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X2: Wolverine's Revenge Review
TVG Staff
22/04/2003
Although the game shows some neat ideas the lack of fundamental knowledge spoils the experience...
Why oh why do most X-Men games have to suck; I mean surely thereās not a better license out there suited for the high action nature of videogames?
X2: Wolverineās Revenge offers some great ideas but the reek of being rushed to cash in on the impending release of the movie sequel, will soon put off all but the most die-hard of X-Men fans.
Itās hard to understand where the games developers went so wrong; wisely recognising that Wolverine is the coolest character by far, weāre presented with a third-person action/adventure game which seems to āborrowā ideas from virtually every other game in this genre and mould them all into a convoluted mess.
As inevitable as it is for a publisher to release a tie-in to coincide the release of one of the years biggest blockbusters, itās certainly surprising to see that the game doesnāt stick too closely to the plotline offered in the film. Starting in 1968, players take control of Wolverine as he breaks out of the āProgram Xā and learns of the dormant Shiva virus that lies inside of him. Within a short time the game jumps forward to modern times as you learn that you have 48 hours to find the antidote before it kills Wolverine.
Unsurprisingly the game boils down to a typical third person action title, seeing players take on legions of drones, the occasional boss encounter and mindlessly switching control panels to open up locked doors.
Whilst the combat system displays some neat touches, the monotonous nature results in dreary fights and little excitement. Players have access to two types of standard attack, however to spice things up the developers have come up with the novel idea of stealth kills. OK itās not that bad and is one of the games strongest points; having knocked an enemy senseless, the word āSTRIKEā appears on screen, pressing the B button results in Wolvie finishing the opponent in spectacular style or delivering a fatal blow to a group of thugs. Itās a neat touch and certainly adds a degree of style to the fights, more importantly skilful play rewards the player with new and more ferocious attacks for Wolvie to perform.
The āSTRIKEā actions also feature heavily in the gameās stealth element. By pressing a shoulder button Wolverine awaken his mutant senses, the screen goes a funny sepia tone and strange glowing traces show players possible stealth kills that are available. Pulling off a stealth kill simple requires you to get close to your victim and (surprise surprise) hitting the B button when the word āSTRIKEā appears on-screen. The ability to see laser trip wires, the placements of mines and the vision of security cameras whilst in stealth mode is a nice touch, but ultimately this feature canāt lift the overall combat system.
Whenever Wolverine is hit in the game his āRage Meterā fills up, when the gauge is fully topped up Wolverine can run faster and punch harder for a short time. Unfortunately thereās no tactical edge to this feature because you canāt choose when to activate it and Wolvie canāt switch panels or enter stealth mode during this phase, so you tend to spend a large amount of your rage time waiting around for it to wear off!
Itās a shame that the lack of combat fundamentals spoils these noteworthy features. For starters the various opponents that youāll face have to rank as the dumbest Iāve seen in a long, long time. Having decided to run around a car to try and confuse an enemy, I was amazed to find the trick has worked and he disappeared to his normal position; another scene saw one opponent shooting at Wolverine whilst the other guard close by peered onwards without a single sign of recognition of the carnage going on, so seemingly unaware of the situation Wolverine strolled along and pulled off a stealth kill.
The actual fighting system is a bland mix of hitting the two attack buttons without any knowledge of whatās going on-screen, whilst hitting B whenever āSTRIKEā appears on screen; tell me if Iām wrong but does anybody actually enjoy this???
Unfortunately the lack of fundamental knowledge extends to the camera system, which puts up more of a fight then the games opponents; youāll find yourself having to wrestle with that second analogue stick to point it in the correct direction and try to get it unstuck from the scenery.
Visually the look of the game is bland, a definite by-product of the games multi-platform roots. Itās fair to say the Xbox version looks the best, but only marginally; textures lack any sense of detail and suffer from the dirty look most commonly attributed to Playstation2 titles. Whilst Wolverineās character model has been carefully created, pretty much of the entire other cast appear to have been created in five minutes, lacking any definition or style; Iām sorry but mindlessly whacking monotonous wave after wave off uninspired goons isnāt my idea of fun.
