X-Men Origins: Wolverine (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)

This is a review for X-Men Origins Wolverine - Uncaged Edition for the XBox 360. After getting about 800 GS points on this game, and playing through twice (on easy and normal), I think I have a pretty good idea of this game and enough to give a (hopefully) decent review.

THE GOOD
This is quite a fun action game. Made by Raven software, the creators of the X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance series of games, there is finally a Wolverine game done right!! (I'm looking at you, Wolverine's Revenge!) After watching an awesome intro movie, the game instantly throws you out of a helicopter and you land right into the action. Besides the action-filled gameplay, the controls work very well. (Although you may find yourself wondering how Wolverine can lunge about 30 feet across screen, but can only jump about 5 feet) The game's controls are, in a way, similar to those of the XML and MUA series as you hold a down the right trigger and press one of the four face buttons to use that specific attack. rarely get confusing after the first levels of the game. I know that some of you may be thinking that those special attacks are just add-ons to a standard button masher, but this game makes even button mashing fun. Trying out the different attack combinations is very fun and lead to very creative (albeit gruesome) death sequences. And if blood is your thing, you'll find plenty of it here. Whether it's blowing off a guard's head with his own shotgun, or standing on a guy's broken leg as you slice his head off, there is tons of gore to satisfy your bloodlust. As far as the plot, if any of you have seen that rather mediocre movie, you will probably find yourself more satisfied with the plot of this game. At some points, the game's dialogue just makes more sense than that of the movie. Furthermore, the mutant cameos here make much more sense than those in the movie. If you have NOT seen the movie, I suggest you just skip it and play the game. It will make much more sense and will be a lot more fun as well.

THE BAD
At times, you may forget you're playing a Wolverine game. This game takes place in two timelines. One is in Africa
while Wolverine was part of Team-X, and the other is in the time of the movie, which is the Weapon-X story. The Weapon-X storyline missions are okay, but those African missions can get quite boring. In one part, you are fighting a horde of guys with machine guns and machetes and all sorts of other items. Soon afterwards, you're solving a Tomb-Raideresque puzzle that's not too much fun. It's the standard fare: move statue onto platform... turn hand crank... jump on platforms... climb on rope... shimmy across ledges... *yawn*. It takes away from the action and, at times, it feels as if these parts are just there to increase the length of this game. Another bad part of this game is how repetitive it can get. Hack and slash games are typically repetitive, but sometimes, this game can get to be TOO repetitive. For example, you will fight Lava Monsters in the African missions and Wendingo Prototypes in the Weapon-X missions. There is really only one way to defeat these monsters: dodge them as they come, jump on their back, claw and claw until they're about to swat you off, jump off their back, repeat. It's so boring and repetitive that when you get to the part where you fight four wendingos at once, you'll be rolling your eyes and dying for the level to finish. Another problem is that camera, which at times, does what it wants to and refuses to give you a decent view of what you're doing. For example, one part of the game has you fighting a boss with a lot of minions around him. In this part of the game, the camera will ONLY be focused on the boss as you try your hardest to fight off these other minions that you CAN'T SEE. Have fun trying to manually turn the camera because it will just refocus on the boss. My final gripe is with hidden walls in the levels. Sometimes, you just want to explore around a level, and little things like shrubs on the ground will prevent you from going and exploring the level. It is understandable that the levels are supposed to be linear, but it feels almost as if I am being teased with areas that I can't access because of invisible walls.

THE UGLY
This game is simply NOT FINISHED! Even though this game has had a lot more time in production than most movie games, there are parts that just make you scratch your head. First is Wolverine's regenerating tanktop. Basically, as you get sliced and cut up, your tanktop gets ripped to shreds until eventually, there is no tanktop anymore. After any type of cutscene or set-piece, your tanktop magically regenerates and hardly makes any sense at all. Furthermore, there's one scene when you rip the head off of a Wendingo and zero blood comes out. You hear the SOUND of the blood, though, and it just makes that scene look weird. The last big glitch is in the stage where you fight Gambit. This level has a beautiful view of New Orleans at night with these random black splotches that blink across the skyline. It just looks weird and makes you wonder exactly what happened there.

All in all, it's a good game. It's not too long and can be finished in 6-8 hours if you're just playing through the game or 8-12 hours if you're hunting for achievements and collectibles and the such.

7/10

this will be on the back burner for me not that high on list of wnna be's cool write up tho mate

Better watch it dong he's after your job mate

J D wrote:Better watch it dong he's after your job mate

No no... Dongzilla's reviews are awesome! I'm just doing a game that I didn't see up here, yet.

its cool mate only kidding

i love peeps that do this like u n dong as u get a gamers view not just the magazines view i know the peeps that do the mags r gamers but its allways nice to hear peeps views with their hands tied by developers saves me 40 quid if i get it then dont like it

Thats pretty much what I'm thinking of the game at the min, it's been fun so far but bits of it are starting to get dull as they keep throwing the same boss types at me time and time again. Just got passed that 4 Wedingo Prototype fight on the escape from Alkali Lake and I did groan when I had to fight more of them.