Articles
By MCWrang
Published: Mar. 4, 2007 1:08 PM
When you think of mutants, you might be thinking of turtles with a love for pizza, or you might associate them with the power-wielding characters known as X-Men. One thing is for sure though, X-Men 3: The Official Game is sure to pack a punch with more heat than that pepperoni pizza. It must be noted that this game is an adaptation from the movie X-Men 3: The Last Stand, so it felt like it had the potential to be one of two things: Crap, or brilliance ala Peter Jackson’s King Kong. I was reluctant at first to put the game into my console with the awareness that my friend’s list can see I was playing what I thought was going to be a “kiddy” game, but I shoved it in anyway and got straight into the action.
From the initial start up, you are given smooth graphics via cutscenes that all flow with the sci-fi theme of the game, strings of DNA flying past with the classic up tempo soundtrack that seems to be derived from the movie. What is cool about the cutscenes is that they are very comic book like; no animated 3D models, but rather, 2D paper-like characters that are dynamically moved around the environment to give the illusion of 3D. Immediately, you are thrown into Wolverine’s body (voiced by Hugh Jackman) and have to fend off enemies, whilst at the same time given tutorials about controlling your character.
X-Men 3 allows you to control three individual characters all with their own strengths and weaknesses, and diverse enough that it doesn’t keep the player bored with using the same tactic to achieve an objective. You are presented with a tutorial system that is integrated into the story via the use of pop-ups that interrupt game play to show you how to perform moves such and fly kicks and retracting the blades in Wolverine’s hands, something the steak knives on Danoz Direct have nothing on. After punching, kicking and slashing your way through a number of relatively easy opponents you will complete Wolverine’s first mission, and then onto the next of three mutants the player will have control over, Iceman. His abilities extend from being able to throw down an ice slide in front of himself which he skates along, to firing Hailstorm attacks at enemies, very cool. Again, the tutorial system guides you one step at a time through your various abilities and then off you go to have some fun freezing simple opponents while ice-skating around the Statue of Liberty. Once you get your head around using Iceman’s very different control system compared to Wolverine, you will be firing ice shots and unleashing Hailstorms in no time.
The third character gets introduced into the main story line of the game during an infiltration of a recognizable landmark from the movie trilogy, and is none other than Nightcrawler, from X-Men 2. An interesting move to say the least, but an awesome one at that. Nightcrawler has the power of being able to teleport from point to point in the blink of an eye, and this has been integrated in a way that is a lot of fun. Look in one direction and a small blue glow will highlight your teleporting destination, and upon releasing the trigger you will be zapped to that location with the token puff of black smoke trailing behind. The tutorials give you a handy edge of being able to teleport behind a visible enemy and knock them to the floor with kicks reminiscent of Mortal Kombat.
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