Gaming Target - GameCube: X2: Wolverine's Revenge

Written by Jeff Milligan on April 03, 2003

Final Glimpse: He's imitating Wolverine's berserker attack with his adamantium claws. ЕI would have never guessed.

Wol╖ver╖ine - A solitary, burrowing carnivorous mammal of northern forest regions, related to the weasel and having a heavyset body, short legs, dark fur, and a bushy tail. Add a skeleton made from adamantium steel and 3 razor sharp claws on each hand and you've got our hero. Well, maybe except for the bushy tail part. Being one of the X-Men's most popular and savage members, most people probably don't need the full description of Wolverine. Yet even the most die-hard of Wolvie fans might not know the entire story to his life.

Every X-Men fan knows how Wolverine got his mutant powers by now. A secret organization brainwashed James Howlett (Wolverine, a.k.a. Logan) a couple decades ago and placed a virtually unbreakable adamantium steel skeleton into his body. Nothing new, right? What you may not know is that a deadly virus was also implanted in Wolverine at the same time. Time is running out, as in 48 hours the virus will put down even someone as tough as Wolverine. The only way it can be stopped is by finding the antidote, which means returning to the one place that Wolverine fears, the site of his unwanted operation, Alkali Lake.

Of course, going up to Alkali Lake isn't going to be a stroll through the park. Wolverine will undoubtedly be facing lots and lots of enemies on his trek to understand his past, which means he's going to bring a few attacks and abilities along for the ride. Naturally, Wolverine will be able to unleash devastating claw attacks as normal, but he'll also be able to utilize counter-attack methods. Also, if Wolverine manages to get badly injured, you'll get to witness his more animalistic side. When hurt, Wolverine goes into a mode called Feral Rage, which grants him even more strength and ferocity to deal with his foes.

If you know anything about Wolverine, you know that he isn't the most graceful of fighters. Usually his tactics deal with jumping right into the middle of a giant brawl and taking on anyone who throws themselves at him. This may be the case most of the time, but X2 will also call for times when Wolverine has to be a bit more cautious. This is why Wolverine will be able to go into Stealth Mode. Stealth Mode will enable Wolverine to sneak past guards and security systems, granting you the ability to infiltrate areas which would have been off-limits to Logan before.

Besides his indestructible skeleton and attitude, Wolverine also possesses the ability to heal himself. For anyone who went to see the movie X-Men, you got a chance to witness this unique skill first hand. Blows which would be fatal to normal human beings are no more than scratches to Wolverine. This ability will prove to be a great asset during your journey, but it must be used at the right times to be useful. Healing yourself can only be implemented when your claws are retracted, so hacking apart enemies and healing yourself at the same time isn't going to fly. Luckily, using stealth mode may just give you the time you need to put your claws away and bring your life back up to speed.

Logan's animal side is represented once again, this time turning up his senses a notch or two. Our description of wolverines at the beginning of the preview didn't mention anything about heightened senses, but you can be sure this Wolverine has them. In fact, they will play a big role in the gameplay. Using his superior eyesight, hearing, and smell, Wolverine will be able to track enemies, follow footsteps, discover buried landmines, view infrared sensors, or even listen in on enemy conversations. Again, this ability comes with a price. Using his superior senses not only slows down your movements, but also burns your energy, so like healing yourself, they will have to be used at the right time to prove effective.

The sound department has scored a very professional voice-actor for Wolverine in Mark Hamill. Usually I'd go into detail of what Mr. Hamill is famous for, but if you don't know who Mark Hamill is you should be shot. It's an odd choice by Activision to use Hamill for the voice of Wolverine, as he doesn't have the crunch in his voice that we've grown to know Wolverine by. Hopefully they'll put Mark on some steroids or something to lower his voice so Wolverine doesn't turn into a wuss on us. Patrick Stewart also makes an appearance in X2: WR, voicing his usual role in Professor Xavier.

On your quest to put your past to rest, Logan will be traveling through a total of 6 different worlds, equaling 23 levels in all. This calls for some heavy duty background design, and so far it looks like we have just that. In what screens and movies of the game we have so far, there appears to be lots of detail in not only the environments, but in the characters and enemies as well. You'll also notice that Wolverine is back in either his civilian clothes or his X-Men the movie garb. Personally, I like the yellow spandex and pointy mask, but we can't always have what we want now can we?