Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Mike Escobar

It’s hard to believe that Wolverine (aka James Howlett, aka Logan, aka Weapon X) first appeared in comics over 30 years ago.  It’s even harder to believe that the character voted “#1 Most Popular Comic Character” by Wizard magazine took so long to get his own PC game.  Well, it’s here now and it is excellent.

Like most people, I approach games based on movies with mixed feelings.  On the one hand you have the opportunity to play with the characters and settings that you so enjoyed from the film.  On the other hand, these types of games have a long history of being released in a buggy, unfinished state, pushed out the door to make sure they coincide with the film’s release date.  Well you can lay your fears to rest on this count.  While X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t perfect, this title has been polished to a shiny adamantium sheen.

The biggest advantage that this title has it that it actually isn’t a true movie tie-in.  As strange as it sounds, Raven software has had this game in development for quite some time and it really is a finished product that is being released.  Another advantage for all us gamers is that this title is not just a rehashing of the movie.  The game and the movie use a common background story for Wolverine’s origin, but approach it from different angles and emphasize different sections of the back story.

Graphically the game looks phenomenal.  You have the option of running the game in as low as 800X600 resolution, allowing the game to run on pretty much any machine and still look good.  But if your machine has the horsepower to run it, crank the graphics all the way up to 1600X1200 and be prepared to be blown away!  The in-game cutscenes are gorgeous and round out the story line quite well.  The game engine, a modified version of the Unreal 3 engine, is nothing short of amazing.  From lush tropical locales to sterile laboratories hidden in the American Southwest, all the environments are a feast for the eyes.  Add in tons of environmental interaction and destruction and you have one truly immersive world.

Speaking of environmental destruction, one of the most incredible is Wolverine’s own body. The developers at Raven paired Wolverine’s mutant healing factor with a very detailed engine to model damage done to him.  The results are nothing short of spectacular.  Damage from fires will crisp and blacken his skin, slowly fading away as his talent for healing deals with the trauma.  Shotgun blasts look completely different and will actually leave gaping holes in Logan’s body, slowly knitting themselves back together before your very eyes.  This is definitely one of the more impressive pieces of the game.

Another area that this game excels in is the camera that follows you around.  The programmers did an outstanding job of creating environments that would allow the camera to move around smoothly, leaving the gamer with great cinematic views of the action.  Far too many games of this genre will end up with bizarre camera angles that all too often completely hide the action and leave you guessing as to what is going on in the game.  Tomb Raider and Afro Samurai are some of the worst offenders of this type.

That’s not to say that there are not some warts in there.  Periodically you’ll see your opponents get stuck in the environment, making them easy targets.  I even had to quit and restart the game because I had become stuck in a wall and wasn’t able to move.  These moments are rare - only happening to me twice during a full playthrough - but definitely something worth mentioning.  Also, framerate issues pop up whenever there are a lot enemies and visual effects on the screen at the same time.  Fighting several enemies with smoke or fog in the area will cause your framerate to drop pretty heavily, although this is more the exception than the rule.

The sound is fantastic throughout the game.  Whether it’s something as subtle as the “SNIKT” of Logan popping his claws or the various grunts, groans, and screams liberally sprinkled through the game, everything is spot on.  Hugh Jackman does a great job on the voice work for Wolverine, coming across as grizzled and tough as nails.  Liev Schriver’s Sabretooth is menacing and vaguely creepy, and the rest of the cast really captures the essence of their characters.  Environmental sounds are well done also, whether it’s the constant roar of the jungle or the busy sounds of a factory, everything helps make the world come alive around you.

As with most any third-person game, the control scheme is very familiar.  You start off with very few moves and some simple combos and as you progress through the game your moves become more powerful and more intricate.  It is a tribute to how well planned out the gameplay is that there is no training level to be seen.  You simply leap right into the story and new moves and actions are revealed to you bit by bit as you progress through the story.

The default control scheme is the standard WASD configuration, with special abilities like target and lunge mapped to the Q and E buttons respectively.  Your light attack is mapped to the left mouse button while the heavy attack is triggered by the right mouse button.  While you do have the option of completely customizing your control scheme, I never really felt the need to.  With the exception of inverting the Y-axis, which is more personal preference than anything else, the default scheme works and feels very natural and will perform well for most players.

The game starts out with a flashback to Africa, three years in the past.  You’re part of a special ops team that includes your brother and you’re off to complete a covert mission deep in the jungle.  Your insertion by helicopter is rudely interrupted by an anti-air missile and you find yourself hurtling towards the ground.  Being Wolverine, you make the obvious choice; you extend your claws and aim to land on the person that was foolish enough to fire a weapon at you.  Landing on this poor soul leaves nothing but some unidentifiable goo, and you emerge from the crater looking to continue your mission.

Thus is the tone set for this game, and the tone is violent and bloody.  The intro cut scene is extremely gory, with several cringe-inducing moments.  Best of all, the tone works.  This is a game that needed an M rating to be able to tell the tale properly, and it uses that rating effectively, but not gratuitously. 

The gameplay in this title is thoroughly addictive, with wave after wave of enemies needing to be mowed down with extreme prejudice.  For each enemy you defeat, you receive experience points which eventually lead to you leveling up.  After each level up you get skill points which you can spend to improve yourself.  These improvements range from increasing damage for certain attacks, to increasing your maximum health, to increasing how fast you heal. 

Another way that your combat skills improve is through repetition.  Enemies are broken down into five major categories.  The more people you defeat in a certain category, the more your damage improves against them.  Beat on special ops soldiers for a few hours and you’ll become better at killing them, makes sense. 

This is one point where the game stumbles though.  Instead of forcing you to make tradeoffs when it comes to your upgrades (such as the more time you’re berserk the more damage you end up taking) it is far too easy to max out all your skills.  While this definitely contributes to you being “the best at what you do”, it takes away some of the strategy that could have been present in the game.

Even on higher difficulty levels this title is very easy.  Like so many other games, items to improve your character or give you experience are scattered around each of the levels.  Don’t expect to spend hours searching for these bonuses though.  Just pop your feral sense ability and this stuff can be seen from miles away!  There are some very amusing homages to both Portal and World of Warcraft, which I won’t ruin by divulging, but let’s just say that the developers have a great sense of humor.

There is some minor puzzle-solving that needs to be done from time to time (pushing a crate next to a wall to access a ceiling duct, for example) but this won’t strain your brain.  There was never a time in the game that I needed to pause for more than a moment and try to figure out where to go next or what to do.

As in any other third-person game, the presence of mini-bosses adds some spice to the gameplay.  Unfortunately there are only two kinds of mini-boss in this title, the Leviathan and the W.E.N.D.I.G.O.  This lack of variety is rather disappointing, especially as these types of creatures don’t really “fit” in some of the places they show up.

As much as it seems that I’m doing nothing but complaining about this game, nothing could be further from the truth.  For all the questionable gameplay decisions, this title is an absolute blast to play.  You’re encouraged (through bonus experience points) to use a variety of attacks when fighting your enemies.  The sheer number of ways you can dispatch your foes is worth plenty of entertainment.

One of the few drawbacks to this game is that it is fairly short.  Expect to complete the story in somewhere around 15-20 hours.  And when I say complete, I mean COMPLETE.  While there are hidden items and Easter eggs throughout the game, none of them require much effort to discover, and you should see the majority of them on your initial run through the story.  Much like the achievements on the Xbox version or trophies on the PS3 version, the PC tracks your accomplishments and rewards you when you reach certain plateaus, such as 2000 total kills or lunging to enemies 200 times.  You can view your progress towards these goals on your statistics menu, and should be able to complete just about all of them in about two full playthroughs.  With only three difficulty levels (you must finish the game on Easy or Medium to unlock Hard), no online play, and only four alternate costumes to discover, there is not a whole lot in the way of replay value. With its stunning graphics and terrific story line, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is definitely one of the more pleasant surprises of the year.  While this title isn’t perfect, the gameplay is addictive and enjoyable, making excellent use of its M rating without being gratuitously violent.  Best of all, this title stays faithful to the comic book canon, and gives us insight to one of comicdom’s favorite characters.  This is the kind of quality that gamers should expect from movie-based games.  Without doubt, this is one title that is well worth your gaming dollar.

Gaming Trend Score

91

1. Graphics: 95
2. Audio: 95
3. Controls: 95
4. Gameplay: 95
5. Value/Replay: 70
6. OVERALL:91