Guest Article: Wolfenstein, Prototype, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine Preview

Halcylon not only had the pleasure of attending last weekend’s New York Comic Con (an annual fan convention dedicated to comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television) but he also found himself enjoying some hands-on time with Wolfenstein, Prototype, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (video games which are all expected to release this year) at Activision’s private pre-New York Comic Con party. If you didn’t have the chance to personally preview these games, you can join me in living vicariously through Halcylon as he shares his experiences with each of these games. That lucky bastard.

Thursday night was the night of Activision’s private invitational party. On the menu were Wolfenstein, a much-anticipated Prototype, and the unheard of Wolverine game based off of the upcoming movie. First things first, I was drinking so my perception may have been a bit off, but I stand by my previews of these games. Let’s start with Wolfenstein.

I was able to spend time with two of Wolfenstein’s developers for most of the time I played and they were kind enough to show me “stuff they can’t show anyone else”. Yeah right! The game, however, plays pretty smooth for an Alpha stage. As a WWII first-person shooter, the game draws on Medal of Honor and Call of Duty as a backbone for weapons, locations, user interface, and the pesky Nazis. The style of the game is similar to all the other games you’ve played thus far. We opened the demo in a train station clearly overrun by the Axis henchmen and found ourselves amidst a team of freedom fighters blasting their way in – or out of – the train yard. When we got too close to the train, one of the developers told us to unload on a train car… and so we did. This is where Wolfenstein became a completely different game from any other WWII game – save for Resistance. The train burst into a blue misty glowy powder and all hell broke – literally – loose. At first, I thought I broke the game (which is common in betas and alphas), but what I found was this train was transporting some sort of experiment and the next thing I knew Nazis were floating in zero gravity all over. It was “much fun times” to kill Nazi bastards while they were in midair!

That being said I can’t say much else on how the game plays. I really didn’t play it to its full potential. Then again, maybe I did. But across the bar from Wolfenstein was a game I have been waiting to play: Prototype. Seeing only stills of the game in magazines so far, I had no idea how the game actually played. This gave me a bigger advantage than most gamers who have seen it because I found some shortcomings that came with the gritty Gear’s graphics and Assassin’s Creed style running around.

Have you ever had that dream where you are confronted with a fight, but every punch you throw is like being underwater? That is how Prototype played to me. For all of the main character’s assets – and, according to the producers and people humping my ear about this game, there are hundreds of combos and upgrades – the game plays and feels sluggish and awkward. I’ll try to elaborate but that’s kind of like describing the color green to a blind person. During my playing of an open sandbox New York Times Square, I never threw a punch because I was constantly using my morphed hands to spike people, leap high into the air and elbow drop cars, or run up building sides to the top of a 50-story skyscraper. I was able to lift cars over and lob them, drive my hand into the ground and cause massive ground spikes to impale my enemies or pedestrians, and glide over three blocks at a time from a running jump, but I was unable to find what was missing. I guess it could be a ranged weapon of sorts or a better lock on target system, but the game felt thick. That’s the best word I can use to describe it. I mentioned that to the guy in my ear a few times, but who knows if they cared.

What I was really there for was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, however. Now, when I told you about the first two games, I have to admit that my mind was wandering to the brain cells that remembered playing Wolverine. This was so much fun to play. Holy shit, what a craptasticles good time. Within the first few minutes of this game I asked Mr. Activision, “So, you’re not worried about ESRB rating, huh?” Reason: The opening to the first level we played – which is most likely the first level of the game – involves a skydiving scenario that makes you avoid gunfire and missiles until you land, claws first, on a waiting soldier. After you finish your “ZOMG’s!” about that, you quickly realize that you are actually still playing and that the camera was just doing a dramatic “pause-for-gore” moment which never, EVER, gets old.

Between the startling graphics and fluid movements you’re quick to forget that there are baddies charging at you, but that’s about as far as they get. To say there are a few ways to kill a man is an understatement. As Wolverine, you can explore the finer moments of ending random grunts lives with six retractable bone claws, regenerating health, and a bad attitude. I would say that I’ve never wanted to drive claws into a man’s throat and tear downwards, but that didn’t take away from the fun of doing that over and over and over again. What I described as an artful way to play video games is what makes this game amazingly fun to play. You have unlimited variations and combinations of moves, stabs, grabs, and a lock on dive-at-you action that’s… that’s just the best… holy crap that move is awesome.

Between mini-bosses and grunts, the game feels like you would expect. Fight a horde of eight guys while two snipe you only to have a mini-boss appear, then a quick puzzle, then more head ripping, blood flowing fun. And boy did the blood flow. I really was shocked to see it, and truth be told I doubt this game will get sold in Australia (sorry Omicent and Pezza) but the way I pulled a helicopter pilot out of his cockpit and lifted his head up into the blades just screams “no go, mate.”

What I took away from this? A completely free-flowing game that allowed me a sense of ranged weapons (using the dive-at-you-awesome-superwicked-move), a defensive counterattack system, and a story that should be more on par with the comics than the movie franchises. We talked briefly over unlockables such as costumes (and yes, if you are a Wolvi fan your favorites are there) and expandable content. There is no hope for multiplayer as of right now, but a time-trial mode may be present in the final edition.

All night we played and played and played, and I never got tired of Wolverine’s first stage. It’s immersive, graphically superior, and with Hugh Jackman growling the whole way, it’s as real and cannon as it gets.

-by Halcylon