Game
Wolverine's Revenge:
Platform:: X-Box
type: Slash n Hack
OK, Ill be the first to admit it, I'm a comic geek, or a recovering one, (6 or 7 years comic free) and really my favorite characters that I walked away from that experience are Spawn the anti demon hell knight, and Wolverine the anti hero midget Canuck, because both these guys were bad asses, admittedly they weren't the most powerful characters to wander the comic landscape, but they were the ones mostly likely to laugh at you having your nuts caught in a vice when the media breaks into your bedroom to ask if your still a pedofile.
So I picked up the game used, thinking I'm gonna kick some people square in the nutz, and laugh as they writhe on the ground grimacing in pain. First the entire battle system is buggy, namely as you progress through stages enemy machine gun fire becomes more and more damaging per hit, which is surprising because you would expect some constancy, additionally the mini events they force you into doing are very very very disturbing. Idiot AI and hot spot firing seems to come into play as well.(Hot spot is a really weak idea that was developed as a sissy AI in which opponents can only shoot at your from certain spots on the map)
The most disappointing thing about this game is the fights with most of the 'boss' mobs. Wendigo, Magneto, Juggernaut, are all very disappointing fights, and is more drudgery then ass kicking fun, namely Wendigo fight is a lot like the juggernaut fight, except Juggs gives you even less time to strike, which means you can spend an infinite amount of time trying to get that one damn strike in so you can beat em even though he has no health. Pretty much both fights consist of a circular arena and moving out of the way at the last second then hoping you can get the stupid strike off. The fights with Sabertooth, and lady Deathstrike are far more fun, but really require minimal skill.
Additionally boring covert missions pop up from time to time in which you have to 'sneak' through the guards dispatching them as you go, which is really more find the right path then putting some beat down on the baddies. And one false step, or even an attempt to move through the baddies in what they deem a non linear progression makes you start the entire sequence over, some of them are infuriating because you know you can kick all their bitz arses. It would be like while making my sammich for breakfast (dont ask) if a very loud alarm sounded when I tried to put a slice of pastuerized harmonized tasteless fondled american cheeselike substance on my sammich before the tomato, a super sissy animation went off, and approx 45,421 ninjas jump out of the shadows, kick the shit out of me (just like life does on a daily basis) and when I come too, the sammich I was working on is gone, but oddly the mayo I used in its jars (as an average american I believe anything less then 3 jars of mayo per sammich is sissying out and going diet/lo cal/my pussy hurts hippy style) and all the other ingrediants back in their place awaiting my next attempt, and failure after failure after failure (because Ill never catch on you have to do the straight cut in half as opposed to the diagonal one) will cause me to have a clockwork orangesque response when I walk past any subway counter.
What is good, the models look pretty good with the exception of the hands, although not my favorite style of art, they at least get points for it being consistent throughout the game, the Easter eggs you collect during your first beating of the game (additional Wolvie costumes to wear the second time through, Cerebro files on baddies/goodies, some trials to do after the game) are pretty good so if your really an Xmen freak it might have your fix, however getting to the end of the game has some serious sticky points. The voice overs are done by Pat Stewart and Ian Mckellum as well as Hugh Jackman which is nice because they did a decent job of matching up voices to characters for the movie. The system of regenerating only while Wolvies claws are in works as well as can be expected.
What is bad, the game is not well explained I find myself to be an above average gamer, although my little brother says my skills are diminishing at an accelerated rate, irregardless of this fact, some of the damn missions/bosses are tedious, not properly explained, or give irrelevant information, so where comics error on the side of talking way way too much, this game errors on the side of not telling you enough. The mini event of the double chain turret with the blue orb, finishing juggernaut, and escaping the opening room (hey before you get too high and mighty they use a method of getting out (slashing the numeric pad next to the door) that is never again used in the game). Combat is really a block counter attack after you have removed people of their weapons, the entire collecting dog tags (WTF is this metal gear?) to learn new combo moves involving 1 to 3 bad guys, enemy AI, triggers, maps, the entire mission where you have to go the corner liquior store to pick up some tentacle porn to get the magic keycard is boring as hel.... err wait wrong game, explanations of scenarios, development of any other characters are all glossed over. The rescue of the enemy guy falling off the bridge, how to overcome being stunned, and some plot holes aren't even explained, the entire damn mini missions of being behind a chain gun turret is dumb as hell r1 is zoom, would be nice if they let you know that!
My contention is that a game should be intuitive on how it works, I'm not asking for a neon sigh that says break contents to continue, (which oddly does occur with the entire stealth strike commands), but some parts of the game are explained as if they took the text in English translated to Korean, to Japanese, to Spanish, to German, then back to English, and these are vital things you need to know for the game.
MMJ says, 'If you going to have fatal moves, for the love of god make them fatal, stabbing someone in the leg, then stabbing them in the ass is not generally fatal, but the homo erotic symbolism will take at least a week of hard liquor to forget.'
MSBNGJ says, 'For the love of God strike damn it, strike, I hit the button dont make me go through that again'
MAJ says, 'WTF biggest bad ass in the marvel universe, gets whacked by a little electric shock? I saw this bastard removed of half his flesh and it didn't even slow em down, I call bullshit!'
Story 2
Graphics 3
gameplay 1
sound 3
Fun 2
overall 2
Synopsis if your a Wolvie fan, get this used, the frustration may be worth the Easter eggs for ya, otherwise take a pass work some more on time splitters 2.