Going for the gore

Out of all the X-Men, Wolverine seems to always be one of the most neutered in just about every game he’s appeared in. It makes sense—Marvel arguably makes the most money from teens. Just look at the new movie. How can you make a Wolverine film and rate it PG-13? He has razor sharp adamantium claws, for god’s sake. The developers at Raven Software seemed to question the validity of that kind of decision as well when they decided to make the game for the film.

The result is that Wolverine probably gives us the most accurate representation of how Logan operates ever seen in a game. To put it plainly, they don’t skimp on the violence.

Remember how in all those other X-Men games over the years, Wolverine would just kind of scratch at enemies with his claws? Not this time. The claws are out for real this time and you can expect a lot of adamantium sliced limbs, decapitations and severed torsos. All I can say is, it’s about goddamn time.

Not that Raven is any stranger to graphic violence in games. They did the Soldier of Fortune series—the first-person shooter games infamous for the “injury points” on enemies that elevated the games from average to notorious with realistically disturbing levels of violence. You could, for example, blow half of someone’s face off with a shotgun blast and actually see the pieces of their bloody skull sticking out. Yuck.

Anyway, Wolverine is a little more conventional with its violence, à la God of War, which the game design closely mirrors. But for a movie game, this is pretty good stuff. Any game that opens with someone being stabbed through the head with a set of claws (through a wall no less) can’t be all bad, if only on a purely visceral level.

Aside from a Kratos-esque cadre of vicious attacks, Logan’s healing ability is actually in the game too. In fact, most of the time you’ll be running around in the tatters of a wife-beater with a gaping hole in your chest or side, or maybe bullet holes peppered over your arms and back.

Health regenerations happens in real time, and it’s a swell effect to see said horrific wounds heal and close themselves back up in a matter of seconds, but it would be even better if the graphics engine were just a little more polished.

Like Kratos’ adventures, the game’s combat can get repetitive if you play too long in one sitting and the boss fights usually come down to the same tactic of lunging and slashing away at their back. But kudos must be given to Raven for not just making a toned-down game to go with the toned-down film. Even with it’s flaws, Wolverine is all the better for it.