X-Men Origins: Wolverine

[Khorazyn]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Hands-on
10 reasons why it rocks!

There's no question Wolverine is one of the best comic book super heroes ever but he's yet to receive a game that really does him justice. Many of the devs at Raven Software are big Wolverine fans, and so they set to work trying to devise the ultimate Wolverine game. They boiled down the essential ingredients to Wolverine's claws, brutal combat, regeneration and his bad ass attitude. After having a good hands-on play with Raven's we found the over-the-top violence, rock-solid combat system and cinematic style are all blending together into a really impressive title. We've broken the experience down into the game's ten highlights.


Claws
Sure, every wolverine game has let you use his claws, but never before have they been this lethal. As Wolvie starts slashing an enemy they'll become covered in claw marks and the finishing slash will invariably lop off arms, legs and heads in a bright spray of blood. Dismemberment should have been in Wolverine games from the start, so it's great to finally see it included. We were a little disappointed that his claws had no effect on the trees or other parts of the background though.

Leaping attacks
Anyone who's read the comics will be familiar with Wolverine's iconic claw-first leap at enemies. Rather than just sticking this in a few cut-scenes, Raven has made it a standard move that can be mixed in with normal combat. By locking on to any enemies up to about 15 metres away, Wolvie can launch himself at them, flying through the air and hammering into them with his claws, as he tackles them to the ground. Not only was this move great fun, but it was also a handy way to quickly kill any gun-wielding enemies first before moving onto the rest. Even better, Wolvie can target enemies inside choppers and leap-attack up to them (more on this later).

"That's not a 'chopper'. This is a 'CHOPPER'!" Snikt!

Amazing cut-scenes
Of course gameplay is critical to a game's success but it never hurts to bookend that gameplay with intense CG cut-scenes, and Wolverine has some of the best. In the opening video Wolvie is stalking through an abandoned factory when he's set upon by armed soldiers. The following couple of minutes show the soldiers being mercilessly cut to pieces. Wolverine kills the first guy by stabbing right through a wall into his head and the next is dispatched with a flurry of slashes to the mid-section, causing gore to spill everywhere. One of the soldiers manages to nail Wolvie with a lucky shotgun blast, but as he stands back up we can see the terrified soldier through the gaping hole in Wolvie's chest. Before the hole has even healed completely, Wolverine has grabbed the soldier and impaled him on a nearby metal girder that was sticking out of the ground. If the upcoming Wolverine movie can deliver as much intensity as these cut-scenes it'll be doing well.


Regeneration
Rather than just going for a simple regenerating life-bar, as most X-Men games have, Raven has built the healing into Wolverine's in-game model. As he gets shot you'll see chunks of flesh torn off his body, exposing this adamantanium skeleton underneath. Over the course of a few seconds you can watch his body heal back up and create fresh skin over the bones.

"He had to split!"

Combos and rage attacks
Wolverine's combat system is built largely around light and heavy claw slashes. Hammering away at either will cut through most enemies but more skilled players will be able to combine slashes into some pretty impressive combo attacks. By mixing in Wolvie's leaping attacks you can carve through the opposition with serious acrobatic style. As you'd expect, Wolverine's berserker rage has also been incorporated into a handful of special attacks like tornado and diving attacks where he spins about with claws out-stretched.


Counters
To give the combat some additional depth you can perform counters by hitting block at the exact moment an enemy attacks. You'll know you've scored a counter because the action slows down. During this period you'll be able to perform some devastating revenge attacks, like a Bruce Lee-style punch that sends enemies hurtling backwards.

Feral Sense
By engaging Wolverine's Feral Sense the screen becomes a black and white, wavy wasteland (very similar to the look of The Lord of the Ring scenes where Frodo used the ring) where interactive objects are highlighted in glowing green. Okay, so linking this sort of a gameplay feature to Wolverine's animal senses is about as tenuous a link as we can imagine but it does ensure you're never stumped for what to do next. In the Feral Sense mode you can see at a glance what objects can be climbed, and better yet, which parts of the background you can impale your foes on. Engaging Feral Sense also brings up a Fable II-like directional highlight, pointing out where to go next.

"No wonder these guys are so hopeless - they're stoned."

Fatalities
Raven has clearly had a lot of fun creating Wolverine's gruesome fatalities. Heads are lopped off, bodies are cleaved in two and people are suplexed into the ground, causing their heads to explode in a gooey pulp. Generally, any way you can imagine someone being killed by razor-sharp, foot-long claws has been included in the game.

Claws vs. Choppers
Possibly our favourite section in all of the gameplay we saw was when Wolverine took on a series of enemy choppers. The sequence sees you controlling Wolverine's skydive towards a chopper. After dodging the blades, Wolvie latches on with his claws, then starts climbing towards the pilot. Once on the windscreen, Wolvie has to dodge bullets before he can do enough damage to kill the pilots. Our favourite death scene involved Wolvie lifting the pilot up and having the chopper's rotor blades decapitate him.

This is about to get real messy.

Sentinels
For anyone not familiar with the comics, Sentinels are 100 metre tall robots designed for the sole purpose of eradicating mutants like Wolverine. Rather than follow the movie slavishly Raven decided that 'if you're making a Wolverine game, you damn well better have him face off against a Sentinel'. Sentinels are normally so powerful that it takes a team of mutants to take down a single robot, so it should prove to be one spectacular fight.

Have a look at the trailer.
http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14267365/...40209.html

Cool is it not? Time to slice n dice.