X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

When you've been playing games as long we have here at Firingsquad, you learn a few irrefutable truths about the industry. One of them is that movie tie-ins will be everything but good. Most games based on movies are quickly developed to cash-in on the release day of the film itself, so it's almost a law that they tend to be half-baked and severely lacking in development and execution. The summer movie season has officially begun with the recent release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and with it, we have the inevitable tie-in game meant to exploit the property for all its worth. So, knowing the history of movie games and their tendency to be abysmal piles of failure, how is X-Men Origins: Wolverine?

Actually, it's not too bad.

Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised; Wolverine was developed by the veterans over at Raven Software who are no strangers to the Marvel Universe or 3rd party intellectual properties. Raven is the driving force behind the excellent X-Men Legends series, as well Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Raven also seems to have developed a knack for taking other companies IP's and making some excellent games based on the corresponding mythologies, such as Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Trek: Elite Force.

Now Raven has unleashed their latest game set in the Marvel Universe, and it is a no-holds-barred cornucopia of ultra-violence, insane bloodshed, and prominently features a shirtless Hugh Jackman.

Story

The story in X-Men Origins: Wolverine follows the movie fairly closely, although it does deviate in some ways to flesh out the length. You start the game already a member of Team X, on your way to Africa in pursuit of Lago's rebels. As the sole survivor of a chopper crash, you fight your way through hordes of enemies to attempt to destroy a beacon that is jamming communications between you and the rest of your team.

Throughout the remainder of the game, the player swaps between flashbacks of your mission in Africa and the action going on after your infusion of adamantium during the Weapon X program. The writing can be humorous in areas, albeit sometimes unintentionally. For the most part, the game plays as an excuse for Wolverine to go from area to area, eviscerating enemies in new and interesting ways. And in this regard, the game does not disappoint.