Tuesday May 19, 2009
Unleashing the beast
By CHONG JINN XIUNG
If you want to feel like a freight train full of butt-kicks, rolling through with no brakes, the action-packed Wolverine game will definitely appeal to you.
HEAD ON: Wolverine is so badass that he takes helicopters out by leaping towards them. WOLVERINE by all accounts is the Marvel universe’s ultimate badass. Known only as Logan, fans have been left to wonder of Wolverine’s mysterious past and origins for a long time.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine the movie serves to explore Wolverine’s mysterious past. With the Wolverine hype machine up at full speed, it was only a matter of time before a licensed movie game emerged to coincide with the movie’s release.
While movie games tie-ins are notoriously known to be rushed, buggy and have sloppy production values, X-Men Origins: Wolverine — Uncaged Edition (XOM) the game isn’t your typical licensed movie game.
Cut to the chase
Before we go further, take note that XOM is NOT a kid-friendly game. It features an excessive amount of violence with lots of blood, gore and flying limbs.
The game loosely follows the movie’s main story, taking liberties to diverge off the path to add more backstory to some of the characters. Having watched the movie, I have to say that XOM’s story does surpass the film in some ways.
There are definitely far more interesting and dramatic scenarios found in the game like fighting off pursuers in the snow after escaping the Weapon X facility in Alkali Lake, facing off a giant Sentinel and chasing Gambit through the high rise buildings of New Orleans.
TIN MAN: Wolverine takes on the giant Sentinel robot in one of the later stages in the game. The downside however, is that the story suffers from irregular pacing with the game largely split down the middle into two main portions.
One portion follows Wolverine’s exploits in the present and the other in the past during Operation Firestorm in the jungles of Africa.
While the frequent time-hopping feels relevant during the early stages of the game, it loses relevancy during the later half and makes the story difficult to follow.
Looking good
In terms of presentation, the game looks remarkably polished for a licensed game though it is still rough around the edges. XOM takes you to all sorts of environments, from the jungles of Africa to a Sentinel manufacturing facility.
The environments, though linear in nature, look astounding especially those set in the jungles where you can see much of the natural beauty and gain a sense of the grand scale of things. However, the game is less successful in conveying indoor environments, of which many are drab and monotonous looking.
Characters on the whole sport a good amount of detail and animate fluidly. Subtle details like the radio chatter amongst a group of enemies or the look of terror on their faces as Wolverine leaps towards them helps add realism to the game.
FACE, MEET ELBOW: Aside from the common grunt you will face off against a few "super" enemies that are more resilient to your lunge attacks. However, the game does at times exhibit some very jarring graphical glitches with textures failing to load in time when characters come on screen. Other times characters do not line up with the environment, like when Wolverine climbs a platform — he sometimes floats in mid air.
Feral combat
In many ways Wolverine looks and feels like a game inspired by God of War with most of the action seen from a third-person perspective. At your disposal are a set of combos you can pull off by alternating between light and heavy attacks.
Pulling off some of the game’s diverse set of moves is fun to watch as you carve up low level baddies like Christmas turkey. Once you damage an enemy enough, Wolverine will perform a Quick Kill animation that will either decapitate or severe an enemy’s limbs.
Needless to say, there will be bucket loads of blood and flying body parts once a fight starts.
Wolverine’s also got a lunge attack move that allows him to cover great distances to pounce on baddies, which is great for taking down gun-toting enemies.
The attack also works at times as a way to jump over a chasm to reach a platform or in some cases, hop on board a helicopter. As tempting as it is to spam the lunge attack, higher level enemies won’t fall victim to these tactics, often impaling you or countering your attack.
On the defensive side, you can block, roll or counter-attack opponents with a well-timed button press. Counter moves can be useful for tackling speedy opponents like ninjas while blocking can be used to deflect incoming missiles.
NO SMALL TASK: Mid Level bosses like the Leviathan have lots of health and are tedious to take down. You’ll be mashing buttons nonstop destroying carbon copies of the same enemies on every level. Mid level bosses like the Leviathan and W.E.N.D.I.G.O prototypes are particularly annoying as they hardly put up much of a fight and you’re forced to keep lunging at them to take out small chunks of their health.
Aside from slicing and dicing, you can also grab enemies and throw them against the various environmental hazards strewn around the level, of which there are many.
Tree stumps, conveniently placed spikes, cement mixers and bottomless chasms are all fair game for you to dispose your enemies.
Ability upgrades
As you dispatch more foes you will accumulate experience points that you can spend on increasing Wolverine’s abilities, unlocking new moves and skills along the way.
Killing foes also will net you rage orbs that you can gather to unleash devastating fury attacks.
LET 'ER RIP: Once you build up your rage meter you can unleash fury attacks to clear the area of enemies. The upgrade system helps mix things up, by allowing you to select the way you play with a number of offensive and defensive bonuses that grant you more damage or health depending on your style. However, we didn’t notice much benefit by way of inflicting more damage upon enemies as it seems that they level up together with you.
The game’s difficulty slowly ramps up as you progress but it’s nothing a seasoned gamer can’t handle.
As fun as the combat is, it becomes repetitive after a while. During the last few stages, the game relentlessly throws wave after wave of enemies at you. There were times when I just couldn’t go on fighting after having played the game for over an hour.
XOM is rather lengthy for an action title — it should last you a good six to seven hours, though there isn’t much replay value once you complete the main story.
Sure there are secret costumes and dog tags to be found but there isn’t any multiplayer mode or anything else to bring you back.
Amazing powers
If there is one thing that XOM really gets right, it is the feeling that you are playing as Wolverine. Aside from his claws, Wolverine also has a regenerative healing factor that allows him to survive almost any injury including falling from great heights, impalement or a direct hit from a grenade.
OLD SCHOOL: Among the hidden extras in the game are classic Wolverine costumes that you can unlock upon completing a challenge. What is so cool about his healing factor in this game is the different ways Wolverine’s body takes damage. Muscle, skin and bone will slowly be revealed as you get hit by bullets, slashed by knives or take a grenade to the chest.
It is a rather gruesome yet cool effect as you watch Wolverine’s skin grow back in real time.
But really, there isn’t anything more badass than to see a bloodied Wolverine walking across the screen during a cut scene with his flesh peeled off and his adamantium skeleton showing.
Wolverine’s got other tricks up his sleeves too, like his Feral Sense ability that allows him to see invisible enemies and traps. The ability also acts as a guiding system, showing the direction you need to go and provides clues on objects used in the game’s many simple puzzles.
Conclusion
XOM is one of the few licensed movie games that actually surpasses the presentation of the actual film. It’s a surprisingly mature themed game that’s a departure from your average superhero title. The story doesn’t take centrestage here and that’s fine since this is an action game.
Combat in XOM is engaging with a healthy dose of violence thrown in. It’s really not that often fans get to see Wolverine’s ultra-violent side, so it’s a refreshing take on the character.
Despite the various technical glitches and scatter-brained story, Wolverine’s latest action game delivers the goods and is a worthwhile purchase for any comics fan who wants the full Wolverine experience.
Pros: Fast and furious combat; story is more engaging than the movie; real-time healing factor.
Cons: Some graphics glitches; combat gets repetitive in later stages.
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE — UNCAGED EDITION
(Activision)
Action game for the PlayStation3 and Xbox 360
Price: RM199 (PlayStation3); RM189 (Xbox 360)
Review copy courtesy of Gamer’s Hideout Sdn Bhd. For more information call (03) 7725-2775 or visit
www.gamershideout.com.my.
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