Let’s face it: video games based on films are most often quite atrocious. They’re badly produced, have broken gameplay, substandard graphics and are just barely functional. This has been the case for many years now. Film tie-ins are just a way of making more money — just like with merchandise. The worst part is that it always works. A game based on say, Harry Potter, will sure as hell sell a lot more copies than a complex strategy game like Supreme Commander. As a result, there’s no real reason for developers of these games to up their game. They can continue dishing out generic rubbish and people will still buy them.
Fortunately for us gamers, Raven Software have chosen not to tread the ‘let’s-make-a-rubbish-game-and-cash-in’ path, and have done something totally alien to the world of generic film tie-ins: make an effort. X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s box-office success might take a hit thanks to the pre-FX rip that was leaked online, but the game is sure to be a hit, and the best part is that it’s actually pretty good.
Uncaged
X-Men Wolverine Origins’ story is a mix of the Wolverine back-story shown in the new Wolverine film and one created by Raven Software exclusively for the video game. The game is pretty long, so long in fact, the entire film’s story only accounts for just about half of the in-game story. You’ll play through sections in Wolverine’s past, before he joined the X-Men, with a lot of the story focussing on his formative years through his military service and subsequent recruitment into Colonel William Striker’s ‘Weapon X’ programme. Thanks to the fact that the game is a movie tie-in, it features almost all of the original cast from the film, including Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Liev Schrieber (Sabretooth). The presentation is okay overall, but it’s most definitely not in the same league as say, Halo 3, MGS IV or Uncharted.
The game is awesomely violent, with non-stop (at times repetitive) action and platforming sections. A lot of the game’s enemies can get repetitive, but Raven Software has made great use of mini-bosses to break the monotony of slashing through the games generic, mindless hordes.
Weapon X
Origins is a slasher at heart. It’s heavily influenced by games like God of War and Devil May Cry, and like the former, has an incredibly high amount of violence, blood and gore. The game is quite appealing visually, with some pretty sharp-looking character models and textures. The damage system looks pretty cool — when Wolverine takes hits, flesh and blood are visible on his body and his clothes tear off; when he regenerates, you can actually see his wounds closing up, with muscles and skin growing back. Raven Software has also added gameplay elements involving the use of his feral senses — they’ll come in use when solving puzzles, revealing secret passages and finding opponents’ weaknesses.
The combat engine in the game is pretty neat as well. Wolverine essentially relies on three types of attacks: light, heavy and grabs. There isn’t any need to memorise long combos like DMC or Street Fighter, since the combat system is pretty simplistic. Repetition is the name of the game, as most foes can be dispatched by repeatedly tapping a particular attack button or a combination of two or three attacks. Once you’ve figured out a working combination, you’ll rely on it
heavily. Wolverine also has a ‘rage’ meter which fills up during combat. When you’ve charged it up, you can
unleash more powerful attacks like the claw spin or berserker, which causes
Wolverine’s claws to glow bright red.
Wolverine’s ability to utilise the
environment to deal more damage to
enemies is a bonus, as well.
There’s another very powerful attack called the ‘lunge’, which is very useful for dispatching groups of enemies, one at a time — it works best when combined with a heavy attack as a follow-up. The lunge is overpowered for a large section of the game, but you’ll encounter much harder enemies later on, and will be forced to perform a series of rolls and waiting for the opportunity to unleash the lunge on them. Combat is fast, intuitive, ferocious and satisfying — comparable to a stand-alone slasher game like God of War or Devil May Cry. That’s a pretty big achievement for a film tie-in.
Verdict
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is probably the best video game featuring Wolverine to date. It does a great job of capturing the essence of playing Wolverine with all its violence, blood and gore — I mean, the man does have adamantium claws after all! Hopefully this game will
herald a new era for movie
tie-ins.
—videep@gmail.com