Many events in one’s life can later be looked back upon and a lesson be learned from them, thus allowing us to improve ourselves and become better people. Sometimes, after the fact, we can see the wisdom in the advice that was given to us at the time, whether it is the old sage that bestowed upon us his years of knowledge, wisdom, and experience; or the friend that showed us the error of our ways. But, as is common, we shirk this insight bestowed upon us and, more often than not, we proceed unphased by the knowledge given to us. Such was my experience with X2: Wolverine’s Revenge. Against my friend’s advice, and even my own better judgment, I could not resist.
The story in X2: Wolverine’s Revenge is a fairly simple one. The plot starts out in the old days, when Wolverine escaped from Weapon X. The purpose of starting way back then is only for one vital piece of information that the whole plot revolves around: Logan is going to die. That’s right, buck-o! The boys at Department H weren’t complete idiots; they were smart enough to have a virus released into Wolverine in the event of his escape. With a normal person, this virus wouldn’t take too long to kill them… but, naturally, a normal person doesn’t have Wolverine’s healing factor. So, upon reentering normal time continuity, Beast then concludes that Wolverine has 48 hours to get a cure for this virus before it finally, after so many years, kills him. From here on out, the game is relatively mindless in the plot department, offering a bunch of fairly predictable encounters that will try to stop you from achieving your goal. Still, with the right gameplay… even that little of a plot can prove to be a good game.
But, good gameplay would be far too much to ask here. While playing one has to wonder, “Had the game makers ever read the comics? Do they have any idea who Wolverine is?” There’s two main ways you can play this game: stealthily or as a raging ball of fury that we all know and love. While Wolverine does sometimes do both of these, there has to be a balance, never have I seen such a pansy wolverine as in this game. This is mostly due to the much expected ridiculously slow healing factor (I’m talking post Wolverine #75 speed healing factor (but such is common with Wolverine in video games). This greatly reduces your ability to go all out and destroy a room full of enemies. The all-out enemy destruction is also tempered by the fact that if your timing is slightly off, an average goon can give you the beating of a lifetime. And dare I mention how few ways there are to hit a crouched enemy? That’s right, a crouching enemy will haunt your dreams forever, and while they’re crouching and kicking your ankles, you’ll see your perfect form as you create cyclic winds above them.
So, with the only chance of survival being that you creep in unnoticed and pretend to be Solid Snake or Sam Fisher, Wolverine is reduced to simply a puny short guy with claws. Yet stealth can be fun, and it’s not too far-fetched for Wolverine to sneak around every once in a while. So, upon accepting this fate, your experience will be a mixed one. There will be the occasional highlight, when you sneak up on someone and perform a very stylish kill(which later gets really old as there are very few different stealth kills that you can do), but likewise there will be the low points, when you’re approaching a corner, and then for no reason whatsoever Wolverine “detaches” from the wall he was clinging, and pops out into view of his prey, thus destroying all the stealth you worked so hard for. What’s more is that you will latch on to a wall that isn’t even there. That’s right, boy-o, Wolverine will be hugging walls that don’t even exist.
When you amplify all the woes that you’re already experiencing with combat and stealth by the extremely clunky controls leading me to wonder if they even spent half a day porting this game to PC. Fortunately, the game does support mouse look; unfortunately, the highest speed still requires excessive lifting of the mouse just to turn a mere 45 degrees. Lucky for us they do allow you to use the arrow keys to control the camera, which will become your new favorite pastime in the long battle to defeat the camera man who must be falling asleep on the job. Who can blame the cameraman for falling asleep though? The graphics are certainly not enough to keep him awake. Sure, Wolverine’s Revenge doesn’t have the worst graphics, but the quality can most certainly be compared to early PS2 graphics featuring everything from clunky models to bad character textures. The best looking part of the game is the environments, but even those leave something to be desired. You’ll be happy to be able to switch which costume Wolverine wears as you collect comic covers that unlock the different costumes, though, on the downside, the bland textures hardly do any of the costumes justice (especially the classic brown style).
The sound is, by far, the highlight of the game. While Wolverine’s Revenge features the voice of Patrick Stewart as Professor X, who sounds just like he did in the movie (surprise surprise), the list of familiar voices ends there. Mark Hamill provides the voice of Logan, which is a little odd at first, but, his voice does kind of grow on you over time. Overall, the music is somewhat lacking, and when it is there, it tends to be the same goofy song (or a variation thereof). As such, though the audio might be the highlight, that’s not saying much.
Wolverine’s Revenge is something of a tragedy. It is a game hindered by far more than just bad graphics; controlling “the X-Men’s most dangerous weapon” is far from fun, and borders on infuriating. Sadly, I can’t recommend this game to the average gamer. As far as the Marvel/X-Men fanboys out there go, all that this game will do for you is look nice in your collection. If you’re seeking some sort of satisfaction, it will not be found here.
