X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition Review

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On the landscape of recent console releases, these hasn’t been much in the land of fun button-mashing, mindless, and straightforward titles. It seems that every developer or publisher wants to pull off the next great narrative or intense gameplay title that will surge sales into the top percentile of the month.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition is a great game, not because it has the best narrative or the greatest gameplay; the game is great because it doesn’t try to be anything past what it is.

The game is loosely attached to the movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, sharing a similar story thread, but more entrenched in the comic universe than the movie. While the sub-two hour movie tried to insert too much story and not follow through on the effects, the game competently accomplishes these much cleaner and with more finish.

Like the movie, the game follows the story of Wolverine pre-adamantium and post-adamantium. It focuses on two time periods, the Africa mission lightly touched upon in the movie and the revenge plot against Stryker. The main difference is that the game expands the story pulling more from the comic universe with the addition of Mystique and Sentinels.

Playing on the PlayStation 3, the game looks great, textures are solid and enemies were detailed enough and with enough small variations that it didn’t look like the same three enemies attacking at the same time. Voice acting was good with Hugh Jackman voicing Wolverine with the important one liners.

It was curious though why Raven Software did not get the rest of the cast to fill out all the voices. Also Agent Zero, played by Daniel Henney, is referred as Nord throughout the entire game. Along with that difference, the voice actor sounded like a nasally teenager as opposed to efficient assassin.

Gameplay is familiar to anyone who plays button mashers. A light and strong attack that could be chained into combos along with a grab and jump. The great thing about Wolverine Uncaged was the combos are repetitive, but work differently against different enemies. Though certain mini-bosses appear a little to frequently and slowdown the pace of the game, specifically in the Africa missions.

There is also a quick kill that resulted in a bloody execution of any normal enemy in the game. While some of the enemies had to be weakened before the quick kill could be executed, every time it was successful; it just felt good. I especially recommend trying it against the Ghost.

Level design uses the three dimensional mainly, but there were some levels that almost acted two-dimensional in the level design. Later in the game at Alkali Lake, the bridge levels were almost Super Mario Bros. with blood. The abilities of Wolverine are used excellently in the game, his claws slash, strike, and dismember everyone in the game. It is true that the lunge ability is the main focus for attack in the game through the first time through.

But finish the game and replay any level with a high leveled Wolverine (in unlocked costume too!) and it feels like a different game. It stops being about keeping Wolverine alive, but becoming the beast inside.

There were some glitches and issues with the PS3 version. The game actually froze on a couple occasions mid-combat. The sound continued to work and the camera still panned anywhere it was rotated, but the action stopped with Wolverine stuck in the air. The other issue was collision detection was about 95%. In some instances, combo light attacks would miss allowing enemies counterattack. Repelling projectiles also suffered from this problem.

But even with these problems, X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition is a great game. Much like Star Wars: Force Unleashed, the game begs for multiple plays. This game is the first that captures the essence of Wolverine in a single player game.

Since the game is rated M for Mature, it is important for parents to decide for themselves if their children should be playing the game, but for comic fans who grew up with the character, he has finally emerged 100% in video game form.