X-Men: The Offical Game
Most games based on movies tend to rely too much on the popularity of
the movie. The side-effect of this is less focus on the game-play. As a
fan of the X-Men movies & comic books, this game had a high
expectation to live up to. Story-wise, the game takes place between
X-Men 2 and X-Men 3. Without spoiling any plot details, it includes a
From the start of the game, you find out one of the negative things
about this game. Instead of full motion video cut scenes or highly
detailed 3D models, we are subjected to comic panel cut-outs. The 3D
models as you play the game are decent, but it would’ve been nice to at
least use game play models for the cut scenes. Gameplay-wise, it leans
on the weak side. Playing as Wolverine, its nothing more than a button
mashing brawler. On the other hand, Iceman & Nightcrawler have some
interesting yet limited controls. Nightcrawler’s game-play is a mixture
of teleporting around obstacles, using exploding enemies to defeat
other enemies, and basic button mashing brawling. When you play as
Iceman, it’s somewhat similar to a dog fighting. You never really stop
moving on the “ice slide” you travel one, unless you run into something
and fall, and primarily use your lock-on attack to freeze targets. Not
surprisingly, Achievement Points mainly revolve around the completion
of each character’s upgrades, the tutorial, and the story. There’s one
problem I have with the achievement points of X-M:TOG. Upon completion
of the tutorial like mission, you get zero point achievements labeled
“…has been accepted by the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning”. Not
only is it pointless to have a zero point achievement, but, movie-wise,
was “accepted” to the school before the movie story-line started.
Wolverine isn’t a student of the school. And Nightcrawler, was only
involved in the movie story-line because of Stryker. We find out thru
the story of the game why he’s not in X-Men 3. Overall, the game is
mildly fun. While it’s not a game I would buy for myself or anyone I
respect, but it’s okay for a weekend or two if you have GameFly.
