X2 Wolverine's Revenge

With the recent release of the new X-men movie, Activision thought it would be a good idea to release a game related to the movie. X2 Wolverine’s Revenge is based on Wolverine, and begins with him escaping from a lab as Weapon X. Later you find out that you have been implanted with a virus and must return to the lab to obtain the cure. Using various powers, you must help Wolverine in his quest.

The controls are fairly easy to get used to. You have a punch button, kick button, and action button as your main fighting commands. As you attack an enemy, Wolverine will automatically lock on to that enemy. Once locked on, you can strafe around them or use the right analog stick to perform dodge maneuvers. Using the punch and kick buttons you can create short combos to dispose of your opponent. These combos get old very fast, and consist of either punch, punch, punch, or kick, kick, kick. There are a few others at your disposal, but these are the primary attacks.

To add variety, there are special combo attacks that can be done to groups of enemies. When you have positioned yourself among a group of enemies properly, you can hit circle and Wolverine will do a very amusing and unique combo to the entire group. These are very cool looking, but require no skill to do. The basic combat is fairly boring.

The graphics in X2 are probably the game’s strongest point. The character models and facial animations are great and fun to watch. Unfortunately the camera can get really annoying as you play. It doesn’t lock anywhere, so you have complete control over where the camera is. This can get really annoying when you’re trying to fight and you’re looking at the ceiling.

The sound effects are what you would expect from a game starring Wolverine – slashing sounds, cries of pain, and grunts. The voice acting is really good, starring the one and only Mark Hamill as Wolverine. The only problem with the voice acting that I had was that Mr. Hamill doesn’t make a very good Wolverine. He’s just not as gruff as I’d expect.

There are lots of unlockables throughout the game that can be acquired by finding hidden areas and items. By doing things like stealth kills or triple strikes you can earn dog tags that allow you to unlock more combos for Wolverine. You can also find items that will give you more costumes or more background story. There’s even a jukebox mode that you can use to listen to the game’s tunes.

Sadly, X2 Wolverine’s Revenge fell short of my hopes for a good X-men game. I had seen movies and screen shots of the game and was really impressed. Upon playing the game, I realized the gameplay wasn’t as deep as it looked. It’s fun at the beginning as you learn all of Logan’s moves, but later on they become boring. You have the ability to learn new combos the further you progress, but even then you see them over and over. Unfortunately, with all the other great action titles out there, X2 Wolverine’s Revenge doesn’t live up to the rest.   

Gameplay: 5.5
Wolverine’s Revenge plays like just about any other 3D action title, except with less attack options. Extra features like Wolverine’s mutant sight or feral rage add a bit of variety, but not much. Unlockables like new costumes help the replay value.

Graphics: 7.3 
The graphics are pretty good. Wolverine’s enhanced sight and smell adds a neat heat vision effect to your surroundings. The backgrounds are detailed and varied, allowing for a nice change in scenery throughout Wolverine’s journey.

Sound: 5
The music has a very ominous feel to it, mixed in with claw swipes and fight noises. Overall the music is pretty average – nothing above average, yet nothing too terrible.

Difficulty: Hard
I found myself redoing certain missions over and over. Sometimes I would just get caught in bad situations and get absolutely slaughtered. If you aren’t prepared for certain encounters you will find it hard to survive.

Concept: 8 
Now, without playing the game it sounds like a cool concept: Wolverine revisiting his past. It leaves opportunities open like meeting with old rivals, giving the player a chance to find out why they hate each other’s guts.

Overall: 5.6
I was excited for X2 Wolverine’s Revenge. It looked like a fun action game starring the most ruthless of the X-men. I was quickly disappointed when I found out that all those cool combos I had seen were executed by a single press of the button. I wanted the actual combat to be that exciting, but it wasn’t. But, expectations aside, Wolverine’s Revenge isn’t a total stinker. The combos are really entertaining, and a lot of times the game requires you to think with your head and not with your claws. Someone should just do a remake of the arcade game.