Game review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine 

Source: Gamefreaks

Platform: PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP and PC
Publisher : Activision

Wolverine is not only my favourite comic character but one of the most popular marvel champions of our time.

Perhaps it's his murky background, his guttural instincts, his bad attitude or those crazy sideburns but one thing is for sure - Hugh Jackman has become the face of one of the most violent angry heroes that everyone is growing to love, and that's not a bad thing.

In the game we see the more feral wolverine that graced the comics of old. We spend a bit more time traveling the past and watching our hero gut, eviscerate, amputate and generally splatter the walls in blood drenching fury.

Before we get into the game, we have to mention that damned movie; perhaps there are some who enjoyed it but I did not. It failed to capture the essence (in my humble opinion) of Stan Lee's creation. There is a hell of a lot of history to Wolverine that makes him the man he is today and certainly not all of it was pretty.  It seems that the movie storyline chose to rifle through a couple of hundred years of development in the blink of an eye before finishing in a mind numbingly stupid ending.

Now the reason I spoke of the movie is that this game is of course the game 'of the movie'. I would view it more as complementary to the movie as it fills the gaps rather than strictly following the movie scenes.

There is no namby pandering here; from the opening sequence through to the shattering climax it is pure animal ferocity.

The game itself could be classified as a button masher where our hero has 3 main attacks: light, heavy and grab as well as the 'lunge' for longer ranged strikes. Now there are a few other combos that you can use but you'll soon discover that these three main moves are all you need to finish the game. The game moves away from previous ones that have seen Wolverine somehow vulnerable, or unable to heal. In this one he has two health bars; one representing his 'body' that will deteriorate as he takes damage (in great detail), the other representing his heart or vital organs that become exposed and therefore vulnerable. Wolverine will take a fair beating to die in this game and that's all good. In fact I can't think of another Wolverine game that has worked so well.

Watching him lose skin and muscle is quite amazing as the game displays exquisite detail. The graphics are well done as are the voiceovers.

Seeing Wolverine's mutilated enemies grasping at missing limbs before finally dying has brought the comic-book Wolverine of old back to life, except of course that crazy yellow spandex outfit.

What the game does lack is variety; it doesn't take long before you get into the routine of slicing and dicing your foes or lunging into the many bosses you need to get past. It's the only real issue I have with the game and for many games such a flaw would be a death knell; but luckily for this one it is actually still a great deal of fun. As I mentioned it does seem to have captured Wolverine's soul more than the movie did but better than that, it has done its job 'as a game'. If you want to pick up a game in which you play Wolverine who does actually have a healing power like no other and is essentially indestructible then this is it. Yes the game is repetitive, but I would rather play this for a few hours than watch that crap movie again.

Synopsis: Hard hitting, furiously violent gaming brings back our comic hero in all his feral glory. Repetitive gameplay doesn't downplay just how much fun it is to play Marvel's most animalistic crusader.

This review brought to you by  Gamefeaks