X-Men Origins Wolverine Review

Guilty pleasures. Where would we be without them? We wouldn’t be human that’s for sure. Every now and again we all like to indulge ourselves with things that are maybe bad for us (drinking, smoking) or things that we know deep down inside aren’t very good (Resident Evil films, One Direction) However there is something about these things that does tickle our fancies and tantalise our taste buds and X-Men Origins Wolverine falls firmly into this category.

X-Men Origins Wolverine shouldn’t succeed as a game. Fair enough when it does come to licensed games Marvel usually does deliver more than they fail, but when they deliver the products tend to range from ok to good. It is safe to say that X-Men Origins Wolverine is shading good rather than ok. Although you wouldn’t guess it from the very first opening scene. Now I know graphics don’t make the game but Wolvie and his environments look like they have been ripped straight from a Ps1. The textures are chunky and bland, edges are jagged and the draw distance is miserable. I have seen better-looking third party games on the GBA. However this is one of the most gloriously blood soaked games I have played in a long time and, in this respect, X-Men Origins Wolverine can definitely be compared to the likes of God of War and Fallout 3. And watching Wolvie cut through soldier’s limbs and body parts will never NEVER get old!

Having said that I have to confess that the area of graphics is really the only hurdle that Logan has trouble clearing because everything else apart from the visuals is…good. Not brilliant, not amazing, but good. The gameplay itself having been ripped straight from the template that Kratos himself made famous last gen. That’s right Wolvie is a hack n slash kinda affair and is in no way shape or form original. It does borrow heavily from God of War and Wolvie could give Kratos a run for his money in the ‘angriest guy suffering from PMT’ award. But when you’re borrowing ideas from other titles you do at least want to borrow from good ones don’t you? And X-Men Origins Wolverine does just that.

As mentioned the gameplay is straight from the angry white one himself however X-Men Origins Wolverine doesn’t seem to have wanted to take everything on board from God of War. Throughout the entire game you will be skipping back and fourth between about three different locations. Africa, the Arctic Tundra and (a fan fave for this gen) Grey offices and dull labs. Variety, unfortunately, isn’t the spice of life and the repetitive environments will grate after a while. The combat too would get quite boring and samey if it weren’t for the trophies. The majority of trophies/achievements are all combat based i.e. kill x amount of enemies in a certain way. And I found that if I was constantly setting myself goals every time I unlocked a trophy, that managed to keep things pretty fresh and exciting throughout the 8 or so hours of play time.

Another plus is that upon completion of the game you can start again but with Wolverine at the level and strength you got him to throughout your first playthrough. And this is essential as you will defiantly need to play this through more than once to unlock everything (especially the kill 2000 enemies award) maybe after about three playthroughs you will have most of what you need.

So what stops this game from being a must have? Well as I said the graphics are very poor and the music is completely unmemorable, and it just doesn’t shine as brightly as other similar games like God of War or Devil May Cry. The heart is there but not the polish, and as a whole the overall package suffers as a result. It lacks the pacing and ‘wow’ moments of the aforementioned games. But the game is fun, and that’s what makes it a guilty pleasure. Its ridiculously violent and over the top, its not going to test any major skills or knowledge, you will just be going through the linear environments and turning people into piles of crimson, soggy body parts. So the question you’re asking is “is Wolvie the best at what he does?” short answer, no. But what he does is damn good fun!

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