X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one of the biggest movies of 2009, and Activision is gambling that it will be one of the biggest games of this year as well. This title, of which we are reviewing the Xbox 360 version, is an action title that will keep players on the edges of their seats throughout the entirety of the game. The first thing that players will notice after popping in the title to their console is the sheer clarity of the graphics.
Where there is some semblance of realism present in the title, Activision has kept things interesting, throwing in the out there type of action that only occurs in a superhero game. For example, the quick kill feature of the game allows Wolverine to just waste any normal enemy in the game, pulling up up by the shirt and dispatching them. The ability of Wolverine to heal to a certain degree is excellent here; it always seemed to me that Wolverine could heal up to a certain level of damage, but that there even was a limit to what the clawed one could conceivably do. The title itself has a similar battle mode to a Devil May Cry, involving the use of “rage orbs†that allow different attacks to be made. The game itself shares a similar fluidity to the DMC series, and even tops the aforementioned series in regards to the sheer variety of characters (Baddies) that Wolverine encounters here. For those individuals that want to further vary their experience, the battleground option allows players to win old Wolvey costumes (such as the yellow/blue and yellow/brown) by fighting a mirror image of ones self.
Whenever the next X-Men Origins film is release, I have little doubt in my mind that Activision will be able to keep relatively faithful to the movie and the powers for the character that were originally described in the comic books. Where there have been a number of poor X-men (and superhero) titles released over the course of the last twenty five years, I believe that Activision’s Wolverine will be for the genre what Spider-Man did for the superhero in film.
Rating: 8.6/10
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition (Xbox 360) / 2009 Activision / http://www.uncaged.com