I finally beat it. I can't say that it was a long journey, totally roughly 4 hours or so to complete it (albeit not at 100%, but pretty darn close to it). I'm not exactly a fan of movie tie-in games, hell for the most part I avoid them at all costs; it's almost a given they are a stinkbomb and a waste of time. Wolverine, however, left me pleasantly surprised.

To start, the graphics are great. Not photo-realistic great, but good enough that I let out a nice "Wow" the first time I saw it in full HD glory. The visceral tone of the game fit in great with the art style; I barely noticed the sometimes bland environments after they were stained with the blood of my foes. The use of flashbacks in the game brought me back to certain environments a few more times that I could have hoped for, although the developers did a good enough job of changing the mechanics of the game in those situations that it doesn't warrant any sort of points off. The ability to unlock new outfits is nice, but it kinda ruins it when the cutscenes don't match up with the outfit your wearing.


The lunge, one of the greatest moves in the game.

As I stated earlier, the gameplay element of the game is short. It would be even shorter if you didn't have to fight the same boss multiple times, which felt like a crutch towards the end of the game to make it artificially longer. The experience during those few hours was top notch; the controls were tight and responsive for the most part (a few of the jumping puzzles had some frustrating ends) which made combat a blast. Nothing beats the feeling of lopping off heads and arms, chopping people in half and impaling them on various spikes and feeling like you have full control over it. There is definitely a dark tone to the game and it really feels good to kick some ass after a hard day.

The game isn't exactly "hard" either. Sure, there are some frustrating parts, but for the most part you just breeze through it. For those looking for a challenge, look elsewhere. The Hard difficulty is unlocked after you beat it on Normal, but in all honesty I didn't feel the urge to replay the game again. I'm sure someone will be able to comment on how tough the game is on the harder difficulty.



Overall, it's tough to recommend this game for $60. Yes, it is an excellent game, but the lack of real replay value and short campaign length leave me torn. For now I'd say it's best left as a rental; once the price drops, I'll be recommending it to everyone I know.

Overall Score: 4 out of 5