Game #1192: X-men Origins - Wolverine Uncaged Edition

 The one in which they massacred Deadpool. 

 Wolverine Origins was a garbage movie, and yet... X-men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Editions quickly earned its place as one infamous licensed game, thanks to how gory it is. The developers were just flexing when they came out with all sorts of damage to Wolvie, that could even expose his bones, and you get to watch it regenerate in real time. It's glorious.

 Sadly, while it does its own thing and follows its own plot... it seems it was turned into a movie tie-in later in its life, as they do take some beats from the movie. Hugh Jackman reprises his role, as does Sabertooth's actor. Half of the story is told via flashbacks to a jungle mission, and the other half after Wolvie gets his bones coated in Adamantium. You can try to follow the plot, but it's an exercise in futility, as it never makes much sense and some things are poorly explained. Oh, and the Baraka-Deadpool idiocy is in this game.

 Thankfully, the game itself is a blast to play. It's a hack and slash action game, you get your mandatory weak and strong slashes, which can obviously be mixed together to perform different combos, there's a grab button and then there are four special abilities that can be used by holding down R2 and pressing any of the face buttons, at the cost of some Rage Energy. The game is deliciously brutal, as Wolvie regularly maims and dismembers enemies with his claws. The grab button can also be used to perform executions if you are close to a spike or something of the sort. You also get a pretty fun Lunge attack, by holding down R1 and pressing L1 to leap towards your enemies.

 Combat is very loose, but fun, akin to God of War, as there's no lock-on, and aerial combos are pretty limited. That said, the game has too many giant enemies, in the form of Magma Golems(What the hell??) and "prototype Wendigos". They are boring to fight, as most of the time you have to wait for them to lower their guards, lunge on top of them and mash square, usually a minimum of three times each.... making them repetitive and, honestly, not very entertaining.

 As you defeat enemies you earn XP which can then be used to power up different attributes: Maximum Health, Maximum Rage, Attack Damage as well as passive enhancements to your Rage movies. Exploration is rewarded with Dog Tags, which grant you bonus XP, Mutagens, which grant you passive benefits and you can equip up to three at a time, and Wolverine Action Figures, which lets you unlock three different costumes: The classic Yellow and Blue, the old brown and orange as well as the Black and Grey X-Force costume. They are alright, but I don't think they fit the more realistic look the game went for. That said, the character-model damage applies to them too which was pretty cool.

 This is a game that would probably not come out now, as Disney is trying to keep a squeaky clean image with their Marvel properties, which sucks as this game proves that their licenses could be used in so many other ways. It also helps that the game is a blast to play, as the developers understood what the Wolverine fantasy is all about. And they nailed it. 

 8.0