use stronger special attacks
instead of relying on being able to take more
damage. Unfortunately, there is little in the
way for gameplay expansion in terms of
replayability. Needless to say, the game is
twenty or so hours long, a rarity for a modern
game. While “Hard” difficulty is a hidden
feature, the game is too long to justify a
second playthrough. There are also bonus
challenges that can be unlocked by finding
figurines throughout the chapters. These
unlockables provide a slew of additional
costumes for Wolverine. However, these changes
aren't reflected in the pre-rendered cutscenes,
and the costumes look quite similar to each
other.
Graphically, the game is outstanding, aside from
the occasional muddy texture. Running on the
Unreal Engine, the Xbox 360 version sits
comfortably at home with little to no graphical
anomalies whatsoever, although the pre-rendered
cutscenes are a bit compressed-looking.
Wolverine's skin peels as he takes damage,
eventually revealing his adamantium skeleton,
which is an extremely cool touch. As for the
special effects, the blood and gore in this game
is outstanding in which the slow-motion camera
does a good job of capturing the cinematic
experience of heads flying off everywhere. The
animation is excellent, especially the part when
Wolverine counterattacks an enemy or executes
them while they scream for their lives.
Wolverine tends to make the inhabitants in the
game scream a lot, but that's not all you’ll
hear throughout his cut-throat adventures. The
audio effects are relatively solid and are
pretty convincing to say the least. However, the
main highlights of the game’s audio component
are in the spoken dialogues. The voice acting is
good for an action game where the actors lend
their talent for all the main characters.
Wolverine's one-liners add some spice to the
combat, and make it feel somewhat interesting
when demolishing hordes and hordes of enemies,
but it’s quite humorous that he never seems to
blurt anything about getting hurt. Anyway, the
music is well done and that’s because it is
performed by the same composer that made the
great scores for Underworld, Far Cry Instincts,
and Rainbow Six Vegas.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a fantastic game
that really shows what Raven Software can do
with this genre. The developer has demonstrated
that they have moved up from the mediocre Marvel
Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends titles and
have created the best Wolverine game to date!
The combat system is good and the music is well
done thanks to the same composer that made the
great scores for Underworld, Far Cry Instincts,
and Rainbow Six Vegas. With its surprising
length, this is not your typical smash-button
beat-them-up that you can just plow through
enemies level after level; X-Men Origins give
you a sense of identity that you can relate to
your character. The game maintains its
fast-paced action complemented by some nice RPG
elements. Like the movie, it’s definitely a
blockbuster experience. |
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