X2: Wolverine's Revenge

"A jack of all trades and a master of none sporting a defective combat system"

I saw the commercials, I had some money, I was two more rentals away from getting a ten doller gift card and my sister was pestering me about it. So I said what the hell and rented it what with Enter The Matrix being out of stock. At first I wasn't sure what to think but now that it's all said and done I feel that despite it's few virtues it's left a sour aftertaste. Ok on to the review proper.

Graphics 7/10
They're servicible but ultimately nothing to be proud of, most areas are dull and unmemorible. Wolverine himself looks great and so do the other Xmen that appear and the Supervillians. However the enemy drones are extremely lame.

Story 9/10
Wolverine is terminally ill, cursed with a virus givin to all enhanced super soldiers like himself and the desease is bypassing his healing power. He has about 48 hours to live. Thusly he goes on a quest to find a cure and along the way he'll meet a bunch of old faces. The whole thing almost always stays in charicter and feels like something that would happen if the old tv show and the movies reproduced together. I say well done.

Control 7/10
While there's nothing wrong with the controls themselves Wolverine's clunky movements will get on your nerves.

Gameplay 5/10
You will be spending most of your time wandering confused through hallways and occasionally kicking an inferior's ass. Occasionally you'll engage in a very entertaining boss battle or sneaking around and killing guys before they even see you. These moments of gold however are tainted by the grim repetive/halfassed nature of most of the game or the pure garbage that is handling a Void droid or gun turret. Only rarely will this game feel good and you'll be tired of it two levels before the end if that late. The combat system is basicly this, guard fires at you so you punch him, guard drops his gun and tries to beat you up, you kick his ass using Wolverines two three move combos over and over, lather, rinse, repeat. Yes it's true, whenever you strike a guard he will drop his gun and rush you leaving behind the safety of his buddys. Later on the game will give you crazy ammounts of guards so that you'll get beat up. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Wolverines health regenerates whenever his claws are retracted, this means that you'll spend much of your time hiding from enemys for several minutes while your health recharges. BORING! Especially after the thrid time in the same fight as you attack a guard, draw him away from his friends, kill him and wait to be fit enough to do it all again. In multiman fights you can pull ''strikes'' which are just minicinimas that allow you to damage multiple enemys when they stand in the correct places, all it really is is an attempt to hide the shoddy combat system. These strikes can be upgraded by ''stealth striking'' guards which is basicly sneaking uop behind them and sucker punching them for their dog tags. It is very easy to die in this game and the later levels can take up to twenty minutes to beat, compounding this frustration factor is that there are no checkpoints and you have to start them completely over if you die. Also the last two levels are nothing but impossibly hard bosses that lack the fun factor of the earlyer ones. At this point you'll begin wondering why the other Xmen hate Wolverine so much they wont even help him in his darkest hour as you die over and over. Ultimately this game's gameplay just kinda sucks overall minus the few good bits.

Buy or rent?
Either rent or just don't bother.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/03, Updated 06/03/03