X-Men Origins: Wolverine

[Flawless]

1UP

Go on, have a good hard look at the screenshot on this page -- that's the in-game model, son. We were as hesitant to get excited for X-Men Origins: Wolverine as you probably are going into it, but things are shaping up surprisingly well (and incredibly violently) over at Raven Software (the same studio that worked on the X-Men Legends games and Marvel Ultimate Alliance).

Ninja Gaiden meets Hugh Jackman? It's not out of the realm of possibility. In our January issue of EGM, we tell you all about real-time in-game healing, the simple satisfactions of an elegantly accessible combat system, a sweet boss fight against the very first Sentinel robot prototype, and lots more. We also chat with Raven about a few of Origins' influences, from God of War to Super Smash Bros., a new approach to seamless cinematic in-game cut-scenes that bridge bits of gameplay, and even a few things from the cutting floor (a skeletal Wolvie in a nuclear blast?). Check out EGM for all the uncanny details. And oh my, the violence.

[ThaGenecyst]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

LMAO i've never played a good "Wolverine" game


Adamantium Rage sucked to me, and so did Wolverine's Revenge... i might pass

[Tha_Kid]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Wolverine in a Ninja Gaiden style game?

I'm having trouble breathing.

[Flawless]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine First Look

As I watched the opening CG cutscene for X-Men Origins: Wolverine I couldn't shake my amazement at the fact that what I was seeing was a game based on an upcoming movie. In general, licensed movie properties suffer from small budgets and accelerated development cycles which make high quality opening cinematics like this something of an anomaly. That wasn't the part that amazed me. This particular cutscene, and in fact the whole game demo that followed, was bloody, brutal and a more honest depiction of Logan than you can probably ever expect out of a blockbuster summer action flick.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is being developed by Raven Software, a team you may be familiar with from past work on Marvel Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends. This title, though, is a pure action brawler with a few light puzzles, platforming elements and massive boss battles tossed in for variety. The team is looking to create as true to form a version of Wolverine as possible, complete with his signature fighting moves, mutant abilities, and unbridled rage.

All of the action in X-Men Origins takes place in the third-person and is filled with your standard combos and grabs. There's a bit more to the gameplay than simple button mashing, though. You can interact with the environment to do things like throw enemies into spikes (likely leaving them wondering why they put the spikes there in the first place) or toss them off cliffs. There's also some timing to your attacks where in the midst of a combo or grab Wolverine will flash, indicating that you should hit the Y Button (Triangle on PS3) for a quick kill. My personal favorite move on display, though, was a quick lunge kill where Wolverine leaps across the screen to impale some poor sap on his claws.

The real fun comes in with the gore shaders, an aspect of the game that Raven Software is particularly proud of. Each layer of Wolverine can be torn off, straight down to his adamantium skeleton. If a bullet rips through his torso, you'll see the hole it left. If a knife cuts into his flesh, you'll see the blood and guts inside the gash it tears out. If you take enough damage, you can actually die and be forced to restart from a checkpoint, but you'll see Wolverine torn to shreds and still walking long before that happens. And if you manage to make it out of the scuffle without dying, you'll get to watch all of the scrapes, cuts, and holes heal up in front of your eyes in real time.

The gore isn't limited to Wolverine, naturally. From the opening CG cutscene where Wolverine repeatedly tears into a guy's stomach, tossing blood this way and that, to the heads being lopped off by his claws, this mutant knows how to finish things in style. This game is going to be more bloody and brutal than the movie it is based on.

We only got a brief look at the Sentinel battle, which apparently has multiple stages and is quite long. This is one of the examples of things that aren't in the movie but are so classic to the Wolverine story that Raven Software decided to include anyway. The fight makes great use of Wolverine's powers beginning with his feral senses to locate weak points around the Sentinel's feet and continues in the air with Wolverine turning himself into a bullet in free fall to rip through the lurching machine. The fight ends with an Unreal Engine 3 cutscene of Wolverine walking away from the battle bruised but snarky, grim sense of humor intact.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is just past the alpha stage in development, which means there's still a hefty amount of work to be done in advance of its ship date. The exact day you can get your hands on the game hasn't been confirmed yet, but you can expect to see it on store shelves around the same time the movie comes out in May.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I'm cautiously optimistic but if it's like the Marvel game, it would make a great rental. Button mashers don't hold my interest for long though so I don't know if I would buy this or not. Hopefully there would be a demo.

[cable guy]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I like what I hear

[Altimus]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

This will either be great or terrible.

Looking forward to it either way.

[DickDalewood]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

This will either be great or terrible.

Looking forward to it either way.

Haha... thats quote worthy.

[Flawless]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Trailer:

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[LBzrule]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Trailer:

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Hopefully the actual game is as dope as the trailer

[mgoblue678]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Hmm a movie game that looks like it has a chance to be good. Hopefully the universe doesn't implode.

[coach_ruckus]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Now that looks sick cant wait till that game comes out

[thaima1shu]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Definitely interested, even though never really been into X-Men. Trailer was RIDINKULOUS!!

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/954/954801p1.html

More info!

Sounds awesome!

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).

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.

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.

[Altimus]

Re: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

This game sounds really good. The in-game regeneration is a very interesting concept.