It is a pleasure to be able to say of a game based on a movie that it is an exception within the general trend in terms of qualitative level to which the vast majority of these adaptations are accustomed. ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ , although thanks to all the material that we had seen before its launch we already imagined it, it is a good game.
You are going to allow me to carry out this analysis without having seen the movie on which the video game is based. More than anything because I do not know when this moment will occur, if it comes … also, I have completed it a few hours ago and I still have fresh blood in my claws, I need to clean them a little.
What I can tell you is that, according to what I have read out there, 90% of the plot of the film is included in the game, whose plot consists of that part taken from the film and totally new elements created by Raven Software. The funny thing is that most of the game is included within that part devised by the developers.
The story is told using two parallel plots separated in space and time. That is, on the one hand we will carry out a series of missions that take place at a certain time in civilized environments and, on the other, three years before in a jungle in the purest ‘Tomb Raider’ style.
In both cases the setting is fantastic. The graphics engine used is Unreal Engine 3 and it shows. Both the modeling of the characters and the textures and the general appearance of the whole set is remarkable. In addition, it does not fall into the excessive use of gray and dark tones. In fact the jungle is so green and beautiful that it scares. Seriously, there are moments when we are at a really considerable height from which we can contemplate a picture worthy of a postcard.
The appearance of the characters, as I said, is fantastic. In fact, we can clearly recognize the features of Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine and Isaac Liev Schreiber in that of Sabretooth, to give a couple of examples. I am referring to the playable models, although the quality of the CGI scenes should also be mentioned, where it is sometimes difficult to digest that we are seeing computer-generated images.
I think it has become clear that graphically ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ is very well served, although it is true that in certain situations the framerate can plummet giving us a few seconds of various stumbling, but it is not something worrisome. The soundtrack is very sugary and the voices are dubbed into Spanish in a more than dignified way, so here we can’t ask for much more.
All this is very good, but the really important thing is that, after entering through the eyes, the rest accompany us. And it does. ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ is an action title that requires us to press the buttons over and over again to get rid of the multitude of enemies that attack us at the same time, but it has many other things. Before I mentioned the ‘Tomb Raider’ when talking about the setting of one of the game’s plots, but the resemblance does not end there. As if it were Lara Croft, we will find ourselves on many occasions before puzzles to solve in order to continue advancing. On second thought, if I had to represent the game in the form of a mathematical equation it would be the result of adding ‘Tomb Raider’ + ‘God of War’ + ‘Ninja Blade’. Saving the distances between the different titles, especially at the setting level, it could be something like this.
The puzzles that we are going to find in ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ are very balanced. In other words, none of them are going to give us too many headaches but, being simple, it will force us to think for a moment about the steps we have to take to achieve our goal. They are appreciated and they are a good time to forget (briefly, that yes) of having to be stabbing left and right. In any case, we also have animal instincts that will allow us to detect key elements of the scene and even give us clues about the way forward.
The missions, in turn, are very varied and in general are very well planned. In addition, the level design is also very successful, so carrying out the different tasks is entertaining and pleasing to the eye. And there are final bosses every two by three. Some are repeated too much and even appear in pairs or in groups of four, so that at certain times the pressing of buttons is frantic. Dodge, hit, dodge, run, jump, hit. Non-stop.
One of the interesting things about ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ , as it already happens in many other games such as the aforementioned ‘God of War’ and ‘Ninja Blade’, is the possibility of improving our character. It is true that we do not have more weapons than our blades, but we will learn skills and movements that will allow us to mince our adversaries in a jiffy. With the help of the right trigger we can unleash up to three types of special attacks, as well as enter Berserker mode, at which time the speed and damage of Wolverine’s movements will increase considerably. These skills also have several levels that we can acquire as we gain experience.
The use of these abilities has consequences: located below the health bar we will find another orange bar that will decrease when using special attacks. To recover it, unlike the health that refills itself while we are not being attacked, we will have to collect the spheres that the enemies leave when they die or that we can find inside vessels, boxes and others (as in the red orbs of ‘ Devil May Cry ‘, for example).
Apart from these special attacks we have a good number of conventional attacks and combos (the attacks from a distance are a world apart. One does not tire of fixing the objective several meters away and jumping towards the enemy crossing the air) that we can carry out combining normal attacks (X button) with strong attacks (Y button). If we know how to counterattack (by pressing at the right moment the left trigger, used to cover ourselves, with the X button), perform combos and use special attacks well, we will not have too many problems to kill whoever it takes, no matter how big (and believe me when I tell you there are exaggeratedly large enemies and others very very resistant). By the way, the enemy AI is what it has to be in a game of this type: there is no time to hide from us, so they attack us over and over again without ceasing. Ah, Quick Time Events make an appearance every now and then. Very occasionally, so those of you who hate them can rest assured.
It is worth mentioning a very interesting aspect in the fighting and it is the use of certain elements of the ‘MadWorld’ style set. That is, if we are fighting an enemy near a spike on the ground or on the wall and we grab him (the enemy, with the B button), Wolverine will skewer him roughly. I hadn’t mentioned it until now, but the game is wildly wild and bloody. He doesn’t cut a hair when it comes to showing us how Wolverine slices limbs everywhere.
Finally, mention the possibility of collecting the various hidden items (some more than others) thanks to which we will gain experience and unlock challenges. The challenges, which we can access from the main menu and are independent of the story, will help us get new costumes for Wolverine. The way to get these suits is simple: we will face another Wolverine dressed in the suit in question (Legendary, Classic, etc.) and when we defeat him we will obtain the clothing. Not that it’s a big deal, really …
A long game (I think it took me about 11 or 12 hours to complete at Normal level), entertaining, spectacular, wild and well done. Something very rare in film-to-video game adaptations.
Datasheet: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Platforms : Xbox 360 (analyzed version), PS3, PS2, Wii, PC, PSP , NDS
- Distributor : Activision
- Studio : Raven Software
- Launch : Now available
- Price : 69.95 euros
Official site | X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Video | Gametrailers
In Blogdecine | X-Men Origins: Wolverine
