14 DAY TRIAL // Hollywood is seemingly on a roll with comic book adaptations as we've seen quite a lot of them recently, Batman, Ironman or Watchmen included. Even though Wolverine was the main character in all of the X-Men movies made up until now, his success has finally resulted in a solo-movie treatment, in the form of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
As is the current trend, a video game adaptation was quickly created by the team at Raven Software and published by Activision just in time for the theatrical release of the blockbuster movie. Wolverine has appeared in other games, but sadly none of them managed to do him any justice, as they treated him like a very docile super hero. Now, the Canadian mutant is back and it seems that he has sharpened his claws as this game promises to deliver a truly bloody experience. Here is my one hour spent with X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Uncaged Edition.
13:00 I start up the game not knowing what to expect; Wolverine is one of my all-time favorite super heroes and up until now I've only had the patience to sit through the beginning sequences of all the other games that portrayed him. Hopefully this one will actually be good.
13:10 The opening cut scene serves as a warning, showcasing Wolverine in all of his furious glory, as he slices and dices through some soldiers in order to escape. The main message is clear, this isn't for kids or people with weak stomachs.
13:20 After a few fighting sequences all I can say is “Wow!” - the fights are intense, gory and filled with blood. Wolverine shows no mercy and is quite eager to sink his adamantium claws into his unfortunate enemies. The game also slows down time and rotates around the main character every time he does a particularly bloody maneuver just so you can admire your handy, or in this case, clawy work.
13:30 The dreaded Quick Time events are present here but fortunately they don't impact the gameplay very much and are very useful in order to recreate a truly gory scene with a helicopter and the head of a very unlucky pilot who was introduced by Wolverine to the spinning blades of the machine.
13:40 The game introduces a lunge maneuver with which you can get up close and personal with your enemies and also allows Wolverine to jump over large chasms and cliffs, with his landing being softened by the flesh of one of his adversaries.
13:50 The game forces Wolverine to showcase his tomb raiding skills acting like a bigger and more burly Lara Croft as he tries to solve puzzles in the middle of a temple found in a tropical jungle. Hopefully such puzzles won't be featured later in the game because Wolverine isn't renowned for his finer qualities in the comic books.
14:00 Finally a boss fight commences between me and a Leviathan, which is practically a lava monster. While he may be big and his attacks might deal some very serious blows, Wolverine is quite agile and when he gets the jump, literally, on his enemies, he is unstoppable. After a few lunges on his back, the fight ends with a particularly vicious scene involving Wolverine and the head of the monster.
All in all, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a very bloody game filled with scenes that aren't meant for those who don't enjoy violent games. But all this violence matches Wolverine's whole persona as he wasn't known for pacifism in the comic books. Look forward to the full review next week.