Wolverine cuts loose

Despite his own gruesome attacks, Wolverine takes it just as bad as he gives. During the demo we saw him get shot dozens of times, even point blank in the eye during the aforementioned opening. And then we saw it grow back, which was pretty gross/cool in its own right. Thanks to Logan's healing factor, he can get shot all day long and then, if given a few moments, he heals back from it good as new, save for some bullet holes in his shirt.

All this back and forth bloodletting looks pretty slick too, since the game works off Unreal 3 tech. As we watch a few gunshot wounds on Wolvie’s torso heal in real-time as he pays the guy back by cutting his arm off, we have to admire such nice graphical touches. Plus the rest of the area looks great as well, as we watched our hero going through a lush jungle background and later an underground compound. One particularly impressive bit of combat we witnessed was Wolverine jumping from truck to truck and killing fools, as a huge wave of water chases after all of them.

Our time with the game came to a close with a boss fight featuring the giant, purple robotic enemy of all mutants, the Sentinel. One of these behemoths is called out to take down the rogue Wolverine, and this multi-stage battle was slightly reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus and full of cool moments emphasizing Logan’s near indestructibility. For example, to mess up the Sentinel's flight he shoves his adamantium laced arm through the fan on the back to get the motor to break, while at the same time the flesh is hacked off his unbreakable skeleton.

The overall level of awesomeness we’ve seen so far from X-Men Origins: Wolverine is remarkable, given the fact that it's based on a movie, something the game doesn't distance itself from. Our hero is voiced by veteran Broadway star Hugh Jackman, doing a fine job in the role he's come to be famous for. We can't wait to play this title, which comes out alongside the film in May. Keep counting your X-genes till then, mutants.

Jan 12, 2009