X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Blog Post: X-men origins Wolverine

Gtakid — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:46:00 GMT

Most games based on movies suck. They never get the story straight , u never see things in the movie like the game except for this game. This game is just pure great. It draws the intension of the movie into a deeper story. The only flaw is to the game is that its not good after u unlock and complete everything becuz there is nothing to do but replay missions. Although of that con it is still a great game with so much combat and its violence if u get the uncaged edition. Its graphics are highly detailed and u could see wolverine as he heals and it looks awesome his rib bones and guts. The cuts scenes are the best part of the game so intense that i dnt want to ruin it for you. worth the money you paid for so get it.

Blog Post: best marvel game ever made

DJ JEMANI — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:20:00 GMT

wolverine is the best marvel game ever , the only thing keeping this game from getting a higher score & mention for best games of 2009 is the end ! talk about hard to beat . i never played a game with suck a dificult boss. other then that the game is great & should be in the top 10 of 2009 .

Wiki: X-Men Origins: Wolverine Guides

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:19:00 GMT

Guides for X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Wiki Page: Getting around without federal sense

billy.harper15 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:28:00 GMT

in some missions they take away federal sense a lot of the time you need to hit buttons or climb in elavators

Wiki Page: Trophies

billy.harper15 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:35:00 GMT

Fight in federal sense and lunge it workes on your trophy for kills + kills in federal sense + Kills by lunge

Blog Post: Raven Crafts A Well-Done Movie Tie-In

Pipo — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:04:00 GMT

Fact: Wolverine is awesome. And his new game defines what it is to be him, making you feel awesome every time you tear through an enemy’s flesh. As it just so happens, X-Men Origins: Wolverine may actually be one of the best licensed games out there this generation, mostly because it doesn’t do what so many license-based titles do: play it safe. Bub, this is as visceral and bloody an adventure that you can get this side of God of War – no T-rating censorship here. Wolverine may be lacking in quite a few areas, and where Kratos’ adventures are massively epic Wolverine’s is a little anticlimactic and frustratingly short. Worse yet, the game is forced to live under the shadow of 'Batman: Arkham Asylum' as 'the' comic game of the year. But Wolverine's game is still a thrill ride worth experiencing, for sure.

[note – I have seen the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine as well, so any comparisons I make are appropriate]

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AT A GLANCE:

WHAT IT IS:
A visceral action slasher that captures the spirit of the man who is Wolverine, and serves as an example of a movie tie-in done well.

WHAT YOU’LL LIKE:
Satisfying, layered combat. Possibly a better Wolverine experience than the film.

WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE:
The short length, and the repetitive fights against groups of foes.

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STORY:

Just like with the film, this game tells the origin story of Wolverine. Well, sort of. Instead of starting with the young James Howlett (Wolverine) and his brother Victor Creed (aka Sabertooth) as children in the 1800s, it begins with the titular hero as a part of William Stryker’s Team X, who are on a mission in Africa. The game than fast-forwards to after Wolverine left the team, and now Sabertooth is on a rampage killing members of the team, and apparently Wolverine’s girlfriend, who is the reason Howlett takes on the name Wolverine. Now, Wolverine is on a mission to kill Victor Creed as well as Stryker, who has had some maniacal plans all along, which included replacing Wolverine’s bones with the unbreakable Adamantium before trying to erasing his memory. The game’s story constantly flashes back and forth between Africa and the present, which ends up being a little disorienting at times, partly because the Africa levels are terribly repetitive, but also because it convolutes the otherwise simplistic story.

In the film, events occur in chronological order, but the game makes everything a bit more confusing, and leaves some questions frustratingly unanswered. It isn’t impossible to follow, it’s just unnecessarily difficult. The redeeming factor story-wise is that the game goes beyond just the movie’s storyline. The Gambit encounter is expanded significantly, and an entire side-story tied to the main quest is added, featuring the first Sentinel - because really, can you make a Wolverine game without at least one of those giant robots? Oh, and as a side note, the game’s story will probably be easier to follow for the most part if you’ve seen the movie as well, since many story points are glossed over in an attempt to get the player to the action as quickly as possible.

ESSENCE OF WOLVERINE:

The team behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine obviously had a very clear goal in mind while creating this bloody, quick, and empowering action game. Their goal was to create an experience which took all of the elements that makes Wolverine the loveably beastly dude that he is, and make players feel like they truly wield his mutant/metalloid powers. It’s important to note that Raven didn’t just want the X-Men experience based on the movies. They wanted the true Wolverine – The Wolverine without PG-13 rating restraints. The Wolverine where cutting through an enemy’s body doesn’t just make them fall down dead with a few scratches. This is what it would be like if a wild mutant with steal claws were released upon the bad men of the world. And it is sweet.

So, what is it that exactly makes Wolverine who he is? What is core to the Wolverine experience? Raven nails the true spirit of Wolverine, which is emphasized by two things in particular: Blood and Adamantium. When the game first boots up, you can see that these two things are synonymous with comic book Wolverine. Blood splatters the menu, and the menu text is made to look like the same unbreakable alloy that runs through Wolvie’s entire body. It’s a testament to Raven’s goal of making their Wolverine game as completely ‘HIM’ as possible when the menus perfectly encapsulate what the guy is all about. Showing Wolverine asleep in Stryker’s Adamantium tank is the perfect visual for the main menu. But that’s all just the tip of the iceberg.

This game is in-your-face bloody the whole way through. Despite the fact that X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been made into a movie tie-in, the gory action has little in common with the mostly bloodless brawls in the film. When Wolverine swings his claws through an enemy, real world consequences occur – limbs are detached, blood flows, and general awesome ensues. The blood is what headlines the presentation in the game, and while it may shock few who have never seen Wolverine like this before, Raven got him right. Fans will probably be really happy by the path the developers took. The game does have a noticeably dark tone to it, just as the movie did for the most part. The gore adds to this, with the added effect of the deaths sometimes being so outrageous it becomes funny instead of just gruesome. But what’s bloodshed and Wolverine without a little humor, right?

PRESENTATION/GRAPHICS:

Wolverine features some nice looking visuals. Over the course of the game you’ll visit environments such as an African jungle, multiple factories, a snow-covered hill side, Vegas, and a short bout in an Idaho grocery store. Each and every location you visit looks pretty nice in general (despite some repetitive tile patterns, but the real attraction is Wolverine himself. His animations are fluid, acrobatic, and quick, just like they should be. The multiple ways Wolverine finishes off his enemies are a sight to behold (at least for a while), but above all other things, the real time regeneration effects are the main attraction. As Wolverine gets shot up, his skin opens up, eventually revealing bones and tissue, among other bloody details. Get to cover or clear the area and you’ll immediately begin to notice the wounds start to close up in real time. Blood vanishes, skin grows back, and soon enough his body will be as good as new in no time, all before your eyes. Wolverine may not be the last game to employ this technique (the new Splatterhouse reboot will feature very similar technology), but as the first to use this effect, Wolverine gets the accolades.

Some moments stand out in particular and truly look great. A
brawl with Sabertooth early in the game features some sweet rain and lightning effects, while the battle stays as fast and furious as any of the other fights in the game. While things like barrels and boxes are always destructible throughout the game, the destructible environments in the grocery store fight are also quite impressive, as is the scale of the fight with the Sentinel. There are also subtle effects, like the scratch marks that appear on most surfaces when Wolverine slashes into them. The few pre-rendered cutscenes that are sporadically placed throughout are without a doubt the best-looking part of the game, the blood-colored icing on the graphics cake.

However, it isn’t all praise for the game’s visuals. The biggest problem I noticed with the visuals is that there are many graphical oddities to be found throughout the adventure. I would commonly find Wolverine and enemies standing in mid-air. Voices will occasionally not sync up with the lips, and the texture work isn’t the greatest. Clearly, Wolverine isn’t the most polished game graphics-wise, but it never effects the gameplay negatively, so it’s nothing much to worry over. Also, some of the environments, especially Africa and the assorted factories keep repeating and often last too long, so the initial shine of the good-looking levels began to wear off on me, but everything is generally nice and crisp-looking overall.

And let's not forget about the audio aspect of the game. Hugh Jackman voices his character in the game. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll notice a large amount of the exact same lines that were in the movie used in the game. I can’t prove it, but I even have a feeling they might have transferred the movie lines straight into the cutscenes. Either way, Jackman does a great job, and most of the others do a good job as well (though Gambit says ‘Mah Fren’ a hilariously numerous amount of times). I was mostly impressed by the performances, which aren’t always so great in comic book games or licensed games in general. However, whatever little girl plays the voice of the little mutant girl Wolverine rescues early in the game comes off as unintentionally freaky, and clashes badly with the reasonable performances of everyone else. She’s only in one level though, so it’s only a small blemish. Meanwhile, Wolverine ripping through bad guys and objects sounds great, and the enemies scream are just wonderfully horrifying. The score that plays in the background is intense enough to be fitting, but it’s nothing memorable.

GAMEPLAY:

The gameplay is one of X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s crowning achievements. Despite the fact that games like God of War have pretty much captured the sweet spot of the balls-to-the-wall pure action experience, Wolverine still manages to put its own mark on the genre, albeit not quite as polished or varied. Just like Raven captures the Wolverine character through the presentation and his fluid visual animations, the gameplay also goes the distance, making the player feel like they wield ridiculously agile and violent moves.

And this isn’t just generic button mashing action, as different layers like grabs and use of the environment are added to the combat to prevent mindless reliance on one button over and over. The ability to pull together combos makes for some great moments. Charged slashes send enemies into the air, while light slashes are standard damage-causers. Grabs allow you to use awesome, gruesome finishing moves, throw your foe, or allow you to pull off environmental kills if you can. My bet is most players will rely heavily on the lunge move, which takes the place of long-range weapons (rightfully so, because when would Wolverine ever use guns?). The lunge move features a simple lock-on feature, and with one more click, Wolverine leaps all the way onto distant enemies. Once on top, if the enemy isn’t weak enough to die right away, you can combine it with another brutal blow. Lunging is so easy and powerful enough to be a constant reliance. Luckily, the game rewards you for using all of your moves, via achievements and the fact that lunging doesn’t look as cool as the finishing moves and environmental kills. Anyone who cares enough will experiment with all of their moves, and realize that they are all just as satisfying as lunges. Mixing all of your skills together makes for a much more satisfying experience. Add in the decent variety of environmental kills, and you’ve got plenty of killing methods to test out, mix, and match.

As you progress, an RPG-lite system awards you with experience for your killing skills. You can then upgrade your different attacks, while new attack powers are doled out throughout the storyline. Mutagens are like gene tonics is Bioshock. They boost Wolverine’s stats and can be upgraded just like your attacks can. You must find these scattered around the environments. As expected, mutagens and attack upgrades add layers to your character. Light puzzle elements and platforming is added for varieties sake. The puzzles are an awkward fit for the claws-first attitude of Wolverine, but I’d rather the change-up than the same monotony of battles from beginning to end. On the other side of the coin, unlike my suspicious, platforming isn’t just carelessly tacked on. When you climb, the camera shakes from side to side along with Wolverines climb movements, adding some subtle, yet visceral immersion to this (usually) bloodless portion of the action. Fun quick-time events and finishing move button presses also punctuate the average combat. Still, while there may have been a lot of effort to mix up the gameplay experience, most of the time you’ll be mindlessly pulling together the same strings of combos. As immensely satisfying as it may be, it does get repetitive after extended play sessions, so it’s best to play in shorter bursts, lest the possibility of growing tired of the mechanics arises. Besides, if you play too much at once the game will probably end too quickly anyways…

As far as enemy variety goes, it’s merely alright. Some enemies will charge with melee attacks, MOST will shoot at you with your standard line of weaponry. Some have shields, blocking your lunge attack. One type seems to use some sort of magical aura. Another turns invisible with special armor, making your Feral Sense power a must. Feral Sense is a great extension of Wolverine’s ability. A sixth sense of sorts, your feral abilities can be flipped on and off like night vision goggles. They highlight all enemies, hidden dead bodies with collectible dog tags, what you can pull off environmental kills with, ropes, ladders, and surfaces you can climb up/across. It even shows you exactly where to go next, even though the levels are usually linear enough already.

Going back to enemies, the bosses game range from surprisingly fun to incredibly dull. First of all, the game’s mini-bosses are absolutely terrible. There are only two mini-bosses you’ll run into again and again – a rock golem of some sort, and a W.I.N.D.I.G.O. Prototype (whatever that means). Both play out exactly the same: While you can hack away SLOWLY at them, the easiest thing to do is lunge to their backs and hack away until they try to smack you off. Jump off to avoid them, then jump right back on. Problem is, the health bars still go down awfully slow, meaning you’ll be pressing the slash button over and over and lunging onto them over and over in just one fight. The first time it’s pretty fun. After five, it’s a bit annoying. Twenty? It feels like there were that many, don’t blame me for inaccuracies though. Four at the same time? UGG!! I understand they kept throwing in these guys to break up the enemy waves, but its way overkill, especially when they’re so boring to fight in the first place.

The ‘real’ bosses usually fair much better. The strange thing is that the boss placement in the game is very unique. You have an early fight with Sabertooth, and then against Nord after a long gap. After those two, the game places the last four bosses in one semi-marathon of boss battles at the end. After beating the Sentinel, you go straight into fighting Blob, and then again to a more drawn-out battle with Gambit, which also features about a levels-worth of normal enemies. Then, it’s directly to the final boss. Believe it or not, I actually liked this strange pacing with all of these bosses coming one after the other. As for how these boss battles actually are? The early brawl with Sabertooth in and then outside a bar was one of my personnel favorites. I would have liked a rematch though, but it never happens. The Blob’s fight in a grocery store is a wonderfully unorthodox setting, and the destructible store shelves are a pretty cool feature. Gambit and the final face-off with Deadpool felt strangely repetitive, like fighting average enemies with huge life bars and some interesting powers.

So for a quick recap, the combat is visceral and very satisfying, while it can get tiring since you’ll be doing it so much. The other stuff like puzzles, platforming, and boss battles do their part in mixing up the gameplay, while not always making an impact. Its solid fun through and through, and the regenerating health makes the game just easy enough to make you feel like Wolverine with his badass meter on full, without feeling like you’re cheating. Oh, just be aware that mini-bosses are a complete bore.

REPLAY VALUE:

A lot of games really drop the ball when it comes to this category. Raven tried their best, but for the most part Wolverine follows suit. The quest is short – I had beaten the game within three days of buying it. While I liked the variety of environments in the game, a lot of them somehow manage to still feel repetitive, especially since they usually don’t play any different than one another.

A hard mode is unlocked after completion, and those who really want more may find playing through a good alternative. You can also replay any section of the game (chosen from the menu) with all of your fully upgraded abilities. There is a good amount of hidden doodads to collect. Mutagens directly relate to gameplay, but the action figures only equate to unlocking alternate costumes. While fighting a Wolverine clone to be able to wear the costume after collecting enough figures is cool, the costumes will only be important to completionists and huge X-Men fans.

In addition, there are tons of dead bodies with collectible dog tags to collect. The bodies can be found more easily with Feral Sense, but Raven made one huge flaw here: no tracking mechanic, for knowing how many you’re missing on each level. This effectively makes collecting all of them too grueling to deal with, unless you’re crazy enough to keep a strategy guide of internet walkthrough with you at all times. I would like to think nobody would ever do something like that for the sake of achievements. Speaking of which, three funny easter eggs referencing Lost, World of Warcraft, and Portal are easy achievements, and the secret achievements are pretty creative. Truth is, there are games with way better replay value then random collectibles, achievements, and a hard mode, but I’ve seen games that don’t even have those things. I’m actually not sure what else Raven could have done with this one, so I supposed they didn’t do a terrible job in this area.

IN CONCLUSION:

So X-Men Origins: Wolverine is missing some polish and a longer experience, but the combat is surprisingly awesome. This is a pretty good rental game, and once the price goes down from the steep $60, it’ll be a lot more attractive of a purchase. X-Men fans will likely love this game, but any fan of gory action looking for something to play without Kratos in it should check this out.

Title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Developer: Raven Software

Publisher: Activision

Genre: Action/Adventure

Players: 1

Release: May 1, 2009

Blog Post: sinkt: Wolverine's claws are always out in this game, and sharper than you could imagine.

Steven — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:42:00 GMT

Most gamers know to be suspicious of movie-based games because, frankly, they're almost always terrible - even if the material they’re based off of is excellent. Well, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a bit of an anomaly because the game is probably better than the actual movie, and for one reason: rewarding, visceral, brutal combat. Don't read too much into the 7/10 score; what's seven but a number? Keep reading and you'll see why the game got the score it got, but also realize that this game is a blast.

This isn’t “Saturday-morning cartoon” Wolverine or even the Wolverine seen in the film; it’s a whole different beast, more true to the original material’s primal nature. The game features gore and violence befitting of its “M” rating, which is the reason why the game is so fun. From decapitation to dismembering to ripping the mechanical arm off of an enhanced soldier and beating him to death with it (One of my personal favorites), Wolverine never runs out of brutal, satisfying ways to dispatch his foes. The game also employs slow motion and cinematic camera angles beautifully, capitalizing on each and every insane moment.

On top of that, Wolverine is almost unstoppable. There is a bar on the screen representing Wolverine’s regeneration. Take more damage than he can regenerate, and Wolverine’s vitals are exposed, opening up another bar that can be drained, leading to a game over. However, it’s not a screen most will be encountering very often, as Wolverine heals rapidly, and the game’s foes are rarely enough to incapacitate you. The coolest thing about taking damage in the game is that it’s displayed in real-time. As Wolverine survives an onslaught of bullets, explosions, and whatever else the enemies throw at him, his shirt rips to shreds and layers of skin are destroyed, exposing muscle. Take more damage, and his adamantium skeleton is exposed.

The average 15-hour experience also gives you an extra layer of depth when you're not hacking people to pieces with experience and a leveling system. Skill points can be used to increase health, damage dished out, and rage, as well as be used to increase the strength of certain, special moves. Aside from maxing Wolverine out, the game also features unlockable costumes and trophies. The unlockable costumes are a nice addition, however, because collected figurines in the game only opens up the option of getting secret costumes. After opening up the bonus option, you'll have to defeat whichever Wolverine you're trying to unlock, which can lead to some rather fun, challenging battles.

It doesn’t revolutionize the third-person action mechanic, but the game is elevated far beyond hack n’ slash, as varied enemy types and situations force the player to react in different ways and take advantage of a wide variety of moves, including “Fury Attacks”, which can be activated after filling a Rage Meter. Furthermore, some of the best death sequences require skill, combos, and the implementation of “Quick Kills”, which can be done by pressing Heavy Attack after grabbing an enemy.

I had so much fun with the combat that I never felt it get stale, which is why the boss fights were a bit of a disappointment. There are two different types of bosses that reoccur frequently throughout the game, and the strategy for killing both is exactly the same, making them feel more like a chore than an accomplishment. But while the more frequent boss fights got stale quickly, the game also features some unique ones which fare much better – particularly a multistage one against a 250-ft Sentinel.

Unfortunately, rewarding and enjoyable combat is where the heavy praise stops. The game sports a few pre-rendered CGI cutscenes, which look fantastic, but the actual in-game graphics aren’t much to look at. They occasionally shine, but generally don’t look too spectacular. Even the real-time damage, while still cool, lacks detail. Thankfully, Hugh Jackman lends his voice to the character, but the majority of sound effects are average at best - though they serve their purpose well enough. A few glitches, while not a deal breaker, can be a minor annoyance. Once I “fell” into an area I wasn’t supposed to fall into, forcing me to restart a checkpoint, while the AI occasionally lapses into stupidity and doesn’t move. During the rather uninspiring platforming sections, your enemy will occasionally be the camera, which locks in place every once in a while.

Most disappointing, however, is the disjointed, utterly confusing narrative. The game hops between “Three Years in the Past” (In Africa) and “Three Years in the Future”…which is the “present”, but not really because the opening cinematic is further in the future than the supposed “present”. Sounds confusing? It is. Furthermore, characters are rarely introduced properly and almost never expounded upon. With the liberties the new film takes in regards to the source material, even X-Men fans that have yet to see the new film might end up confused. Of course, I can’t knock the game for certain liberties it took with the story, because it’s based on the movie, but Deadpool fans are bound to be disappointed, as well as those (Such as myself) hoping that gambit would play a large role. While the actual story is poor because the story in the movie is poor, the game doesn’t help the cause any by making it even more confusing and disjointed.

Wolverine’s past videogame outings have left the player with a feeling of disappointment because the character feels weakened or has a health bar, despite his regeneration ability. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, on the other hand, embraces the character for all that he is: a badass killing machine. Words can’t do justice to the visceral, savage, and brutal combat this game champions. Even a terrible narrative and occasional technical hiccup can’t hold this game back, thanks to the unadulterated fun and satisfaction the gameplay brings, as Wolverine is thrown from set-piece to set-piece. The game starts off with Wolverine jumping out of a plane without a parachute, you can beat a certain enemy-type to death with its own arm, and most enemies you face will lose a limb or a head, and that’s really indicative of the entire experience. The game is a brutal thrill ride; certainly not the deepest of games, but a ton of fun.

Blog Post: X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

JohngPR — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:36:00 GMT

It’s no mystery that licensed video games have gotten a bad rap over the years. There have been a few games that have not lived up to the stereotype of licensed games being bad (such as Spider-Man 2, The Punisher, KOTOR, etc) but it always seems like these games are often overshadowed by games “products” that are rushed out the door to tie into a movie. So what happens when you base a game on something that’s based on a movie that’s based on a comic book character? A pretty *** fun time, that’s what.

You start out with a basic set of moves that can be leveled up as you go along by gaining experience for every kill you make. After you gather a certain amount of experience and level your character up, you are awarded skill points that allow you to make Wolverine even more powerful. This is something that Raven Software has obviously borrowed from their previous games (X-Men Legends 1 & 2, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance) and it’s certainly welcome.

This is one of the few times that blood and gore will genuinely enhance your enjoyment of a game. Wolverine has been in plenty of crappy games in his day, none of which did justice to the brutality and violent rage the character possesses. It never did make sense to me why a character that is based around having razor sharp claws and a violent disposition couldn’t have a game that reflected that. Bravo to both Marvel and Raven Software for making an M-rated Wolverine game happen. With that said, as Wolverine you will decapitate people, dismember them all the while making them shed copious amounts of blood (in style of course). He will take real time damage with bullet holes damaging his clothes and you will even see muscle and bone exposed due to explosions (he’ll even heal back up in real time which makes for a cool effect).

Seeing such an iconic character doing all of these things is a trip because it really taps into every comic book nerd’s boy hood fantasy of seeing Wolverine completely flip out an dismember everyone in the room. It all works in the game’s favor from all the brutal looking quick kills, to going into berserker rage and tearing into enemies. This game does a great job of empowering the player and making you feel like a complete bad ass .

The reason why all of this blood and gore works without it all falling flat or seeming completely superfluous is because Raven Software actually developed a solid game around it. Although the game is strongly based around gameplay found in the God of War series and other games like it, it adds enough elements of its own to make it stand out. I think the most important of which is the lunge maneuver. One problem I’ve always had with action games of this type is that you’ll be locked into combat with three or four enemies, while two or three other enemies are off screen shooting at you (I’m giving you the stink eye Ninja Gaiden). This makes for a cheap and frustrating experience that artificially increases the difficulty.

Well now you have a move in your arsenal that can combat against this cheap tactic. By locking on and hitting the lunge button, Wolverine will jump towards an enemy and pounce on them, giving you the advantage. It sounds minor, but this move really added a lot to the gameplay in my opinion and made it more fun. Not only is it a good offensive/deffensive move, but it also keeps the action flowing at a brisk pace since it decreases the amount of combat moments where you are running after an enemy to kill them.

Outside of the blood and gore, another thing that surprised me about this game is the Tomb Raider like elements that were included. I will admit that the Tomb Raider-style areas aren’t as strong as the rest of the gameplay and most of the environmental puzzles are sort of mindless. Personally, I didn’t mind these parts because I enjoy the Tomb Raider series . They did an admirable job of breaking things up and keeping things fresh. Speaking of which, the game does a good job of keeping things fresh by having you play between two time periods at the same time throughout the game. So essentially you are playing through a huge jungle level while you are playing in other locales in a different period of time within the story all at the same time. Just when you felt you were getting bored of the level you were in, the game switches back to another locale. I don’t recall another game doing that before but it was something I felt needed to be pointed out because it kept things going.

The last thing I want to mention is the boss fights. Although some of them are a bit on the simplistic side, most of them are fun because they force you to use the game’s more advanced move set and gameplay features to defeat them. This turned out to be great because there are quite a few tactics I honed while fighting the bosses that came in handy while playing the rest of the game. There is one boss fight in particular that I wish I could speak about freely without spoiling anything. Let’s just say that fans of Wolverine and more specifically X-Men comics are in for a treat.

To sum things up, I had a blast playing through Wolverine and see myself playing through it again. Some may find the gameplay a bit on the repetitive side but fans of the source material will get a kick out of playing as Wolverine and slaying enemies left and right. Like any game, it has its defecits (like a weak overall story, and a few non game breaking bugs that creep up from time to time), but none of which detracted from the fun I had. This is highly recommended for fans of Wolverine and comic book fans alike and is a great rental for everyone else.

WARNING: If you are playing this game for achievements, don’t start a new game once you beat it. Doing so will erase your previous progress! The thing to do is simply choose a level under the level select option. The game still keeps track of your stats after you beat and saves after every checkpoint so you can continue your progress.

Wiki Page: Developer Tips

Dan Ryckert — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:46:00 GMT

By Dan Vondrak, project lead at Raven Software

When we were planning the combat system for Wolverine, one of our key focuses was building a system that allowed the player lots of options. We wanted to make sure that no matter what state you were in, the buttons on your controller were going to do something cool. What this means is the more you’re willing to experiment, the more you will get out of the game.

Heavy Auto-Finishers

One of the great things about working on a Wolverine game is looking through decades of comics to find some really great finishing moves. Our job was finding as many ways as possible to get these moves into the game (and put our own visceral twist on them). The heavy attack has a lot of uses in the game: uppercuts that send enemies into a bounce pain state, charging it sends them airborne, and combining it with light attacks performs the heavy finishers. Using the heavy attack can also result in very powerful context sensitive moves known as Auto-Finishers. When enemies are starting to get low on health you can perform brutal instant kill moves by pressing the heavy attack. These are fast and brutal: sweeping low chopping legs off, double slicing both arms off, punching your fist right through the chest – trust me, use that heavy attack more often in combat. In addition to all the other bonuses, the Auto-Finishers are a great way to really feel like Wolverine and get some great cinematic-looking kills.

Pop-up, Air Attacks, and Juggling

You can charge Wolverine’s claw attack by holding the heavy button. Once it’s fully charged, releasing it results in a powerful pop-up attack that sends enemies (and Wolverine) up into the air. This can be an overlooked move, because there are so many ways to attack on the ground. What I like about the air attacks is the separation you get from the enemies on the ground – you’re safe from most attacks up there. To maximize your time in the air, chain into the quick air attacks that will juggle the enemy and keep Wolverine airborne, then make sure to finish with either the heavy attack (known affectionately as “Thor’s Hammer” around the office after a move from Marvel: Ultimate Alliance) or the Air Grab. I prefer the Air Heavy when I’m in an exterior location with drop offs. It’s a quick way to get instant deaths: The kick Wolverine performs sends enemies shooting out like a cannonball.

Action Figures

To unlock the Wolverine uniforms in the game you must find action figures. You need to collect two action figures for each uniform – but there are actually five of each action figure placed in the game. We wanted to make sure there were lots of chances to find them. Even after you’ve collected the two you need for a particular uniform, find the other three because they are worth a lot of XP and a little rage.

Getting the Most out of Grab

There’s so much you can do with grab in Wolverine. We purposely built in a lot of context-sensitive moves that work off the grab button. We love the idea of Wolverine getting up close and personal with the enemies, and grab is perfect for that.

Grab Attacks – After you’ve grabbed an enemy, the quick kills are lots of fun (performed by pressing the heavy button) – but if you want to get the most out of a grabbed enemy, soften them up with the grab attacks. Using the normal attack button, you can unleash a long string of quick jabs, then move on to one of the grab finishers.
Grab Slam – One of my personal favorites! Perform a light pop-up (tap the heavy button) to send an enemy just a few feet in the air, then press grab and you’ll grab the enemy by the ankle and slam them to the ground. The beauty of this move is that enemies bounce back up after the grab slam, opening them up for another grab slam or any of the other context-sensitive bounce moves. My personal combo is to grab slam two or three times, then finish them off with the heavy bounce attack (we nicknamed it the “Bruce Lee” during development). Try a grab slam next to a floor spike and see what happens!

Grab and Spin – Similar to the grab slam, but instead of just tapping the grab button, hold it down. You grab the enemy by the legs and spin them round and round, knocking other enemies out of the way, smashing breakables – pretty much clearing a path using the enemy. Then let go of grab to send the enemy flying. I always try to do this with forklifts and lots of enemies around so I can knock enemies into the air and impale them on the forklifts.

Air Grab – Once you’ve launched yourself into the air by charging and releasing the heavy attack, you can grab enemies and slam them into the ground, sending nearby enemies on the ground flying back.

Environmental Kills

Located all over the levels are environmental kills – forklifts, spikes, statues, trees, computer consoles, cement mixers – all kinds of objects you can use to impale, shred, electrocute, and dismember enemies. Use Feral Senses to highlight these objects then either grab an enemy near one, or throw an enemy into one to get the environmental kill.

Something most people don’t know is that in addition to looking cool and causing instant death, you actually gain double the rage of a normal kill. If I enter a room with plenty of environmental kills, I’ll usually spend my rage performing fury attacks right away, then quickly build it back up using the environmental kills. Some tougher enemies need to be beaten down and weakened (shown by a red pulsing outline on the enemy) before you can use the grabbed environmental kills. But you can always use the throw environmental kills right away – no need to weaken them first. Be careful, because the enemies can knock or throw you onto the environmental kills as well, and you’ll have to tap yourself off.

Experience Counts

An easy (and fun) way to get more XP out of each kill is to vary your attacks. Wolverine has a reward system built in that increases the XP for each kill if you use different types of attacks to kill the enemy. So mixing up the attacks between normal, heavy, ground, air, fury and all the rest is effective. Combine that with the “experienced” mutagen and you can gain levels a lot faster.

File: X-Men Origins: Wolverine