X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Rating: M (Mature)
Price: $49.99

By Joe Ziemba

This game is not unique and does not break any barriers or bring new innovation. It doesn’t seem readily apparent to me that the developers made any effort to make this game special. It does seem, however, that someone wanted to make some extra cash along with the movie release. It’s obvious that the developers were not trying to make this game for any other reason.

The graphics in Wolverine are mediocre. I found the textures and lighting to pretty standard but not by today’s. Most of the graphical elements seemed dated by at least a year. The rendered cut scenes did look very good but if I wanted to watch Wolverine do the same things he does in the movie I’d just go see the movie. The environment and object mappings could have used a little more polish as they appeared very jagged while traveling through the extremely linear levels. Also, on certain occasions when heavy particle effects were on screen my system’s frame rate dropped to less than 20. One part of the game’s graphics worth mentioning in a positive light is Wolverine’s regeneration effects. After taking damage, the character’s body slowly regenerates showing the different layers inside the body. Oddly, when your entire abdomen is ripped off you still are able to stand upright. The sound in the game didn’t really stand out to me but did sound crisp and was not over bearing.

As far as the game play goes, Wolverine is a button masher with a high body count. The player runs along the linear path of the level repetitively pressing simple button combinations while Wolverine spins and slashes while getting shot in the face. There isn’t much more to it than that.

I didn’t expect much more from this since it is just a movie game. There are some scenes in the game that weren’t fully represented in the movie so it was interesting to see more of the story. However, I do not recommend buying or even renting this game. If someone else has it available I’m sure about 30 minutes would give you enough time to become bored.