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Don't shy away from X-Men Origins: Wolverine just because you went and did something foolish like saw the movie. This game is one of those rare creatures: the movie adaptation that is far better than its source. Welcome to the teeny, tiny club.
Wolverine joins the ranks of the very best X-Men gaming experiences, with its only peers being the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Legends, and Marvel vs. Capcom series. As a Wolverine experience, it has no equal. I challenge you to find another game which gets you closer to inhabiting the adamantium skeleton. The challenge has ended. You have failed.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine does follow the movie's storyline to a certain degree, but it is tolerable, especially the amount of time you spend mercilessly wailing on Gambit's dumb ass. Most of the time, though, what you're doing has nothing to do with the movie. You're better off considering this as a true Wolverine game and not as a movie adaptation. Of course there's plenty of relentless killing, but there are also some pretty decent puzzles thrown in. Boss fights are always compelling, including a fight against a charging Blob in a grocery store. The story mode (there is no multiplayer here) isn't a 20 hour experience, but unlockables make a replay or two worthwhile.
To unlock new costumes for Hugh Jackman (sorry, nothing from his Broadway career), you must first collect an assortment of Wolverine figures hidden throughout the game. Once you've collected enough of the figures outfitted with a specific costume, you can opt to enroll in a challenge to unlock that costume. In order to unlock it for yourself, you must first, as Wolverine, defeat a Wolverine wearing that costume. You're no match for the AI Wolverine until you pick up some upgrades, though.
Upgrades are linked to an RPG-like system. The more kills you rack up, the more XP you earn, the quicker you level up. After leveling up, you receive points you can use to purchase new abilities or upgrade the ones you already have. Special moves, like whirling around in a Cyclone with claws bared, are plentiful. There are also the requisite health boosts, regen boosts, rage boosts, and so on. Rage, orbs you absorb from each fallen enemy, fills a meter in your HUD. You can unleash your Rage to enter a temporary mode in which you kill quickly, brutally, and without any damage to yourself. The slicin' and dicin' is beautiful, and the only trace you leave is a trail of your dead.
If you missed them as a preorder bonus, Activision has released the four simulator rooms as DLC. under the name Weapon X Arena. The Custom Combat Arena allows you to fight against any combination of enemies you set up. The Ladder Challenge (similar to Gears of War 2's Horde mode), features 50 increasingly difficult waves of enemies. The Environmental Simulator allows you to use any interactive element from the game (big spikes for impaling, big trees for impaling, etc.) against spawning enemies. Finally, The Dismemberment Room lets you pick which parts of a soldier you want to see dismembered, and severing commences for your viewing pleasure.
This game may not cause a revolution in game design, but it does everything perfectly. It also has that X-factor (no super-lame pun intended) that no one can really put a finger on. There are plenty of games like this that are technically perfect, but few that make you feel so powerful and draw you in so deeply. Wolverine lacks the critical claim of, say, Braid, and for that it hasn't gotten the ratings it should have (a Metacritic average of 75 does not constitute excellence in our industry). But you will not find a game released so far this year that is more fun and elicits more pure joy, and in my book, that's what gaming is all about.
Yay! You ARE Wolverine. Plenty of unlockables and upgrades. Satisfying, brutal kills--and so many ways to execute them.
Nay! Flashbacks of spending $12 to see Wolverine lose his memory after being shot with an adamantium bullet are imminent.
For those of you who really hate reading, or only learned to read numbers: 9/10
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This is the definitive Wolverine video game. After the first time you lunge halfway across the screen at your enemy you'll be hooked.