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X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

Who among us hasn't ever wanted to know what it would be like to have incredible mutant abilities? Imagine being able to heal yourself from any wound, thanks to a special metal put into your body that makes you one of the greatest soldiers that the world has ever known? Like every great comic book hero, Wolverine transports us to this alternative reality. The new X-men Origins: Wolverine video game sheds some light on how this enigmatic antihero of the Marvel Universe became who he is.

For some of you that are not familiar with the story of Wolverine, here is a quick synopsis. Born James Howlett in the late 1800's of Canada with aristocrat status until the fatal day his Father was slain by the gardener and mother committed suicide. Later, running off with Sabretooth and growing up through the years watching each others' back. Finally, being picked up by Stryker and the weapon X program which gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton and claws. Eventually, Wolverine and Sabretooth have a falling out since the latter killed Wolverine's wife after he turned his back on the military program. Now with that background out of the way, let's get on with our review of the game.

It is time to unsheathe the claws and take a look at the game play elements. As some of you would expect with a Wolverine game there will be a lot of blood and a lot of body parts flying everywhere, I would have to say the combat system does wonders especially since every situation becomes very intense. You have your X button for medium attacks, Y for fierce attacks and the B button to execute your grab moves. Other buttons deal with using your feral sense, lunge attack and of course your special abilities in drill claw, rage, berserk claw and a side claw spin smash. With all this at your disposal you can execute a number of combinations especially the option to quick kill your opponents. Another factor while using your deadly moves is the environment will be your weapon. Execute a certain attack followed by a throw towards an object and they will either be impaled or fried depending on the area. Do not believe the environment is on your side either because you can also share their fate, however since you have the healing factor which gives you time to pull yourself out of a deadly place.

The gameplay is pretty fast and furious, but the graphics manage to hold up nicely as well. You will be able to see all the damage done to Logan when in many combat situations. When there is extensive battle damage you will get the delight of seeing all the bone structure and adamantium that wolverine is famous for and of course the end result of seeing him slowly heal back up. The battle damage was so intense that so far I was able to get all the meat off of his leg completely blown off. However if you want a quicker heal basically hit down on the D-Pad and retract the claws. On the note of the damage you probably are wondering about the enemy A.I and I have to say that they are pretty good adversaries that will force you to retreat most of the time and strategize picking your targets wisely with the lunge attack. Some enemies will have stealth abilities and then your feral sense will come in handy.

Now we are going to move on to the upgrade options that give the game a more of an RPG feel, and allow the player to choose which ways Logan will become more powerful. Once you hit start and go into the character are you can upgrade Wolverine's skills, Mutagens, see reflexes and of course his move list that you will unlock through out the game. With the skills area you can upgrade his health to all the special moves he can use for example rage. Now you will have to gain experience points to unlock stronger attacks and that all depends on how well you fight in combat. Mutagens you will gain through out the game and they are some what easy to find if you use your feral sense often through out each mission. Other items are hidden as well that will unlock more bonus games; especially my personal favorite where you get to fight yourself to unlock a special costume.

The characters that you will face of course is Sabre tooth, The Blob, Dead Pool and the famous Gambit. The main thing that was done right by adding extra story arks and mentioning the good Doctor that started the Sentinel program and yes you will be fighting a Sentinel.

All right I spoiled it by saying costumes. You will be able to unlock more items for Logan to use and once you hear that it only means one thing.....REPLAY VALUE! That is correct there is a large amount of replay value that will make you want to play the game over again just to unlock side missions and costume, also I mean come on there is the fact that you can unleash all your anger within this bloody game.

If I were to pick a bad thing to say about the game it would be.....um....give me a second....I am sorry there is nothing wrong with this game in my opinion. This by far is the best movie based video game out there. Thankfully they catered to what the gamers
wanted in a video game and did not simply connect the dots from the film. Yes they did follow some things but this is a game on its own. Amazingly, they managed to explain some aspects of the story more effectively in the video game than they could in the shorter movie.

The final words on X-men Origins Wolverine will end with this. This game has to be in your collection! You have a great story on one of the most favored super heroes in Marvel history. There is a lot of blood, violence and a lot of the famous characters in the movie especially some special appearances that I will not spoil for you. Replay value and many unlockable items. You will be playing this game for days figuring many things you can do to enemies and be amazed by the cinematics, story mode and combat. I am truly impressed and glad someone has finally decided to give what we gamers want from a movie based game. I give X-men Origins Wolverine a straight 5 out of 5.

On a personal note, I am glad to be back at GameFlavor and will continue to bring you great reviews; stay frosty gamers!