Genre: blah
Developer: GenePool Software
Publisher: Activision
Released On: April 16th, 2003
# of Players: 1
ERSB: Teen
Only Redeemable Feature: Free X2 movie ticket

Introduction

If you’re a male and above the age of say…. 7 years old, chances are you know who Wolverine is. Or Weapon-X, or Logan, whatever you want to call him. Wolverine is the textbook comic book character and ranks right alongside characters like Spider-Man and Superman in terms of greatness and recognition.

That being said, Wolverine is long overdue his own adventure, something worthy of his name. Included in countless X-Men titles sprawled across every console imaginable from the NES to the GameGear to the Saturn, Wolverines only had a couple solo adventures and they were not up to par with the other X-Men titles. Activision, responsible for the surprisingly playable Spider-Man titles, but also responsible for the average at best “Mutant Academy” series, which reared its ugly head on PSX just in time for the release of X-Men: The Movie, and has continued its mediocrity on the PS2.

Titled X2: Wolverines Revenge, the game itself is about just that, Wolverines revenge. The game opens up with Logan just wakening from a sleep and remembering nothing, only having vague visions and flashbacks of what has gone on while he was asleep. Coming to in a facility ran rampant with freak mutants and armed guards, Logan is hunting down the doctor he recognizes in his visions to uncover exactly why he’s there and why he has metal claws protruding from his fists. Eventually he learns he is part of an experiment and like every experiment, his contains a safety flaw: deep inside Logans body is a time released virus so powerful not even his rapid mutant healing ability can save him from it. At any given time the virus will turn active, Wolverine will become ill and his body will quickly cease to function. The solution? Return to Canada, return to the place of your earliest memories, discover exactly what went wrong and here the antidote is for your virus. If there is an antidote….

Graphics/Sound

X2’s graphics are very much inconsistent. The game obviously uses an enhanced version of the Spider Man engine, which means character models are good, the environments are nicely detailed and the animation is top notch. On the other hand, the textures are pure crap, the game has slowdown problems as well as horrible collision detection, and the loading times are horrible. Does it interfere with the gameplay? At times, yes. However if you can overlook the graphics problems, you might enjoy the rest of the game.

Sound wise, X2 is great compared to most other action titles. Patrick Stewart is here to voice Professor X, and Mark “Jesus I can’t act” Hamill is onboard as Logan. Why no Hugh from the movies? Oh well. Stewart and co. end up doing a pretty good job with the voice acting. Other than that and a few good special effects, the game is average at best in the sound department. The music is almost non-existent and mediocre when it shows up. You’ll only care about two things while playing this game: the voice acting and the “sssshhhhrrreeekk” sound your claws make coming out.

Gameplay

Speaking of claws, they play a huge role in the game. Everyone knows Wolverine has his claws and his mutant healing. Activision decided to mix things up by only allowing your mutant healing to work when your claws are not out. It comes with pros and cons. On the pro side, it adds a little depth and strategy to a pretty by-the-books action title. On the other hand though, it makes regaining health become a real chore real quick. Other games have tried similar methods of healing before, most recently Sony’s The Getaway, where gamers had to lean on walls to regain health. While X2’s healing process is definitely different, you heal pretty slow and it breaks up the pace of the game far too often. There are health vials spread around the levels as well, but as your progress and the vials get less and less frequent, you’ll have to rely on this boring healing method far too often.

Claws and mutant healing are nice, but they aren’t the only aspects of Wolverines mutation that was tapped for this game. Wolverine also has animal-like instincts and senses, including eyesight and smell. One tap of the L2 button sends you into “mutant sense mode”, where you can see enemies easier and tell locations of all sorts of things including body heat and land mines. It’s also great for pulling off stealth kills, which is one aspect where X2 actually shines. Not many action games can promote nonstop action and stealth at once, but X2 does a pretty nice job of it. When you’re sneaking up on someone, when you get to certain spots around their bodies, “strike” icons will appear on the screen. Press the strike button and cream your pants as you see Wolverine act out an over the top, aggressive kill move. If you’re in the mutant sense mode, you’ll see a ghost of Wolverine lunging towards an opponent to begin a strike move. Move to where the ghost is and if you keep the act of surprise on your side, you’ve got an easy kill.

The basic gameplay is nothing you haven’t seen before. You start out, kill a few bad guys, flip a switch, kill, switch, kill, cut scene, boss battle. It’s nothing new. But fans of the X-Men universe have plenty to like here, including a story that’s faithful to the comic books, and cameos by plenty of X-Men favorites, including Sabretooth, Juggernaut, Professor X, Magneto, Wendigo, among others. Being a fan of the comics will not help gamers overcome this games many, many flaws.

For starters, as I already mentioned, the collision detection is absolutely horrible. What makes matters worse are sluggish controls and one of the worst cameras I have ever seen. There are far too many times where you are out of the action because the collision detection is either so horrid that you aren’t hitting an enemy 2 feet in front of you, or the control is so bad you can’t hit an enemy 2 feet in front of you, or the camera is so horrible and out of place you can’t see an enemy 2 feet in front of you. Also, as much as the game deserves merit for staying true to the comics, it also deserves criticism for some of the omissions. There are plenty of awesome bad guys Wolverine could face in this game, but all you get are typical drone military dudes. And they’re always military dudes, because that’s basically ALL you fight in. No forests, streets or mutant schools. Military bases. Get used to them.

Another huge flaw is the enemy AI. During the first act, Sabretooth chases you throughout the levels, handing your ass to you each time he catches you. Eventually you meet up with him and it’s time for the big battle. Wanna know what beats him? Simply jamming on the kick attack button. That’s all. You’ll wear his health down and eventually he’ll be ready for the “strike” move. Wasted potential. Very lame, very boring.

Overall

X2 is not a game I can recommend for anyone, including die hard Wolvie fans. The graphics and sound are good enough, but the gameplay just bites, big time. There’s no variety at all here, whether you’re looking at levels, enemies, moves, nothing. The game comes complete with quite a few big problems, such as slowdown, camera issues, collision detection problems, among others, and in the end the game simply isn’t worth playing through. A 2 player mode or more extras would’ve help immensely, but as it stands this game hardly earns a rental.

The Good
+ Free ticket to see the X2 movie
+ Cool characters and story
+ Good voice acting

The Bad
- Horrible, horrible camera
- Uninspired gameplay and enemies
- Unbalanced boss AI
- Mediocre control
- Collision detection belongs in a 16 bit game