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X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Uncaged Edition

Way of the Wolverine

At first sight, X-Men Origins: Wolverine has a lot in common with an average licensed movie title - third persion action through a number of mostly linear levels with numerous cutscenes. The gameplay is not going to win many points for originality, but it is a workable mash-up of existing concepts proven to work in games like God of War, Devil May Cry and even Tomb Raider. Gameplay includes plenty of action and tons of fighting, yet the pacing is exceptionally good. Puzzles and simple "quick time events" are used to insert pause to the action and to advance the story. The puzzles are nothing overly complicated, but they are good enough to allow you to catch your breath and think for a second before dashing forward to turn the next batch of enemies into bloody kebab.

Wolverine also ends up in a number of boss fights. "Common" bosses - the rock monsters in Africa and the W.E.N.D.I.G.O. prototypes in Alkali Lake - show up several times along the way and are easly defeated with very simple tactics - dodge, hop on the back and apply pointy claws. Special story-related boss fights on the other hand do take a bit more than that to defeat and mix up normal fighting with "quick time event" moves to complete a largely predetermined combat sequence.

Mind if I scratch your back with these claws for a bit?

I guess bringing down a chopper with melee attacks should also be considered as a "boss fight".

Oddly while you can easily point at individual gameplay elements and complain about how this and that bit is "simple", "already seen before in game X" or how a feature "becomes repetitive" over the course of the game, somehow X-Men Origins: Wolverine mixes it all up so that the whole package stays fun and enjoyable. This is an action game and the rest is just there to ensure that the events are paced properly and there is enough variety so the whole thing does not degenerate into endless hack'n'slash. In my view it doesn't matter if every individual element of the gameplay is not original - the fun factor matters a whole lot more and Wolverine succeeds in delivering just that by mixing tried and true with great skill.

Art of the Adamantium Claw

Combat system is built around four action buttons - Heavy Attack, Light Attack, Grab and Block. Additionally Wolverine can dash forward and lunge on top of specific target from a considerable distance. Special attacks can be performed by combining the four basic moves. Strong and fast attacks can be mixed up alone or following a lunge. Properly timed blocks lead to devastating counterattacks, grabs can be followed with a toss, regular hit combination or with a deadly "quick kill" move that will finish off the enemy with a spectacular "execution move" that is unique to each enemy type. Appropriate amount of blood is flying all over the place without overstepping into the realm of splatter comedy. Tougher opponents may require softening up before the quick kill becomes available so whenever the terrain allows it, the easiest way to get rid of a pesky opponent is to throw him off the building, cliff or bridge as appropriate.

The lunge move is great for closing up on enemies that resort to firearms.

Bright flash of the claw indicates an opening for a gory "quick kill" move.

Additional special moves become available as the story progresses. Killing off enemies builds your rage bar which can then be used to initiate Claw Spin, Claw Drill, Claw Cyclone or Berserk specials. Berserk temporarily boosts the damage output of all attacks - quite handy with bosses - while the other three are just different creative ways to separate excess limbs from multiple enemies in one go.

As you split open the last enemy of an area the action is presented in slow motion - great for snapping up gory screenshots!

1. Extend Claws 2. Spin 3. Profit!

Special attack button is also used with block button to dodge massive strikes of bosses. On the PC the default keyboard+mouse combination is otherwise quite well designed, but this essential dodge move is set by default to a combination of Shift (Special Attack), Z (Block) and one of WSAD keys for direction. This requires considerable finger dexterity to pull off. Personally I solved the issue by moving block to mouse button 3 and the issue obviously goes away if you play with the XBox 360 gamepad.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: GameplayPage 3: Gameplay, VisualsPage 4: Summary, Scores

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