Wolverine demo available now on Xbox 360

by Alexander Sliwinski 

______________________________________________________________________________________

NightstrikerX Review

Alright, I've played though it twice and it's fairly short. So I figure now would be a adequate time to give impressions of the demo and of the direction of the game itself.

_________________________________________

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Demo

When all else fails, just kill everything infront of you in a blind rage.

- Introduction -

I'll keep this short and sweet, afterall. That's what the demo is, very short and what appears to be very sweet.

- Gameplay -

If you've ever needed the excuse to simply rush around and murder everything infront of you. You could play GTAIV. However, for marvel fans out there, Niko Bellic may seem very believable. But he isn't superpowered, enter Wolverine: Origins. The gameplay for Wolverine Origins is very simple, infact so simple you'll most likely forget there is a storyline and instead just play to run around and kill everything. Which this game delievers very wonderfully. You'll start the demo with a small cutscene of a Hugh Jackman wolverine killing things before you're dropped out of a helicopter ontop of a guy who you proceed to turn into a small pile of crushed bones and red goo. Then your surrounded and the slaughter begins. But remember, you cant' spell slaughter without laughter.

The controls are simple, and you've done them a million times before. X is weak attack, Y is strong attack, B is to Grab, and A is to jump. Then you've got your RB and LB which respectively targets and dodges/lunges. As with most games, doing combos like X, X, X, Y unleashes more powerful moves at your disposal and allows you to dice up your enemies in different ways. Which brings me to the first problem I've seen in the game.

The Lunge, I've discribed it before as using RB + LB. Target your enemy, wait for the green line to appear, hit LB and lunge at him. This move seemed to be your ace in the hole, you can use it at a distance to close the distance between you and your foe while dispatching him, you can use it at close range to also dispatch your foe. Get where I'm going at? A quick LB + Y lunge spelt instant death on normal difficulty. So instead of worrying about using any sort of combo attacks. Lunging around like some kind of animal was far, far more effective. Maybe that's the point?

Wait, are we playing X-men Origins: Wolverine, or X-Men Origins: Toad?

Aside from that, you have a tiny bit of customization with Wolverine. You can equip Mutagens and such to change how he plays, but from the demo. It doesn't affect your ace in the hole button, the Lunge. So that could be easily dismissed.

The last little thing I have to mention is what appears to be hidden Quicktime events, and Cutscenes. You have a instant kill button, simply hold down Y on a damaged enemy and wolverine holds him up and you have to wait for his fist to glow before pressing Y and dispatching the enemy in a single blow; Quicktime Event. Something that I've never viewed as good gameplay, I'd rather just be able to hold Y and dispatch a enemy without having to time my thumb to the glow of a yellow fist. You also will find quicktime events along other things. I'll let you play the game but know that they are there. As well as tiny cutscenes that are very well hidden, this is a mixed bag for me. It's very nice to be able to watch wolverine plow though enemies left and right, but it doesn't have the same feel as being able to do it myself. At least it isn't a quicktime event, so I can forgive the game for letting us see wolverine do his thing without us having to worry about pressing X. I'm only letting this one pass because I do enjoy seeing wolverine fight and some of the events simply wouldn't be possible by swapping X and Y constantly.

- Presentation -

I'm not the world's biggest marvel fan. You can talk to me about all the X-men comics in the world and I'll just stare back with a blank look at your face. However from what I've seen in the movies, and what little comics I've seen (Practically nothing). I can say that if you had two claws you'll be putting them to use much like Wolverine does in this game. He aggressively dances around and kills his foes. What did surprise me was I knew it was a rated M title. But they really slap you in the face with that rating. When they said Mature, I was expecting to see enemies splurt out a ton of blood upon impact with claws. I wasn't expecting wolverine to... actually I won't spoil this one. Just know that limbs will fly.

Wolverine himself is based off hugh jackman. I've mentioned before that blow up a explosive barrel and yes, you will see his insides. What is very well done is that not only that, but give him a few seconds and you'll see him completely heal off the damage. This has been shown to us in the X-men movies and I've always thought it was well done there, now it's been well done here. There are many damages you can take, swords make giant cuts. Explosions fry off skin and muscle. So it's sorta fun to see the kind of damage wolverine has taken, and to watch him heal it off. Alot more fun than staring at a red bar of health go up.

I don't have alot of things to say about presentation, but I'm giving it big points because it presents itself VERY WELL as a marvel wolverine game. Quite well done.

Also, the enviroments are well done, nice. But it's nothing to call home about.

- Overall -

Colour me impressed. I'm likely going to pick up the full game and give it a review as well, I normally don't like beat them up. Or in this case, Dice'em'up. But as a wolverine fan I'm going to give this one the ol' college try. If I and yourself can stay away from overusing lunge it can make for a challanging and fun experience.

We'll see how the actual game stacks up, but the demo so far.

Gameplay 6/10

Presentation 8.5/10

Overall 7.5/10

I'm downloading it now. I'll give out my impressions tomorrow.

I'm outta here!! Goodnight, guys!

Wish i had XBL for my 360, damn wish there was wi-fi...

Enjoy guys.

This is one that I gave in on and preordered blind. Not gonna download the demo, and I am going to play the game through no matter how good or bad it is. Hell, I named my first born son Logan LoL

Well, 10 minutes in and so far my jaw is dropped on the epic amount of blood, gore, and guts so far I've seen.

For example, blow up a explosive barrel and take a look at logan's insides. It's fun.

hmm i wasnt even gonna give this a glance but Nightstriker is making a very convincing argument. Blood and guts and testosterone laden main character... Damn im a sucker

off topic:

I'm back. I'm downloading, but I played the PS3 Marvel vs. Capcom 2 demo too. I tried to play it. It's multi-player only, but the online doesn't work at all. Plus, I only have one controller. Thanks for NOTHING, Capcom!!

Besides the superficial blood and guts...is this game any good?

Alright, I've played though it twice and it's fairly short. So I figure now would be a adequate time to give impressions of the demo and of the direction of the game itself.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Demo

When all else fails, just kill everything infront of you in a blind rage.

- Introduction -

I'll keep this short and sweet, afterall. That's what the demo is, very short and what appears to be very sweet.

- Gameplay -

If you've ever needed the excuse to simply rush around and murder everything infront of you. You could play GTAIV. However, for marvel fans out there, Niko Bellic may seem very believable. But he isn't superpowered, enter Wolverine: Origins. The gameplay for Wolverine Origins is very simple, infact so simple you'll most likely forget there is a storyline and instead just play to run around and kill everything. Which this game delievers very wonderfully. You'll start the demo with a small cutscene of a Hugh Jackman wolverine killing things before you're dropped out of a helicopter ontop of a guy who you proceed to turn into a small pile of crushed bones and red goo. Then your surrounded and the slaughter begins. But remember, you cant' spell slaughter without laughter.

The controls are simple, and you've done them a million times before. X is weak attack, Y is strong attack, B is to Grab, and A is to jump. Then you've got your RB and LB which respectively targets and dodges/lunges. As with most games, doing combos like X, X, X, Y unleashes more powerful moves at your disposal and allows you to dice up your enemies in different ways. Which brings me to the first problem I've seen in the game.

The Lunge, I've discribed it before as using RB + LB. Target your enemy, wait for the green line to appear, hit LB and lunge at him. This move seemed to be your ace in the hole, you can use it at a distance to close the distance between you and your foe while dispatching him, you can use it at close range to also dispatch your foe. Get where I'm going at? A quick LB + Y lunge spelt instant death on normal difficulty. So instead of worrying about using any sort of combo attacks. Lunging around like some kind of animal was far, far more effective. Maybe that's the point?

Wait, are we playing X-men Origins: Wolverine, or X-Men Origins: Toad?

Aside from that, you have a tiny bit of customization with Wolverine. You can equip Mutagens and such to change how he plays, but from the demo. It doesn't affect your ace in the hole button, the Lunge. So that could be easily dismissed.

The last little thing I have to mention is what appears to be hidden Quicktime events, and Cutscenes. You have a instant kill button, simply hold down Y on a damaged enemy and wolverine holds him up and you have to wait for his fist to glow before pressing Y and dispatching the enemy in a single blow; Quicktime Event. Something that I've never viewed as good gameplay, I'd rather just be able to hold Y and dispatch a enemy without having to time my thumb to the glow of a yellow fist. You also will find quicktime events along other things. I'll let you play the game but know that they are there. As well as tiny cutscenes that are very well hidden, this is a mixed bag for me. It's very nice to be able to watch wolverine plow though enemies left and right, but it doesn't have the same feel as being able to do it myself. At least it isn't a quicktime event, so I can forgive the game for letting us see wolverine do his thing without us having to worry about pressing X. I'm only letting this one pass because I do enjoy seeing wolverine fight and some of the events simply wouldn't be possible by swapping X and Y constantly.

- Presentation -

I'm not the world's biggest marvel fan. You can talk to me about all the X-men comics in the world and I'll just stare back with a blank look at your face. However from what I've seen in the movies, and what little comics I've seen (Practically nothing). I can say that if you had two claws you'll be putting them to use much like Wolverine does in this game. He aggressively dances around and kills his foes. What did surprise me was I knew it was a rated M title. But they really slap you in the face with that rating. When they said Mature, I was expecting to see enemies splurt out a ton of blood upon impact with claws. I wasn't expecting wolverine to... actually I won't spoil this one. Just know that limbs will fly.

Wolverine himself is based off hugh jackman. I've mentioned before that blow up a explosive barrel and yes, you will see his insides. What is very well done is that not only that, but give him a few seconds and you'll see him completely heal off the damage. This has been shown to us in the X-men movies and I've always thought it was well done there, now it's been well done here. There are many damages you can take, swords make giant cuts. Explosions fry off skin and muscle. So it's sorta fun to see the kind of damage wolverine has taken, and to watch him heal it off. Alot more fun than staring at a red bar of health go up.

I don't have alot of things to say about presentation, but I'm giving it big points because it presents itself VERY WELL as a marvel wolverine game. Quite well done.

Also, the enviroments are well done, nice. But it's nothing to call home about.

- Overall -

Colour me impressed. I'm likely going to pick up the full game and give it a review as well, I normally don't like beat them up. Or in this case, Dice'em'up. But as a wolverine fan I'm going to give this one the ol' college try. If I and yourself can stay away from overusing lunge it can make for a challanging and fun experience.

We'll see how the actual game stacks up, but the demo so far.

Gameplay 6/10

Presentation 8.5/10

Overall 7.5/10