There is a pretty well-known formula in the works these days. A superhero movie comes out, and a game follows. Now, there are a couple outcomes. First, you have the Movie is Good/Game is Terrible outcome, and there is the Movie is Good/Game is OK outcome or you even have the dreaded Movie is Terrible/Game is Terrible. However, very rarely, if at all, do you see the Movie is Terrible/Game is Awesome outcome. Until now. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, based on the movie of the same name, tells the story of Wolverine. The game, however, delves deeper into the story of his life, which some people might not know. But, is this game worth shelling out the $60 for, or is it too dull compared to the claws everyone’s favorite claw-wielding kickass member of the X-Men?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine starts with a particularly cool cutscene in which Wolverine slices his way through some enemies. After this, you play through flashbacks of past events in Wolverine’s life. In particular, you play through his time in Africa under the command of William Stryker, along with his brother Victor Creed aka Sabretooth, John Wraith and Wade Wilson. From there, you slash and cut your way through lots and lots of enemies, from gun-wielding guerillas to African tribesmen. Without spoiling much more of the story, you play through different flashbacks in Wolverine’s life leading up to the events of the opening scene. You meet some characters, namely The Blog, Gambit and Mystique, and kill A LOT of people. You even get to experience the beginning of Operation Wideawake, which, for those familiar with X-Men, is the beginning of the Sentinels.

This game, unfortunately, is pretty much like any other hack-n-slash game. You run around, taking out enemies left and right as fast as you can to move to the next section. There is an occasional boss or puzzle, then you kill more people ... and that’s about it. You find yourself using the same combos over and over, and especially, Wolverine’s lunge attack. There were sections in the game in which I found it almost TOO easy, lunging from one enemy, killing them, lunging to the next, killing that one and doing so until all enemies in the area were dead.

I was quite impressed with this game graphically — very nice backgrounds, level design and character models. I was not impressed, however, with the recurring number of character models. You are always fighting the same enemies. How many giant Rock Monsters can there really be? How about six armed spear-wielding women? Really disappointing. One particularly cool feature in the game is the real-life damage Wolverine takes. Each hit from a knife, gun or explosion takes a toll on Wolverine’s body. I have literally been to the point where he was nothing more than an adamantium skeleton with a head. Then, as I got away from danger, his everything slowly began to regenerate. Very cool, though it doesn’t exactly save you from dying, because if your health bar fully depletes, you are forced to start over. The body damage just adds something that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is very big on: violence. This game is VERY violent and VERY bloody, so it may not be the best game to purchase if you don’t want a young child exposed to that sort of thing.

There are also some role-playing game features. As you play, Wolverine levels up, allowing you to allocate points into what you want him to have, whether it is faster regeneration or a higher tolerance to attacks. You also gain a variety of different attacks, such as the Claw Spin, which allows Wolverine to spin and tear apart all surrounding enemies, or Berserker mode, which makes him take less damage but dish out A LOT to enemies.

Is X-Men Origins: Wolverine worth $60? Personally, though I did have a lot of fun with it, I can’t say I would ever buy it, simply because it’s not really worth playing more than once, unless you REALLY enjoy hack-n-slash games. While the gameplay is good and slashing loads of enemies at a time can be quite satisfying, X-Men Origins: Wolverine can only be recommended to those who either really enjoyed the movie or really like the main character. Even with the cool alternate costume unlockables (Yellow/Blue Wolverine and Brown/Orange from older cartoons), I can’t really see playing through the game again. That plus the terrible Gambit level (trust me ... it’s really bad) and the LAME boss at the end, I can’t really recommend buying X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but it is definitely worth the rent — Bub.