Sorry about that, I just need a drink. Not
because it’s Canada Day, but I kind of need it for this game (sorry for
stealing the AVGN’s Rolling Rock schtick here). Otherwise, there’s just no help
for me. You may have noticed in the past that most of the games that have
failed have been 2D. In my mind, it’s harder to recognize a bad game in 3D over
one in 2D. In 2D, it’s simple and when something doesn’t work, it’s pretty
clear it should. In 3D, we seem to have a bit of leniency because it’s more
complex. Well, today’s game doesn’t have even the semblance of competence.
Here’s… *sighs and drinks from bottle* here’s X-2: Wolverine’s Revenge for the
Microsoft XBox.
I’m among the minority of fans of the X-men
movies in that X-2 falls pretty low on my ranking list. That being said, this
doesn’t cause a bias for me since it has NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. As a matter of
fact, this game seems to have more to do with X-men Origins: Wolverine (oh
yeah, I went there). At least for the start. Later they just start throwing any
random thing from the X-men universe at the player, without regard of what was
previously established or how well they fit with the tone of the game. Yeah,
Juggernaut and Magneto are two of the most well-known X-foes, but they don’t
need to be in EVERY GAME. The tone just doesn’t work as the story feels like a
mish-mash of other plots. It actually made more sense once I changed Wolverine’s
costume to the Brown and Yellow comic book one, as THAT has an excuse to be
silly.
It’s obvious that the developer GenePool
Software (under Publisher Activision) had a really hard time balancing this
game… because it isn’t. First off, Wolverine has a healing factor. This sounds
like it would make the game pretty easy: just wait and heal, right? Well not
really. To counteract this, most anything can kill Logan quickly and cheaply.
Many times you will get knocked down easily and stand back up only to get
knocked back down again (like a reverse Thubthumping). To be fair, part of the
game is meant to be played out as a stealth mission and you get bonus points
when you avoid fighting. Yeah, because that’s what you think about when you picture
Wolverine, right? Muscles pumping, claws out, healing factor angry mutant ready
to AVOID FIGHTING!
I guess I should be grateful that there is
an easier way to do things, because fighting is a pain in the ass. Beyond the
whole “repeated knocked down” thing, hit detection and button response can be a
little iffy. To be fair, it’s not terrible, but it’s nowhere near where it
should be and makes fights harder than they need to be. Often it leads to
frustration or feels just plain cheap. These don’t compare to the boss fights
though, where, while you’re fighting against the controls, they ask you to do
specific strikes at specific times. It doesn’t work, and near the end they can
instantly kill you for this!
Even adventuring around levels without bad
guys can be annoying, as stages can be big and confusing. Stage hazards can be
as annoying as enemies and it can be unclear on what you need to do, even when
you know where you need to go. You do have a feral sense to help you track down
enemies or see where you need to go, but they messed that up to, as there is no
way of knowing the difference between coming and going! I’ve even turned a
corner to sneak on one henchman, only to be greeted by 6 others in eye line
that my senses didn’t let me know about. Nothing ever feels fair in this game.
X-2: Wolverine’s Revenge is simply a terrible
experience full of frustrations. The start may not seem bad (boring but regular
action adventure stuff) but as the game tries to be more “difficult”, it just
magnifies the blunders. Basically, when you start at the bottom, the only way
you can go lower is to dive into a sewer or go to hell. In order to beat this
game, I required so many walk throughs, FAQs and videos just to make sure I
wasn’t an idiot and trying to do the wrong thing (though playing this game is doing
one big wrong thing), so beating it didn’t feel like an accomplishment at all.
Same goes for the story, it seems really pointless and confusing, so you end up
not really sure what was accomplished in terms of the narrative either. Oh, and
it looks terrible too. Bottom line, this game was a real disappointment and it
mostly just provides frustrations; avoid it. I give X-2: Wolverine’s Revenge
for the xBox 2 levels out of 10.
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