Wednesday, May 24 2006 @ 12:00 AM CDT
X-Men: The Official Game has hit our Xbox 360 and we have to admit we are disappointed. With so much hype leading up to this games release it’s hard to remind yourself that this is a movie based video game and odds are it was already destined for failure. The game has so much positive going for it from the writing, voice acting and marketing department this was one movie tie-in we thought might actually succeed.
With over 20 games under the X-Men franchise’s belt, X-Men: The Official Game is the first foray onto a next-gen system. The games script is written by the film's co-writer Zak Penn and adapted from a story written by comic legend Chris Claremont. X-Men: The Official Game hopes to fill in all the details of the events that occur between 2003's X2: X-Men United and The Last Stand, The Official Game and puts players in the role of team members Wolverine, Iceman, and Nightcrawler.
The tricky part is to keep playing through the entire game though sadly. The original gamble of only featuring three playable characters from the X-Men universe was done so to finely tune each characters controls and story. Sadly though this may be what ultimately breaks the potential success of the game.
Wolverines’ adamantium-infused claws were by far our biggest disappointment. Right away from playing him you can tell that you will be disappointed every mission you play as him. Going into the game I was really hoping Wolverine would be more then a button masher. I expected better control over him then hard punch, light punch, headbutts and round house kicks. Instead you will find yourself completing the same combos over and over and over…
The camera angles though are really what made me want to put down the controller. Often times when playing the camera will only show a limited amount of area for being a third person fighting game. Wolverine suffered worst from this as well due to his lack of ranged attack or speed in reaching his opponents. Often times when fighting as him the enemies felt over powered when they can lash you with an electric baton or shoot you from behind and take nearly half your health.
Though Wolverine does have the ability to heal himself you must either stand still and find some place far enough from enemies, or build up your fury meter to go into a turbo killing and healing mode. Neither is exciting as it sounds though sadly.
Often times I found myself having to find a safe spot and pull back various enemies just so they were safe enough to attack. On harder difficulties it is easy to find yourself at half health by the time you reach the flood of spawns you often face when playing as Wolverine.
Iceman also suffers from the camera’s problems. While flying on his sheet of ice you will often times find it difficult to move and aim at the same time. This is mainly because the same control used to aim your attacks also controls your movement. While flying and chasing after various enemies, this can become very clunky and overall feeling much unpolished.
Nightcrawler is the only glimmer of hope and is by far the most fun to play. His teleport ability eliminates any camera problems since you simply need to target an enemy, press the teleport button slam out a few hits and spam the teleport button once again. Of all three of the characters, he feels the most fluid. Though this may sadly be only because the camera and movement controls don’t get used much since he simply teleports anywhere he needs to go.
The games presentation will scare many off too. Though it does feature all the voice actors from the big screen, The Official Game’s cut scenes are delivered in a comic book style stills. Though the X-Men do come from the world of comics, this is the game that is supposed to accompany the movie. In the end I was expecting rendered cut scenes and though the comic strip does a good job of telling the games storyline, they just won’t appeal to anyone who is a fan of the movies and not the comic. Though some will be fans of the cut scenes, I was not.
There is no multiplayer to speak of in The Official Game, but the game does feature 1,000 achievement points for Xbox 360 owners. Though why three of the achievements offer zero points is beyond me. True, they are only for the training missions; it would have been nice to see them worth at least something. If you are planning to play this game for the point alone be sure to play the game on Superhero difficulty to obtain them all.
Overall I think the main problem was we wanted to love the game too much. Z-Axis’ biggest gamble in the end didn’t pay off. With only Nightcrawler as the sole playable character in X-Men: The Official Game it makes it difficult to suffer through Wolverine and Iceman’s missions only to play as Nightcrawler. While we all hoped for a great movie based game, it just isn’t here. Pick this game up in the form of a rental only if the game you really wanted is out of stock.
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