X2: Wolverine's Revenge

"Spider Man was good this is great."

The Game:

Anyfan of the X-Men usually think of Wolverine as the best of the bunch and are really excited about this release. I pre ordered the game and was very excited about playing it. You are brought back to when you were first abducted and genetically altered back in the 60's in Canada then you are forwarded to the current time where the virus that was put in you is now become active and your regenerating powers are not able to hold it back. You go back to the where it all began in search of the cure and you have 48 hours before it is to late. In the game you can also find extra's like comic books where you can learn about the history of Wolverine narrated by Patrick Stewart.

The Controls:

I first thought this game as going to be based on fighting but they added a really good stealth engine. You can use your gentetic animal abilities to look for heat traces off your enemies and also to smell them. You can follow there foot prints or there odours this is done by holding the trigger.
The attacks are varied you have several combos and special attacks. The special attacks depend on where your enemies are and depending you can do a varied special attack. As you progress you level up your attacks giving you stronger attacks. As you fight and are hit your feral meter rises and you can activate this which puts you in a rage where your attacks are greatly increased. The feral attack will automatically cut in if your meter hits the max level. You can regenarate your health only when your claws are not extracted.

The Sound:

Here is where I think they did a superior job. The voice overs are done by Patrick Stewart (Star Treck) and Mark Hamil (Luke Skywalker) this is really top notch voices. You also have the option of putting on your custom sound track which is a real high light fighting to nine inch nails is fun.
The voice overs really give you a real story like feeling to the game.

The Gameplay:

Here is where I think the game could have used a bit more work. The stealth is great but there are problems where if you are hugging a wall you will pass the wall and be stuck in air where it becomes difficult to go back to unstealth mode. There is also the difficulty of the camera angle at times. The game can also be easy if you just go in and attack and not use the stealth attacks. However they do add bonuses in the form of dog tags each time you do a stealth kill these allow you to open up unlockables.

The Graphics:

The graphics are good, the best of the three but not quite as good as they could have been. The attacks are animated and look good. The cut scenes are also very good giving you a real story feel. The characters are here Sabretooth, Beast, Prof X and gang. Going to stealth mode is pretty cool following heat foot prints and the odours of your enemies. The stealth attacks are done nicely with very nice animations. Destructible enviroments and being able to use them in attacks are also nice.

OverAll:

With a bit more polishing Wolverines Revenge would have been a 10 an easy 9 at least. As it stands it is still a good dame that is definitely worth a purchase. With mutli player the replayability would have been top notch but you got to use what you get.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/20/03, Updated 04/20/03