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X-Men Origins: Wolverine Hands-on Preview

• By McKinley Noble
• April 07, 2009 16:57 PM PST
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GamePro gets a full-contact experience with Marvel's most famous mutant and fattest villain. Check out our spoilerific preview and see why X-Men Origins: Wolverine may be the most violent X-Men game ever created. Don't flinch, Bub: things are gonna get violent.

It looks like size clearly isn't an issue with boss battles in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The Sentinel is MUCH bigger than this jolly green giant.

When it comes to Wolverine, the team at Raven Software definitely gets it right. One of the dumbest things any X-Men video game has ever done is force Wolverine to fight without the use of his claws. Sending Marvel's feral anti-hero into battle without his trademark Adamantium weapons is like equipping Master Chief with a wimpy paintball gun: it looks silly and just doesn't work. Luckily, Raven Software knew that the combat in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the upcoming video game tie-in to the summer action flick of the same name, had to be just like Wolverine himself -- unchained, bloody, and brutal. We recently got treated to a fresh look at the game (plus a new boss battle), and so far, X-Men Origins is so satisfyingly action-packed and enjoyable, it just might upstage its own movie.

Aside from crisp gameplay, slick-looking levels and authentic voice acting straight from Hugh Jackman himself, X-Men Origins looks and plays like a comic book fan's wet dream. Most importantly, the game doesn't handicap its titular hero by making players work for the right to use Logan's mutant powers. Not only can Wolvie freely use his claws to tear enemies and environments into tiny little toothpicks, but his savage fighting style feels exactly how you'd expect it to. Even better, Logan's trademark regenerative abilities mean that gamers will be able to take as much damage as they can dish out. Not since the fighting game X-Men: Children of the Atom has playing as Wolverine felt so... visceral.

Attacks like the Claw Spin and Claw Cyclone can be upgraded throughout the game, which will give Logan even more reach, damage, and stopping power.

Mutant of War

When picking up the controller and executing Wolverine's various context-sensitive attacks, I couldn't help but feel like I was channeling reflexes honed into my fingers from many long hours with God of War. That's a good thing, since the timing and speed at which you mix up light and heavy attacks can produce a wide amount of bloody finishing blows from Wolverine's arsenal. During the demo, we witnessed Logan barge into military strongholds beheading enemies, amputating various limbs and sinking his claws into stomachs, faces, and more squishy parts of the human torso with gruesome finesse. Of course, the scene-stealing "Quick Kills" look and animate better than the last time we demoed the game, and I actually winced the first few times I inadvertently impaled some poor mercenary on a broken, pointed pipe or some other similarly sharp environmental object.

Another interesting gameplay twist in X-Men Origins is Wolverine's use of his mutant powers: namely, throwing his body into fire, explosions, and sometimes, straight through enemies. During a heated fight with a menacing 100-foot tall Sentinel, Logan proudly touts his indestructible nature, disrupting the giant robot's limbs by plunging his forearm into the gears. Yes, every part of Wolverine's body can be used as a tool, which adds a layer of inventive gore to boss fights and innovative puzzles. Needless to say, X-Men Origins is definitely staying true to Wolverine's savage animal nature.

From small nicks and cuts to gaping lacerations, Wolverine's wounds will heal and mend in real-time, but his tattered shirt won't be so lucky.

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