Marvel's Wolverine Review

I'm big fan of Insomniac Games and while their Spider-Man titles is not what I think when it comes to them at their peak, they are solid and enjoyable. I can say much of the same for this Wolverine game all though there are some surprises that this game gave me due to also being an intermidiate Marvel fan and superhero fan by extension. Well intermidiate fan from the perspective of a divorced wife but I'm getting off topic.

The story had quite a number "holy crap" moments upon first booting it up. Yes, there have been video games like the X-Men Origins Wolverine movie tie in where you get to play as an unhinged Logan tearing things apart with his claws but it was still shackled to the framework of a terrible PG-13 movie. This Wolverine game feels like it has the tone of a Marvel comic under the MAX imprint. Everything is bloody, gory and characters aren't afraid to curse and be overly mean to each other. It's surprising to see any Marvel adaptation like this let alone a game. Hearing Sabertooth say, the f word for the first time really caught me by surprise. It's a huge stark contrast compared to the writing in their Spider-Man games.

It doesn't just end there, it feeds into the story and writing itself, right at the start at the end of the first mission you kill Omega Red and how Logan himself isn't strongly against killing or anyone else in the story is for that matter. Later on, Jean Grey kills a bad guy in self defense and there's no "we are heroes, we don't kill" speeches to be found. The story officially sold me when Essex wanted to capture and keep Bolivar Trask locked up so he can keep torturing him but then Wolverine mercy killed the latter instead.

The whole story feels refreshing in that just because you are a supervillain, it doesn't mean you'll get beat up, locked up, cause trouble, get a "pardon" and get locked up again and repeat the process. It isn't even scared to kill off child characters like Leech too. No Charles Xavier and his endless idealism that goes nowhere and as much as I like Magneto, he's on the overused side and his origin is hard to reimagine for modern times without some anti aging device.

What REALLY sold on the story was the "sinister" villain Essex. He's the Xavier stand in and well I thought Insomniac was going to make him a sympathetic anti villain but instead it was just a red herring. He was ultimate a parastic self righteous hypocrite who only used his "helping mutantkind" for his own selfish ends. It hits close to for me now. The cutscenes with him might be a little underwhelming at first but it slowly starts to add up.

It's also nice to see elements of X-Men Evolution and Infamous in here too.

While I did enjoy the story I got some issues particularly with the backstory and how a disjointed and vague everything can feel. Wolverine did so much stuff over hundreds of years? He was also a hearld of Apocalypse? He was once had a relationship with Jean Grey a hundred years ago? Essex made him savage and then made him sane again? Feels like so much information happens and feel scatter brained.

Also some side characters like Mystique can feel a little underdeveloped if you don't hear her optional conversation with Tyger at the bar before the Hand shows up.

Combat is pretty good. Yes, it isn't going to reinvent the way video game combat is going to be done but it's fun enough regardless. You got combos with special enders with the triangle button, special attacks on cooldowns, parries, perfect dodges, a kick, the ability to reflect projectiles, a rage meter and critical strikes. It can be fun to chain combos together, use special abilities and then build up some rage to get critical strikes in.

You a solid enough toolset, the big issue is that the game on normal can be a little too forgiving with ability like channeling your rage into healing or the multiple second chances you get. The enemy roster starts to get more interesting when it introduces medium and larger enemies with larger HP and more attacks for you to parry, more projectiles and more area of effect attacks to try to perfect dodge. They start popping up towards the around the end of the Japan chapter so it can take a while for things to get interesting.

The latter couple chapters is where things start to pick up and the enemy count gets higher especially with the proto sentienels, more projectile enemies and long waves

Bosses are also good even if they are a few like Omega Red, and Sabertooth, and Essex. With different attacks and timings for dodges and parries. Sintenel boss being the weakest.

Environmental takedowns and lunging were handled better in X-Men Origins since the former you have a grab button and the latter isn't contextual.

The stealth is on the pointless side and some of the scripted setpieces aren't the greatest especially that bike chase.

Overall, I was expecting a solid time with this Wolverine game and got exactly that with a couple of surprises here and there.

Call of Duty: Ghosts Review

This was a game I played a few years back and knowing it's reputation of the worst CoD game more like the worst CoD game they are aware of but I digress. I remember it being a solid and enjoyable time, it had some memorable missions with the only big sore spot being the terrible ending. I'm more forgiving of bad endings in games since gaming encapuslates the idea of "the journey" better than any other medium. I still feel the same way years later, it's not the best CoD campaign but after recently replaying Black Ops 2, I can certainly say I prefer this game.

One thing about CoD Ghosts that is quite surprising is that it paces itself quite well. We get to live through the eyes of the main characters before the world gets completely anhillated and destroyed. It's also interesting to see a CoD game attempt some kind of bond of family. You got Riley and your brother while also needing to prove yourself to your father.

Some aspects on paper I also like one example being the villain Rorke. He can be pretty overpowered and often wrestles control away from the player for bad things to happen. At the same time, it's interesting because he's one of the former memebers of the Ghosts who got left behind. The plot twist of him still left behind and blaming other people for his problems also makes sense on paper since he spent years being in prison and getting tortured. The problem is that before he kills your father, the torture and imprisonment never gets brought up so it's just nothing more than me and my headcanon rather than something concrete. It was nice to see the game play with player expectations and have the part where the player character pulls a knife out and tries to overpower Rorke like with Shepard just for him to counter and beat you.

Another big issue is Infinity Ward and their insistence for the protagonist not to speak. It was showing problems as far back as MW2 and it still isn't helping the narrative now. Since this game is about familial bond, why doesn't the main character talk and form a geniune dynamic? This appeal to tradition at this point feels like Infinity Ward just refuses to move at this point. It made sense for CoD before MW2 to do it since you were one of many soldiers on the battlefield. Now there's more going on by comparison.

The ending is also random and terrible setting up a cliffhanger that never got followed up on.

Still, it's a moderately decent story and keeps more to the grounded military feeling than Black Ops 2 does.

You know the gameplay mechanics by now. Regen health, ADS, scripted sequences, throwables you might use on occasion, maybe some melee. The shooting is still rather a simple spray and pray shooting. The frustrating parts where enemies have line of sight on you while you are trying to find cover and at critical health or the cover is too small to hide and get a cheap death, it's all still there. I tolerate this stuff more than anything like an annoying family member or friend that I still hang around with.

This is still the same CoD but there are some memorable and enjoyable missions here. Like Brave New World, Struck Down, Legends Never Die, Federation Day, Clockwork, Into The Deep, Sin City, LOKI and Ghost Killer.

Brave New World has part where you have to defend a wall from enemies from above and on the ground. Struck Down has you mark trucks and then slowly destroy an enemy base on a baseball field.

Other missions like Legends Never Die even has you using the water as cover to enemy fire in combat. Into the Deep had underwater combat that has hitscan weapons indirectly become projectile. Ghost Killer has a level where you are on a train and have to maintain your balance while it's shaking.

It has things that makes CoD campaigns endearing like beautiful looking establishing shots and an incredible sense of scale where it looks like other battles are happening while you are doing yours and does a good job at breaking up traditional gunplay like I mention above.

CoD Ghosts does have some fair share of good missions. The problem is that there is a lot of recycled ideas and assets here. If you were on the gaming community around a decade ago, the CoD "Recycled Warfare" meme was said. Games like this can fuel that narrative. MW3 did that and it was charming in that game, here it enters into parody.

You got ideas from All Ghilled Up, a part where you are attacked by an attack chopper and then sneak around using a heartbeat sensor, you are defending a device while a progress bar is slowly loading, a mission on an oil rig. There's even one bizarre mission where it even borrows from Black Ops 2 where attacked a military ship that is your home base. The penultimate mission borrows from CoD2(2005), and MW1 where you ride a tank then a helicoptor and try to a missile from exploding while on a timer.

Overall, CoD Ghosts have it's interesting and novel moments, there's a fair share of derivative parts. Worth checking out in spite of it's reputation